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What is Microsoft’s and Google’s new WebMCP standard?

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The WebMCP standard enables AI agents to interact with web pages in a controlled way

WebMCP is a proposed web standard that enables websites to expose structured, callable tools directly to AI agents through a new browser API. Developed jointly by engineers at Google and Microsoft and incubated through the W3C’s Web Machine Learning Community Group, WebMCP allows you to wrap your existing client-side JavaScript logic into agent-readable tools without re-architecting your web pages. Instead of AI agents relying on screen scraping or DOM manipulation to interact with websites, WebMCP provides a standardized way for agents to discover and invoke specific functions with defined schemas, ensuring more reliable and precise interactions.

What is Microsoft’s and Google’s new WebMCP standard? Read Post »

The new browser war – Does AI and ‘fair use’ kill the open web?

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The second browser war

In my previous post, I covered Microsoft’s new Edge Copilot Mode, introducing only one significant change. However, shifting Copilot from the sidebar to the center in Edge is more than just a design update. Microsoft’s move marks the first strategic step in the unfolding new browser war involving Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity—companies that exploit broad ‘fair use’ claims to harvest web content for their own greedy gain. But the upcoming battles aren’t just about who controls the web’s entry point—it could signal the beginning of the end of the web as we know it. The fall of Google’s dominance as the web’s central policymaker now seems inevitable. Once the dust settles from the new browser war, a decentralized web shaped by independently communicating AI agents might emerge. Think that’s far-fetched? Keep reading.

The new browser war – Does AI and ‘fair use’ kill the open web? Read Post »

How to enable Edge Copilot Mode

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Switching Between Ask copilot And Think deeper

In Edge Copilot Mode, announced a few days ago, Copilot shifts from being just an AI assistant to becoming the main browser interface. Now front and center in Microsoft’s browser, Copilot has evolved into a serious ChatGPT competitor. In this post, I explain how to enable Edge Copilot Mode and discuss whether it introduces any new features compared to the previous version of Copilot in Edge.

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Can ChatGPT Agent Mode solve Google CAPTCHA (reCAPTCHA) and validate the Cloudflare Turnstile challenge?

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Cloudflare blocks the ChatGPT agent

Reports indicate that ChatGPT Agent Mode might be capable of solving CAPTCHAs, which are often the final line of defense against persistent bots like AI crawlers on many websites. However, these claims originate from Reddit, known for the frequent hallucinations of its users. To verify, I decided to test it myself.

Can ChatGPT Agent Mode solve Google CAPTCHA (reCAPTCHA) and validate the Cloudflare Turnstile challenge? Read Post »

Hide the first-run page in Microsoft Edge, configure setting with GPO

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Configuring telemetry settings

When a user launches the Edge browser for the first time on a PC, the welcome page (also known as the “first-run experience”) automatically launches a wizard. It guides the users through various settings. You can hide this page in managed environments and configure the respective settings through Group Policy.

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Fix public Wi-Fi error “msftconnecttest.com – This site can’t be reached”

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Instead of the captive portal, you may receive an error when accessing msftconnecttest.com

When connecting to a public Wi-Fi, such as in a hotel or airport, Windows automatically tests the connection by accessing msftconnecttest.com. If the network provider requires your registration, you may encounter an error when accessing msftconnecttest.com instead of being redirected to the intended captive portal.

Fix public Wi-Fi error “msftconnecttest.com – This site can’t be reached” Read Post »

Block AI scrapers with Cloudflare

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The Cloudflare WAF rule blocks all web parasites

In my last post, I discussed three standard methods to block AI crawlers that have little prospect of being successful. Please also read it if you want to know why it is important to block AI scrapers. One way that works reliably for 4sysops is leveraging Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall (WAF). Cloudflare’s free plan provides all the essential tools to safeguard your site against content theft by AI companies. However, I found that Cloudflare’s new Block AI Scrapers and Crawlers feature is insufficient for the task. Fortunately, Cloudflare’s WAF is sophisticated enough to reliably block all AI scrapers and other web parasites with a single, relatively simple rule. My proposed method serves as a way to enforce an opt-in approach, rather than relying on the non-binding opt-out recommendations in your robots.txt file.

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