Articles from WebProNews

Google Chrome, the browser that has dominated global market share for more than a decade, is not resting on its laurels. In a move that signals the intensifying competition among major browser makers, Google has rolled out a significant batch of productivity-oriented features for Chrome, targeting both everyday users and power users who depend on the browser as a primary work tool. The updates, announced in mid-February 2026, arrive at a moment when rivals like Microsoft Edge, Arc, and a resurgent Mozilla Firefox are each making aggressive plays for user attention and loyalty.

A newly discovered Android malware strain called PromptSpy is raising alarms across the cybersecurity industry for its novel approach to data exfiltration — hijacking Google’s own Gemini AI assistant to quietly harvest sensitive user information from infected devices. The threat, first detailed by researchers at mobile security firm Zimperium, represents a troubling new vector in which artificial intelligence tools built into consumer devices are being weaponized against the very users they were designed to serve.

For years, the implicit bargain of internet search has been straightforward: users type queries, receive answers, and tolerate advertisements woven between the results. Google built a $300 billion annual advertising empire on this arrangement. Now, Perplexity AI — the venture-backed search startup valued at over $9 billion — is attempting to rewrite that contract, inserting ads into AI-generated answers while promising something Google never quite managed: transparency about where the money comes from and how it shapes what users see.

The Internal Revenue Service, already stretched thin after years of political battles over its funding and mandate, is now facing what may be its most consequential workforce reduction in modern history. Thousands of employees — many of them probationary workers hired as part of a recent modernization push — are being shown the door, raising urgent questions about the federal government’s ability to collect taxes, process returns, and enforce compliance during one of the busiest filing seasons of the year.