Google Chrome Blocks Major Torrent Websites from July 10, 2015

From today Google Chrome is blocking direct access to many torrent websites including KickassTorrents, Torrentz, ExtraTorent and RARBG. According to Google, these websites contain "harmful programs" but the website owners are clueless as to what they have done wrong.

There is a slight panic breaking out among Google Chrome users. Over the past few hours the browser has started to block access to several of the most popular torrent websites including KickassTorrents, Torrentz, ExtraTorrent and RARBG.

Instead of a page filled with the latest torrents, visitors are presented with an ominous red warning banner.

“The site ahead contains harmful programs,” Google Chrome informs its users.

Google Chrome Bloks Torrent Websites

Google doesn’t specify what the issue is with the websites in question. The “Safe Browsing” diagnostics pages only list the sites as “suspicious” and note that “third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites.” in some cases.

The owners of the websites in question are clueless about the source of the problem.

Interestingly, several proxy sites, such as torrentz-proxy.com, still work fine and don’t show the warning screen in Google Chrome.

Since Google doesn’t mention “malicious software” as the reason for the warning, it was most likely triggered by the “unsafe” ads many torrent sites run. These are typically linked to toolbar software or other unwanted programs.

Chrome users who want to bypass the warning can do so by clicking the details link, or disable Chrome’s malware warnings altogether.


Update:

The issue is resolved. The alert was false positive. Google removed Chrome alert.

Google Released Chrome Version for Windows 8

Google Inc. has recently released a version of its Chrome browser for Windows 8, but the experts point out that the developers ignored many Microsoft requirements. Surprisingly enough, this made the browser very attractive for users.

Currently, both Google and Mozilla are developing their versions of Chrome and Firefox browsers for Windows 8. However, the Metro-style Chrome attracted more attention from the reviewers, as it appears to be too different from IE 10, a default browser in the operating system. The most important part here is that Chrome browser ignored a few Metro design ideas which Microsoft has been actively pushing.

The software giant demands that when the users right-click or press “Windows key + Z”, an app bar should pop up at the bottom of the screen. However, Google decided to keep a traditional menu bar in the top right corner which the user can click for settings and app changes. In addition, it also uses standard tabbed browsing.

Just as Internet Explorer 10, Chrome browser also includes Flash Player built into the browser to allow users view all kinds of Flash content. In the meantime, Google stuffs up Microsoft’s cunning plan and ignores an approved list of websites and Flash content. In other words, Chrome plays the lot.

The industry experts point out that there’s something that can make Chrome more popular on Metro. The matter is that the browser is standing in a half way house between the new approach pushed by Windows 8, which is driving users towards, and the older approach that most people are used to and comfortable with. According to the experts’ estimation, this could make Chrome popular in the short term while users work their way around Metro.