Microsoft Making Ultra-safe Gazelle Browser

By Marcus Yam
published

Gazelle being designed to avoid internet predators.

While the world is talking about Google's upcoming Chrome OS set to hit in the second half of 2010, Microsoft's also been working on a secret browser/OS project.

Microsoft's project right now is codenamed Gazelle, and like how Chrome isolates various elements inside their own sandbox, it too will utilize similar security features.

Multiprocess browsing, used by Chrome and even the latest version of Internet Explorer, separates each webpage/tab as its own process. That means that if one page or tab crashes, the other pages opened are more likely to survive, requiring only the offending tab to be closed. This approach is undeniably safer, but also more demanding on system resources.

Gazelle takes it a step further than current browsers by more finely isolating elements of a page according to domain. It's just another step in making everything more secure, which is always a smart decision when it comes to serious business like the internet.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • lamorpa
    "serious business like the internet"? What??
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    I like! When will they have a beta test?
    Reply
  • Hanin33
    gazelle! why not The Thunderbolt Grease Slapper?
    Reply
  • hellwig
    Isolate data by domain? I told my browser to not accept cross-site cookies, and that hosed a bunch of sites for me. How are they going to seperate processing of the page by domain?
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    You guys really like that angry sun graphic representing evil online stuff, don't ya tom's...?...
    Reply
  • WheelsOfConfusion
    I thought Gazelle was just a research project and not in the pipe to become a new product.
    Reply
  • drunknmunkys
    lamorpa"serious business like the internet"? What??
    haha. The internet is srsbsns!
    Reply
  • jsloan
    Hanin33gazelle! why not The Thunderbolt Grease Slapper?
    what about "Dumb Azz Users", that a better name, more descriptive of the problem.

    maybe instead of spending all the effort in the world on fixing what is not broken, why not implant electric shock device in web browser users and when they try something stupid we shock them until they learn better ;-)
    Reply
  • Hanin33
    jsloanwhat about "Dumb Azz Users", that a better name, more descriptive of the problem.maybe instead of spending all the effort in the world on fixing what is not broken, why not implant electric shock device in web browser users and when they try something stupid we shock them until they learn better ;-)
    trying to fix the behavior of monkeys by way of other monkeys on crack is hardly a solution... can't fix the problem if the tools needed are also broken...
    Reply
  • ColMirage
    drunknmunkyshaha. The internet is srsbsns!
    But, it is :P. Do you realize how much the economy depends on it nowdays? If the Internet disappeared tomorrow it would be a catastrophe for hundred of thousands of people.
    Reply