By Luke Auburn | Director of Communications, Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. A new study points to algorithm design as a potential way to reduce echo chambers—and polarization—online. Image: Nadine Marfurt / Unsplash Scroll through social media long enough and a pattern emerges. Pause on a post questioning climate change or taking a hard line on a political issue, and the platform is quick to respond—serving up more of the same viewpoints, delivered with growing confidence and certainty. That feedback loop is the architecture of an echo chamber: a space where familiar ideas are amplified, dissenting voices fade, and beliefs can harden rather than evolve. But new research from the University of Rochester has found that echo chambers might not be a fact of online life. Published in _IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing_ , the study argues that they are partly a design choice—one that could be softened with a surprisingly modest change: introducing more randomness into what people see. The interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by Professor Ehsan Hoque from the Department of Computer Science, created experiments to identify belief rigidity and assess whether introducing more randomness into a social network could help reduce it. The researchers studied how 163 participants reacted to statements about topics like climate change after using simulated social media channels, some with feeds modeled on more traditional social media outlets and others with more randomness. Importantly, “randomness” in this context doesn’t mean replacing relevant content with nonsense. Rather, it means loosening the usual “show me more of what I already agree with” logic that drives many algorithms today. In the researchers’ model, users were periodically exposed to opinions and connections they did not explicitly choose, alongside those they did. ### **A tweak to the algorithm, a crack in the echo chambers** “Across a series of experiments, we find that what people see online does influence their beliefs, often pulling them closer to the views they are repeatedly exposed to,” says Adiba Mahbub Proma, a computer science PhD student and first author of the paper. “But when algorithms incorporate more randomization, this feedback loop weakens. Users are exposed to a broader range of perspectives and become more open to differing views.” The authors—who also include Professor Gourab Ghoshal from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, James Druckman, the Martin Brewer Anderson Professor of Political Science, PhD student Neeley Pate, and Raiyan Abdul Baten ’16, ’22 (PhD)—say that the recommendation systems social media platforms use can drive people into echo chambers that make divisive content more attractive. As an antidote, the researchers recommend simple design changes that do not eliminate personalization but that do introduce more variety while still allowing users control over their feeds. The findings arrive at a moment when governments and platforms alike are grappling with misinformation, declining institutional trust, and polarized responses to elections and public health guidance. Proma recommends social media users keep the results in mind when reflecting on their own social media consumer habits. “If your feed feels too comfortable, that might be by design,” says Proma. “Seek out voices that challenge you. The most dangerous feeds are not the ones that upset us, but the ones that convince us we are always right.” The research was partially funded through the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Seed Funding Program. Edited by Asim BN. Read next: • Q&A: Is a new AI social media platform the start of a robotic uprising? • How Much Does Chatbot Bias Influence Users? A Lot, It Turns Out

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46996490

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AI-powered browser extensions continue to be a popular vector for threat actors looking to harvest user information.

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46996490

This issue of What’s !important is dedicated to our friends in the UK (aka me), who are currently experiencing a very miserable 43-day rain streak. Presenting: the five most interesting things to read about CSS from the last couple of weeks. _Plus_ , the latest features from Chrome 145, and anything else you might’ve missed. TL;DR: lots of content, but also lots of rain. ### Why you can only code for 4 hours/day Don’t worry, you’re only coding for 52 minutes/day anyway. Dr. Milan Milanović talks about the devastating impact of meetings, emails, Slack, and interruptions, and what you/your manager can do about it. This article is a real eye-opener with a ton of shocking (but not surprising) statistics about the average developer’s flow state. ### Why you shouldn’t switch to smaller breakpoints too early Ahmad Shadeed explains why you shouldn’t switch to smaller responsive breakpoints too early, with examples of websites that’ve done so and scenarios in which users might hit those breakpoints. Source: Ahmad Shadeed. ### How to lazy-load above-the-fold iframes `loading=lazy` only works for off-screen elements, so Stefan Bauer demonstrates a neat trick for lazy-loading above-the-fold `<iframe>`s using `<details>`. CodePen Embed Fallback ### How to create repeating `corner-shape` backgrounds Preethi Sam shows us how to use `corner-shape` in `<svg>`s, which are then used as repeating `background`s. I’ve done my own experiments with `corner-shape`, but this is wonderful and certainly something that I hadn’t considered. CodePen Embed Fallback ### The CSS Selection (2026 edition) What do web developers actually do with CSS? While other research studies look at features, The CSS Selection (2026 edition) focuses on CSS patterns and techniques. It’s a very interesting read, and you’ll definitely laugh once or twice, especially as you discover the different typos for `!important`. Here are some of my favorites: * `!IMPORTANT`: too shouty * `!impotant`: too much information * `!i`: that’s just lazy * `!imPORTANT`: excellent annunciation * `!importantl`: ah, so close… ### Chrome features and Quick Hits you might’ve missed Chrome 145 shipped a few days ago, and as always, we’ve been sharing some Quick Hits throughout the week. You can catch these in the sidebar of the homepage, so feel free to drop by if you’re ever in the ‘hood. Coincidentally, most of the Quick Hits were related to the Chrome update in some way, so I’ll recap everything together: * `text-justify`, which you can combine with `text-align: justify` to specify whether you want the word spacing (`text-justify: inter-word`) or letter spacing (`text-justify: inter-character`) to be adjusted to make the text justified. Geoff wrote about this way back in 2017 when only Firefox supported it (sort of…), so by my calculation, Safari should support it by 2035. So not this decade, but before GTA 6. Just kidding… (I think). * Speaking of word and letter spacing, `word-spacing` and `letter-spacing` now accept `%` units, as they do in Safari and Firefox. * Similarly, `overscroll-behavior` now works for non-root scroll containers, like in Safari and Firefox. WebDev RedFox’s warning about `overscroll-behavior` couldn’t have come at a better time. * `column-wrap` and `column-height` for better multicolumn layouts are also here now, but only in Chrome, unfortunately. * That also applies to customizable `<select>`, arguably the most exciting feature on this list. As I shared earlier in the week, Adam Argyle wonderfully boiled down this surprisingly complex feature to a simple outline that’s extremely easy to understand. * Looking a little more to the future now, it seems that we’ll eventually be able to have multiple borders and outlines on a single element as well as `border-shape`, as demonstrated by Dr. Lea Verou and Una Kravets respectively. Until next time! * * * What’s !important #5: Lazy-loading iframes, Repeating corner-shape Backgrounds, and More originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter. from CSS-Tricks https://ift.tt/VrJmtdA Gain $200 in a week via Read more

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Researchers have found yet another family of malicious extensions in the Chrome Web Store. This time, 30 different Chrome extensions were found stealing credentials from more than 260,000 users. The extensions rendered a full-screen iframe pointing to a remote domain. This iframe overlaid the current webpage and visually appeared as the extension’s interface. Because this functionality was hosted remotely, it was not included in the review that allowed the extensions into the Web Store. In other recent findings, we reported about extensions spying on ChatGPT chats, sleeper extensions that monitored browser activity, and a fake extension that deliberately caused a browser crash. To spread the risk of detections and take-downs, the attackers used a technique known as “extension spraying.” This means they used different names and unique identifiers for basically the same extension. What often happens is that researchers provide a list of extension names and IDs, and it’s up to users to figure out whether they have one of these extensions installed. Searching by name is easy when you open your “Manage extensions” tab, but unfortunately extension names are not unique. You could, for example, have the legitimate extension installed that a criminal tried to impersonate. ## Searching by unique identifier For Chrome and Edge, a browser extension ID is a unique 32‑character string of lowercase letters that stays the same even if the extension is renamed or reshipped. When we’re looking at the extensions from a removal angle, there are two kinds: those installed by the user, and those force‑installed by other means (network admin, malware, Group Policy Object (GPO), etc.). We will only look at the first type in this guide—the ones users installed themselves from the Web Store. The guide below is aimed at Chrome, but it’s almost the same for Edge. ### How to find installed extensions You can review the installed Chrome extensions like this: * In the address bar type `chrome://extensions/`. * This will open the Extensions tab and show you the installed extensions by name. * Now toggle **Developer mode** to on and you will also see their unique ID. Don’t remove this one. It’s one of the good ones. ### Removal method in the browser Use the **Remove** button to get rid of any unwanted entries. If it disappears and stays gone after restart, you’re done. If there is no **Remove** button or Chrome says it’s “Installed by your administrator,” or the extension reappears after a restart, there’s a policy, registry entry, or malware forcing it. ### Alternative Alternatively, you can also search the Extensions folder. On Windows systems this folder lives here: `C:\Users\_< your‑username>_\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions`. Please note that the AppData folder is hidden by default. To unhide files and folders in Windows, open Explorer, click the **View** tab (or menu), and check the **Hidden items** box. For more advanced options, choose **Options > Change folder and search options > View tab**, then select **Show hidden files, folders, and drives**. Chrome extensions folder You can organize the list alphabetically by clicking on the **Name** column header once or twice. This makes it easier to find extensions if you have a lot of them installed. Deleting the extension folder here has one downside. It leaves an orphaned entry in your browser. When you start Chrome again after doing this, the extension will no longer load because its files are gone. But it will still show up in the Extensions tab, only without the appropriate icon. So, our advice is to remove extensions in the browser when possible. ## Malicious extensions Below is the list of credential-stealing extensions using the iframe method, as provided by the researchers. Extension ID| Extension name ---|--- acaeafediijmccnjlokgcdiojiljfpbe| ChatGPT Translate baonbjckakcpgliaafcodddkoednpjgf| XAI bilfflcophfehljhpnklmcelkoiffapb| AI For Translation cicjlpmjmimeoempffghfglndokjihhn| AI Cover Letter Generator ckicoadchmmndbakbokhapncehanaeni| AI Email Writer ckneindgfbjnbbiggcmnjeofelhflhaj| AI Image Generator Chat GPT cmpmhhjahlioglkleiofbjodhhiejhei| AI Translator dbclhjpifdfkofnmjfpheiondafpkoed| Ai Wallpaper Generator djhjckkfgancelbmgcamjimgphaphjdl| AI Sidebar ebmmjmakencgmgoijdfnbailknaaiffh| Chat With Gemini ecikmpoikkcelnakpgaeplcjoickgacj| Ai Picture Generator fdlagfnfaheppaigholhoojabfaapnhb| Google Gemini flnecpdpbhdblkpnegekobahlijbmfok| ChatGPT Picture Generator fnjinbdmidgjkpmlihcginjipjaoapol| Email Generator AI fpmkabpaklbhbhegegapfkenkmpipick| Chat GPT for Gmail fppbiomdkfbhgjjdmojlogeceejinadg| Gemini AI Sidebar gcfianbpjcfkafpiadmheejkokcmdkjl| Llama gcdfailafdfjbailcdcbjmeginhncjkb| Grok Chatbot gghdfkafnhfpaooiolhncejnlgglhkhe| AI Sidebar gnaekhndaddbimfllbgmecjijbbfpabc| Ask Gemini gohgeedemmaohocbaccllpkabadoogpl| DeepSeek Chat hgnjolbjpjmhepcbjgeeallnamkjnfgi| AI Letter Generator idhknpoceajhnjokpnbicildeoligdgh| ChatGPT Translation kblengdlefjpjkekanpoidgoghdngdgl| AI GPT kepibgehhljlecgaeihhnmibnmikbnga| DeepSeek Download lodlcpnbppgipaimgbjgniokjcnpiiad| AI Message Generator llojfncgbabajmdglnkbhmiebiinohek| ChatGPT Sidebar nkgbfengofophpmonladgaldioelckbe| Chat Bot GPT nlhpidbjmmffhoogcennoiopekbiglbp| AI Assistant phiphcloddhmndjbdedgfbglhpkjcffh| Asking Chat Gpt pgfibniplgcnccdnkhblpmmlfodijppg| ChatGBT cgmmcoandmabammnhfnjcakdeejbfimn| Grok * * * **We don’t just report on threats—we remove them** Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.