Tag: Browsers

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News

[Rumour] Google to Release Chrome Browser on iOS Platform!

The browsers are soon set to move from computers to mobiles and tablets. According to Business Insider, Google is planning to roll out a Chrome browser app for the iOS platform this year. At the moment Safari is Apple’s default browser for iOS and all links users click on open automatically on Safari.

Earlier this year Google brought out Chrome beta for Android 4.0.

I use an Android and liked using Chrome browser which is still in beta. It can be synced with my Chrome browser running on my laptop. Chrome does have a fantastic developer base around thanks to it’s Chromium project.

It has retained its speed and minimal look with a wealth of options underneath. The near seamless synchronization options of Chrome, will probably interest a lot of iPhone or iPad users, who might be using Chrome on their computers.

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Also at the moment, for all the money Google makes out of searches and ads served through Safari on iOS, they have to shell out a cut to Apple. If these ads were served through Chrome, Google would not need to shell out anything to Apple.

Is Apple the new Microsoft in the Browser Wars?

Apple probably plans to not allow other browsers form being set as default browser for their iOS platforms. That sounds a lot like it’s one time favorite foe Microsoft, which did the same for Internet Explorer on Windows.

I must say, this is not a scientific research on my part but most people I know who use iPhones or iPads, are actually not such big fans of Safari. More interestingly most seem to like using Chrome.

What are your views on Google’s plan for a Chrome browser for iOS? DO drop in your comments

Related: The Real Android Phone before iPhone was released!

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Tips

Enable Sync Open Tabs on Your Chrome Browser!

 I usually work from my laptop but sometimes do test out some stuff on a desktop. At times I need to refer to a tab I have open on my laptop’s Chrome browser. Chrome recent stable release has a feature that allows you to synchronize even open tabs on different machines.

Upgrade to the latest Stable version of Chrome and sync your browsers. Users can access it on ‘Other Devices’ menu on new tab of Chrome.

Features of Synchronizing Open Tabs with Chrome

  • Users can access their open tabs on multiple computers as long as they sign-in with the same Google account.
  • Not only just the webpages on that particular tab is synced but even the browsing history, which allows users to click on back and visit the previous page from a different page.
  • This should work across different platforms where Chrome is compatible. This includes and device running on Android 4.0 thanks to the Chrome app.
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Here is the Chrome video explaining syncing open tabs:

I have always wondered if Chrome is going to become the default browser for Android OS at some point of time. When Android Market was renamed as Google Play, it promised a seamless and synchronized experience.

I am sure having open tabs synchronized will be quite productive for people who work across different computers and Android devices. If you like using Chrome on multiple devices, you might like to see how to share desktops remotely with Chrome on your computer.

Link: Chrome (Latest Stable Version)

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News

IE6 Still Survives and Usage has Grown Over the Past Two Months!

Almost fourteen months ago, I wrote about the IECountdown – which was like Microsoft’s official goodbye to IE6. It was a good initiative by Microsoft, which is still trying to get rid of the bad reputation it received because of a browser (IE6) stuck in time.

Last year, Internet Explorer 6 still accounted for 12% of the world’s browser market. I decided to check on some stats and see if things have really changed or is IE6 still proving very difficult for Microsoft to kill off. I decided to use statistics from NetMarketShare the same source that Microsoft uses to show IE6 usage on the IE6 Countdown website.

Some Internet Explorer Shockers!

  • About 7.1% of the browsers are still on IE6. That is not the surprising part. The browser share of IE6 has grown in the past couple of months from 6.8% in Feb 2012 to 7.1% in April 2012. Usually this share goes up during December when year ending accounts are done on enterprise computers which still often run only on IE6.
  • China still seems to be the biggest market for IE6. An astounding 23.8% of the browsers in China are IE6.
  • Internet Explorer was shipped as a default browser with Vista almost half a decade ago. Strangely more people still use IE6 when compared to IE7.
  • Even though we are on version 10 for IE, the most popular version is Internet Explorer 8, which was released in 2009.

Internet Explorer has a very fragmented market share based on their browser versions. For example, most Firefox and Chrome users are on the latest versions of their browser. On Chrome, users do not even really notice when their browsers automatically updates to newer versions.

I must say that Microsoft has recently woken up to the horrendous reputation of IE. It even has called it the ‘Browser we love to hate’ in a advertisement campaign. Hopefully the recent spike in IE6 usage is just a blip before its eventual demise.

Do drop in your comments.

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Reviews

Share Highlighted Text and Links as SMS from your Browser!

Sometimes when I am searching for a particular address online, I like saving it as a text message on my mobile phone. This is quite useful to refer back to it, while searching for that particular place in a cab or foot.

Textme is one such web service which allows users to send selected text or even links via SMS from the browser itself.

Features of onTextme

  • Textme is a simple web service which allows users to share text, images and links from the browser to an mobile phone in India.
  • This is done by installing a browser add-on. I tested it with Chrome but add-ons are available with Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox and Safari.
  • The service is free and without ads, which is a big plus as the last thing you want are more text ads on your phone.
  • Developers and site owners can also insert Textme buttons on their websites to make sharing content via SMS a lot more easier.

Video Demo of onTextme

Try out Textme and do drop in your comments and views.

Link: onTextme

Related: Create Free “Group SMS” Service using Google SMS Channels

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Tips

Block 3rd Party Widgets to Increase Page Loading on Chrome!

When we created the new design for our blog, it was crucial to make it minimal and increase page loading speed. We also tried to not have too many 3rd part widgets on the page other than a Facebook page widget. This is because too many 3rd party widgets can slow down page from loading on your screen.

Unfortunately not all blogs are into minimalism and often have many 3rd party widgets on their website. But Chrome has a handy extension which allows blocking all 3rd party widgets on a page you look up with the browser.

WidgetBlock Features

Install WidgetBlock on Chrome and see all 3rd party widgets on webpages you are viewing disappear.

As these widgets do not load up on the browser, it means data from 3rd party websites is not pulled. That ends up making the page load faster. This is very useful if you are browsing through a lot of blog posts.

I found that it usually blocks most Facebook and Twitter plugins. It also does hide the count in the social share buttons on most websites. Interestingly it did not block anything from Google+.

Also note that it might cause some issues while playing games on Facebook.

Do also check out our complete guide to online privacy and anonymity.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: WidgetBlock

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Tips

Personalize Your Chrome with Official Theme Maker

I like using Chrome because it is fast and has a minimalist design. Chrome does not have a lot of versatility from a customization point of view but that too is changing with new extensions and apps. Now along with choosing different themes on Chrome, users can also customize a Chrome theme with an official theme maker.

Features of My Chrome Theme

  • You can install the My Chrome Theme App on the browser from here. A shortcut will show up where apps show up on your Chrome new tab.
  • Click on it and follow the proper instructions which are quite easy. Add a background photo you want and customize its position on the theme.
  • You can customize the colors of the active and inactive tabs. Once that is done you can also preview your new Chrome theme.
  • Once done you can share your theme on Google+ or simply paste the link into Facebook or Twitter. The theme can also be directly installed on your browser.

I really liked using this Chrome app for making themes but it is a little over simplistic. If you want more customization options while creating a theme check this 3rd party online tool.

Thanks to Raza Rahil Hussain for the tip.

Do try out My Chrome Theme and drop in your comments.

Link: My Chrome Theme

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News

Microsoft Ad Campaign Calls IE “The Browser You Loved to Hate”

Internet Explorer has steadily lost out in the battle of the browsers. Yes, it is still the most used browser but that is mainly because it is the default browser on the most popular Operating System. Chrome in recent years has become increasingly popular and the general reputation of Internet Explorer has taken a nose dive over the past few years..

Microsoft has finally accepted this fact and calls Internet Explorer “The Browser You Loved to Hate“. 🙂

While accepting their previous versions were not up to the mark, they are pitching Internet Explorer 9 as a decent browser.

Microsoft’s New Advertisement for Internet Explorer 9

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Microsoft has a new Ad poking fun at a guy who hated Internet Explorer all his life but now has become a fan of new Internet Explorer 9. The advertisement is pretty bad and not really funny enough. I think it might actually make more people avoid the browser than use it (See video below).

There are some gems in Internet Explorer 9 like pinning a website to the taskbar which cannot be done with Chrome or Firefox. But Chrome and Firefox does allow making applications of a website which can be pinned to the Windows Taskbar. 😉

What are your views on Internet Epxlorer 9? Have you checked it out? Do you find yourself quitting Chrome or Firefox? Also what did your think about that advertisement by Microsoft? Do drop in your comments.

Link: Browser you love to hate

Related: Microsoft’s Official Goodbye to Internet Explorer 6!

Categories
News

Firefox 11.0 Released with CSS Style Editor and Add-on Sync

The latest version of Firefox 11.0 has been released with some new interesting features for web developers. For long Firefox was always considered the browser of choice for web developers has made sure to keep that community happy.

Some of the key updates are that are a CSS Style Editor, 3D viewer of a page DOM (Document Object Model) and also a very important feature of allowing add-on synchronization.

New Features with Firefox 11.0

Once users upgrade to the new Firefox 11.0 they have new options to look up the sytle editor and also live-edit the styling of any webpage your are viewing. Just click on Tools >> Web Developer >> Style Editor to lookup and live-edit the CSS of any page. This works a lot like Firebug add-on.

The other cool feature is the 3d viewer to lookup a page DOM. While you are on a webpage, right-click and select Inspect Element. The 3D viewer can be started from the right hand bottom corner. It gives a virtual 3-dimensional view of all the page objects which makes understanding the building blocks of a page a lot more easy.

The other nice feature to Firefox 11.0 is that it allows easy Add-on sync with its features. This allows users to move between multiple computers with Firefox and keeping all their favorite bookmarks and add-ons.

Mozilla Firefox has suffered in the past from lack of coherent upgrades. Chrome has taken advantage of it and has ended up being the second most used browser. Despite those facts, with these new features Mozilla Firefox shows exactly why it still is the browser of choice for web-designers.

Do drop in your comments and views.

Link: Download Firefox 11.0 (Linux, Mac, Windows)

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Tips

Arrange Similar Chrome Extensions into Groups [Browser Tip]

Chrome is a very popular browser and there are practically hundreds of useful extensions out there. Some times an extension is good but I might not use it as much everyday. So it would be nice to have something that arranges extensions into groups and allows users to switch between these groups whenever needed.

For instance when I am reading my email, I would rather have productive extensions available quickly instead of social media extensions.

Now Chrome users can actually go about arranging their extensions into relevant groups and switch between them easily.

Arrange Chrome Extensions into Groups

  • I could customize the names of the groups along with selecting a relevant icon.
  • Now while using my browser, I can switch from one group of extensions to another with a single click.

Hope it helps you become more productive with your extensions on Chrome. If you prefer using Bookmarklets to extensions, the you might want to check this list of 20 bookmarklets alternatives to popular Chrome extensions. Most of those bookmarklets can be used on other browsers too. 😉

Do try out Context for Chrome Extensions and drop in your comments.

Link: Context Extensions

Categories
News

Chrome Browser Is Now Available on Android Phones

Chrome is one of the fastest growing browsers today. It has already overtaken Firefox and it’s simple layout and easy options to synchronise bookmarks, passwords and extensions is earning a lot more adopters.

Yesterday Chrome announced that it was progressing from the computer onto the mobile phones and tablets. Yup, Chrome is now available as a browser on Android.

Chrome Beta on Android OS

  • Visit the Android Marketplace and download the Chrome browser on your Android phone. Chrome for Android only works on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) platform.
  • The big advantage is that Chrome on Android can show your sync your tabs and also bookmarks from your browser on your laptop to your mobile.
  • Your extensions are not synced but then I guess, you can independently install them from Android marketplace anyways.
  • There is also support for privacy options like incognito mode and also other privacy options.
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Why Chrome needed to be on Android

Android might be a open-source project but it is heavily run by Google. Google has recently bought over Motorola. This means now they will also be more proactively getting into the hardware part of mobiles and tablets. We might even see a Nexus Tablet.

These gadgets by Google will actually need Chrome to streamline the experience of using Google services from computer to mobile. It has also probably ended the argument of possibly having Chrome OS on tablets.

What would be interesting is how would Chrome makes life difficult for Safari and Internet Explorer if it available on iOS and Windows 8 for mobile phones. 😉

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Chrome on Android Marketplace