360 Secure Browser (360 Security Browser) or 360 Safe Browser ( zh, s=360安全浏览器) is a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

developed by the Qihoo company of Beijing, China. Version 1.0 was released in July 2008 (first non-

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

release; first beta in changelog is from April). The browser by default renders the webpage using the

WebKit WebKit is a browser engine primarily used in Apple's Safari web browser, as well as all web browsers on iOS and iPadOS. WebKit is also used by the PlayStation consoles starting with the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, the Amazon K ...

-based engine adapted for

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

, Blink, and when running in compatibility mode, it renders webpages using the Trident engine found in

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

. Webkit-based engine was introduced in 2010 (dual-engine with Trident), as the 360 Extreme Browser (). In the 360 Secure Browser it was added in 2012, in version 6.

Market share

In January 2011, Qihoo claimed that it was the second most popular web browser in China (after

), with 172 million monthly active users, 44.1% of Internet users in China. StatCounter claims that the true figure is between 2-7%. StatCounter reported that the Qihoo browser was the 5th most popular browser in the United States. Its main competitors in China are the Sogou High-Speed Browser ( zh, s=搜狗高速浏览器, labels=no) by Sogou, CM Browser, QQ Browser by

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

, Baidu Browser and Maxthon. , the latest versions of 360 Secure Browser do not offer a distinguishable user-agent string. It spoofs itself either as

, making it difficult for developers to target or identify.

Controversies

In 2012, a whistleblower reported a hidden backdoor in 360 Secure Browser. The Product Director of 360 Secure Browser, Tao Weihua, accused the whistleblower of "smearing 360 on behalf of Baidu", which the whistleblower said was "the worst professional response in history". Independent analysis of the claim showed that the browser has an "undeclared mechanism (i.e., via ExtSmartWiz.dll) which connects to the server on a regular basis (e.g., every 5 minutes), and allows it to download files of any type (including executables) from the server." This and other controversies surrounding Qihoo eventually led to the temporary pulling of their products from the iOS App Store. High usage numbers may be due to the browser being difficult to uninstall, its parent product 360 Safeguard frequently recommending it and a warning pop-up that appears when a user attempts to install another browser, falsely claiming that the other browser is unsafe and should not be run.

References

External links

* {{web browsers Qihoo 360 Cross-platform web browsers Web browsers Chinese brands

Market share

Controversies

See also

References

External links