Browzar, which was created by Ajaz Ahmed, the man behind Freeserve, an early U.K. Internet service provider, aims to pull market share from Microsoft’s dominant Explorer application by guarding user privacy above all else.
"Privacy is becoming a bigger issue," Ahmed said. "The AOL story highlights the issue that some of the things people are searching for are very, very personal."
Early in the month AOL drew criticism from privacy advocates around the world when it released 36 million search queries generated by more than 650,000 of its users.
To protect user privacy, Browzar automatically deletes Internet caches, histories, cookies and auto-complete forms.
According to Ahmed, Browzar protects privacy better than other browsers because it doesn’t require the user to be proactive when it comes to deleting their histories.
Explorer, like a number of other popular browsers, allows users to protect their privacy only if they cover their electronic tracks by deleting their histories and cookies.
To market Browzar, the company has created a page of user testimonials highlighting privacy lapses. Comments from surfers relate embarrassing searches — typically porn related — revealed to friends, coworkers and perfect strangers.
According to Ahmed, Browzar is a small application — 264 kilobytes. It downloads in a few seconds and is available for Windows. The company plans to release Mac OS and Linux compatible versions soon.
Ahmed expects Browzar to finish beta testing and officially launch in late September.
Browzar is available as a free download.