In an period the place internet browsers are as frequent as morning espresso—free, accessible and tailor-made to each style—AOL has determined to stir the pot with one thing surprising: a paid browser known as AOL Defend Professional. $3.99 a month with a 30 day free trial, this Chromium based mostly browser guarantees so as to add additional safety features to protect you from the darker corners of the web. However in a world the place free giants like Chrome, Firefox and Edge reign supreme, does AOL’s nostalgic comeback ship sufficient to justify the subscription payment?
AOL, whose identify conjures up recollections of dial-up modems and “You’ve Acquired Mail,” has constructed Defend Professional on the well-known Chromium expertise, which runs Google Chrome and lots of different browsers. Consequently, you get a browser that appears and feels just like Chrome, full with the identical UI, tab administration, and extension compatibility. Nevertheless, AOL features a suite of safety features to defend in opposition to ransomware, keylogging, and phishing scams. These are branded as Cryptosafe, anti-keylogging, and PhishLock, and are meant to offer peace of thoughts for on a regular basis on-line actions reminiscent of banking, buying, and social media. Is there a catch? Most of those options require a $3.99 month-to-month subscription to entry, nevertheless the browser will be downloaded and used without spending a dime with out them.
AOL Defend Professional’s fundamental promoting characteristic is its safety. Cryptosafe, the ransomware safety software program, claims to detect and block rogue encryption makes an attempt earlier than they lock up your recordsdata. The anti-keylogging characteristic makes use of real-time scrambling expertise to hide keystrokes, stopping hackers from capturing delicate info reminiscent of passwords and bank card information. PhishLock warns you if you go to a rip-off or phishing web site and redirects you to a warning web page. AOL additionally maintains a blocklist of identified phishing websites, which is incessantly up to date to maintain risks at bay. A display seize safety perform stops malware from taking a screenshot of your monitor, making certain that no private information is captured whereas it’s displayed. These sound like good issues, however the query is in the event you can receive them elsewhere without spending a dime.
In case you look carefully, you’ll discover that many of those options aren’t as distinctive as AOL claims. Trendy browsers, reminiscent of Chrome, already present protected looking instruments that warn you about dangerous downloads and fraudulent web sites. By default, Home windows consists of Defender antivirus, which protects in opposition to keylogging and display seize. Even the phishing protection, branded as AOL’s PhishLock, is an identical to Chrome’s and makes use of a database of identified threats—AOL merely has a separate one from Google’s. The tip result’s a browser that appears like a calmly personalized Chrome with just a few additional safety features, however not sufficient to distinguish itself in a crowded sector. The fixed AOL toolbar that seems on each tab and web site supplies shortcuts to AOL companies reminiscent of mail and information, nevertheless it appears obtrusive as a result of it can’t be turned off.
Navigating by way of the browser’s settings and UI exposes each familiarity and annoyance. Upon set up, AOL Defend Professional makes AOL.com the default homepage and new tab web page, full with a search field and hyperlinks to AOL Mail, Yahoo Finance, in addition to different AOL websites. That is inflexible—you possibly can’t change your homepage with out going into settings, and even then, the AOL-branded new tab web page stays. The choices menu is almost an identical to Chrome’s, with one exception: an AOL Safety tab in which you will enter your license key to unlock premium options. Weirdly, there isn’t any choice to attach into an AOL account to sync the subscription; as an alternative, you should manually paste the important thing, which is a laborious and outdated method. The toolbar additionally makes it tough to shrink the browser window, limiting how small it could be.
Probably the most curious factor about AOL Defend Professional is its connection to Netscape, one other AOL owned relic that has resurfaced as a free Chromium based mostly browser. Developed by the identical firm Century Bay, Netscape is nearly an identical to Defend Professional right down to the setup wizard and default AOL homepage. However Netscape lacks the paid safety features and the toolbar so it’s a cleaner however even much less distinctive Chrome clone. This raises questions on AOL’s technique—why launch two nearly an identical browsers, one free and one paid, underneath totally different nostalgic manufacturers? It suggests a reliance on identify recognition to draw much less tech savvy customers who would possibly affiliate AOL or Netscape with belief and familiarity.
