Tag: Browsers

Categories
Video

Browse online pics and videos in a 3D layout [Video]

Browsing through images can be a little boring and monotonous but there is an extension which works really well; using a 3D like interface for looking up images or even videos.

CoolIris is a extension which works on Chrome and you can just about browse any image online with its very interesting graphical browser. Before downloading the extension I need to warn you that the CoolIris extension does use your graphics card for rendering.

About Cool Iris

  • Download the Cool Iris extension from here and install it in Chrome.
  • While using Chrome you come across any image it will show you a new symbol.
  • Clicking on this icon starts the Cooliris extension and allows you to browse images as if you are viewing them against a wall in an exhibition.
  • I clicked on a friends image on Facebook and I could browse all the pictures he was tagged in through the extension without needing to go through the album.

I started playing around with this extension and really think it is a brilliant way to browse images or videos online. It is said an image is worth a thousand words and going by that logic a video should be worth a million. So I decided to put up the CoolIris demo video.

Go ahead and download Cooliris extension and try it out for yourself. Do drop in your comments about your opinions on it.

Categories
Tips

Get messenger like notifications from multiple Gmail accounts

Gmail has now a days become the first choice email for many and very often we have more than 2 or 3 Gmail accounts. For instance you might have separate Gmail accounts for your blog, personal mail and work related email. As you might know that we at rtCamp use Google apps and I have a personal Gmail account. So monitoring multiple account makes sense for me.
I wrote a few days ago about using Greasemonkey scripts to use multiple Gmail accounts from the same page.

Now I wanted to share with you Gmail Manager 0.6 which is a Firefox add-on. In the case you have some concerns having Greasemonkey scripts running on your browser from a security angle; Gmail manager makes a lot of sense.

About Gmail Manager

  • Gmail Manager add-on can be downloaded by clicking here. Once the add-on is downloaded restart Firefox browser.
  • The add-on options allows your enter your Gmail ID and Password. This will give you notification for any acocunt when you get an email.
  • Just clicking on the relevant account will take you directly to your Inbox.
  • If you hover your mouse pointer over the Account tag; you will get a pop-up which shows your emails that are in your inbox. Unfortunately you cannot go directly to the email from the pop-up. I guess that is what can be considered room for improvement.

If you are using Firefox browser and have a lot of active Gmail accounts Gmail Manager add-on is something which should interest you.

Categories
Tips

Use GreaseMonkey Scripts with Chrome officially

If you are using Firefox and Chrome, the one big complaint you would have had is that Chrome browser does not support Greasemonkey scripts. GreaseMonkey scripts are scripts that run inside Firefox thanks to installing the Greasemonkey addon.

There have been ways to get Grease monkey scripts running inside Chrome before and one way was using GreaseMetal for the Chorme. Now Google Chrome version 4.0 has officially offered support for GreaseMonkey scripts.

GreaseMonkey on Chrome

  • This of-course means that over 40,000 add-ons are now available on the Chrome browser and basically takes the one thing that might be keeping away Firefox loyalists from moving over to Chrome.
  • Make sure you have the latest version of Chrome. It needs to be a stable version of Chrome version 4.0 (stable) was recently released.
  • I used Grease Monkey scripts which I use with Firefox and have had no trouble using any one of them. But I am not really a GreaseMonkey fiend and hence I am sure that in these early stages many scripts might not work with Chrome browser.
  • Why I liked Chrome’s approach was because unlike Firefox where you had to install a Grease Monkey add-on and then install the script from UserScripts.org, with Chrome you simply download the script and Chrome automatically converts it into an extension.

Sounds cool? I think it would give that extra push to some Firefox loyalists to move to Chrome if not atleast most of them will feel a sense of familiarity with Chrome.

Let me know what do you think about Google Chrome supporting Grease Monkey scripts?

Categories
News

Google Dropping Support for Internet Explorer 6.0

Before going into some of the pros and cons of if Internet Explorer 6 is a defunct browser here are some statistics regarding its market share. 20.99% of internet users use IE6 while IE8 the latest version is used by 20.86% of internet users. This basically means out of every 5 internet users 1 of them is on Internet Explorer 6. I took these statistics from Marketshare.histlink website.

This reveal that when it comes to Internet Explorer people prefer using an older version than the newer one. What has compounded the problem is that Microsoft as yet has not forced its users to upgrade.

Google has recently announced that it will not support Internet Explorer 6 as a browser version if you are using Google Docs or Sites. I think considering certain reports that the latest Chinese hacking into Google incident took place by taking advantage of a security flaw within Internet Explorer 6; Google might even stop supporting Gmail for IE 6.0 very soon.

So if you are using Google Docs and using Internet Eplorer 6 you will get a message to upgrade as certain new features will not be abvailable with IE6 at all.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is a bold move by Google considering they are now essentially telling 1/5th of the internet users to either upgrade their browser or not be able to use their services fully. I think Google probably has with this statement passed a silent message that people should now start using Chrome. 😉

Problems for Internet Explorer 6

  • Windows XP was well received and subsequently it’s default browser IE6 was also well received.
  • Windows Vista was not as well received and that led it’s default browser IE7 being not so well received. What probably should concern Internet Explorer developers is that many who did not opt for Vista also did not opt for IE7.
  • Now that Windows 7 has been well received you can expect the numbers for Internet Explorer 8 to pick up.
  • In the mean time more and more people are prefering to use Firefox and Chrome. Chrome is still an infant but it’s growth is quite phenomenal.
  • IE6 will see a rapid downward spiral considering many companies and security experts lampooning it for security flaws. Recently German government recommended people not to use it at all.

What do you think? Is it about time Internet Explorer 6 is given a retirement? Let me know your opinions through your comments.

Image Source: Spigot Design

Link: Google Docs

Categories
Reviews

Get traffic stats of any website with Chrome and Firefox

If you are using Chrome and interested in stats about the website you are viewing on the browser you will love this extension for Chrome. Its named SitezMeter and allows the user to easily look up details while on a website. About 3 months ago I did review Alexa toolbar for Firefox and started to search for something similar for Chrome. Here I came across SitezMeter extension for Chrome.

SitezMeter add-on can be really handy for SEO and SEM specialist along with being a must have for webmasters and website owners.

About SiteMeterz

  • SiteMeterz works with both Firefox and Chrome. It displays information you need in a pop up instead of providing you with links to some website.
  • The pop up includes an overview of stats of the website you are viewing with the browser.
  • I could see Google Page Rank, Alexa Ranking and Compete Rank.
  • I could also compare websites and their relevant stats within the extension or add-on.
  • There were some graphs to make the stats more interesting but I do not think they could be called a serious representation of data. It is more sensible to think of the graphs as representative of trends.

Go ahead and try out if you like looking up site traffic details and rankings. If you have Firefox click here for the add-on. If you have Chrome click here to install the extension.

Categories
Reviews

Use a dictionary in Chorme browser to improve vocabulary [Video]

If you love to blog or write you might like to sit with a dictionary even though it is quite impractical. Not just so that you avoid spelling mistakes but also get the exact context of a word you come across. Many of us might not have English as our first language of choice and this can be a bit of a problem when articulating exactly what you want.

The dictionary can be added through an extension in the Chrome browser and I am quite enjoying it. While writing this post I have already used it in twice and hence decided to record the video on how I can use different words or improve my choice of words using this extension.

An example is the word ‘articulating’ that I used before. It was not my first choice of word and I was planning to write ‘explaining’. But while reviewing part of the post I tested the extension. (See video at the end of the post)

About DictionaryTip

ADVERTISEMENT
  • A simple double click gets the dictionary started.
  • It has options to look up related information from dictionary.com, Wikipedia and much more.
  • Ironically when I added Google Dictionary it seemed not compatible with the extension.
  • It is quite easy to use with a popup appearing of your the dictionary after double clicking on any word of the text your are reading.

Video

What do you think? Will it help you improve your writing or even vocabulary? Or will you find it interesting just for a quick reference of a word you came across but were not sure about it’s meaning. Let me know through your comments.

Download: Dictionary Tip

Categories
Tips

Google Wave notification on Chrome and Firefox

Okay many of you might be aware of Google Wave and by now might have even forgotten about it. Not a lot of people really found Google Wave as important and path breaking as they expected it to be but it is still early days. I will more on that some other day. For now for people using Google Wave I want to share with you a couple of ways to get notifications on while using Chrome or Firefox browser.

Google Wave notification

Firefox:

ADVERTISEMENT
  1. First just download the Add On for Google Wave from the Mozilla website.
  2. Once the add-on is installed, you need to click on Tools >> Add Ons and then select the options for Google Wave Notifier Add On.
  3. Now enter your Gmail username and password. You can change the refresh time for the Add On to check for new updates.
  4. The updates are displayed at the right hand bottom corner of the browser. It as a small number which shows the number of unread waves. If you hover over it for a few seconds it will show a show a tiny pop up of the subject line of the wave.

Google Chrome:

  1. Install Chrome Extension for Google Wave notification from the extensions library. (Chrome browser needs to be a beta version)
  2. Now once the extension is installed it works automatically and gives notification to the number of waves unread as long as your were signed into Google account.
  3. The notification part is like the Firefox Add-on neatly packed away and visible next to the address bar on Chrome.
  4. The updates are displayed as numbers. If you single click on the extension symbol for wave, it pulls up a list of new unread waves. Click on one of them takes your directly to the new wave.

In case you are using Wave and want to keep an eye on the unread wave messages these two downloads will be quite useful. Do try them and drop in your comments and views.

Download Wave notifier: Firefox Add On | Chrome Extension

Categories
Tips

Bring IE into your Chrome browser

A couple of months ago you might have read about how Google decided to make Internet Explorer better by injecting Chrome into it.  All you had to do was install Chrome frame and Internet Explorer would be faster especially while viewing HTML5.

Now here is a new twist to it.Google through an extension allows us to inject a little bit of Internet Explorer into Chrome. 😉

IE Tab

  • Add the IE Tab extension on your Chrome browser and start using Internet Explorer within Chrome.
  • Once installed you can click on the small IE symbol next to end of the address bar. (see image)
  • I liked using IE Tab within Chrome as I could bookmark my favorite sites in Chrome but they were added to Internet Explorer’s favorite list.
  • Also the right click menu within Chrome changes to IE’s menu withing the tab.
  • I could also access Internet Options from the tab which can be accessed usually only through the IE browser or the Control Panel.

I do not think that this one will be as controversial as Chrome Frame. But for people using Chrome and Internet Explorer this one should be quite handy. What do you think?

Download: IE Tab Extension

Categories
Tips

Quickly scroll with Chrome browser [Video]

There is a song with the words ‘I am just a monkey man’. I am not kidding you, its a fact. The reason I am telling you this is while looking up Google on a friends computer to prove that Rollings Stones actually had a song with the words ‘I am a monkey man’ ; inadvertently I came across a very interesting Chrome extension called Quick Scroll.

Quick Scroll

  • Download the Google Quick Scroll extension to your Chrome browser.
  • When you search for a group of words or quote on Google you will obviously get search results.
  • Clicking on a link takes you to a page; this is where Quick Scroll extension on Chrome kicks in.
  • As you can see in the image above, on the right hand corner of the web-page I got matches for the exact text I had entered before.

This means that now after I click on a search result, the search keywords are automatically highlighted without me needing to search for text on the browser page. Look at the video below for a demo of how this extension works. If you like it do let me know through your comments.

Link: Quick Scroll Extension for Chrome

Categories
Reviews

Smarter Fox: Firefox add-on to speed up your browsing experience

Smarter Fox is a Firefox browser add-on which does exactly what it claims. It makes your browser a lot more smarter. It quickens up the browsing experience a lot but giving the user a host of options to search and lookup information.

Smarter Fox Features

  • Awesomebar: This is a enhanced version of Bookmarks. If you want to go to a particular page just press Ctrl + Spacebar. There is a screen that pops up with all the websites you can visit in a click of a button. To add your favorite website into the Awesomebar just drag and drop the link from the address bar. It will be added automatically. 😉
  • The pop up bubble is another great feature. Just highlight any text and bubble pops up with symbols of Google, Twitter, Wikipedia. Click on the symbol and a page opens after searching with the relevant service.

Example of Pop-up bubble using Fastest Fox.

  • Finally just start typing in your address bar and search results are shown in the address bar drop down itself. No need for search engine page to load hence saving me time. 😉

Below is a video I made for you to demonstrate how you can use Smarter Fox addon and speed up Firefox usage. 😉

Try out Smarter Fox and let me know if you liked it through your comments. 🙂

Link: Download Smarter Fox