Tab Notifier is one of the solution to this problem. Tab Notifier is an add-on for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers and it displays notifications on the desktop if the title of the tab being monitored changes. For example, If I have Facebook opened, Facebook displays the no. of notifications in the title of the page. So if you have Tab Notifier installer, you will get a desktop notification with each new update of Facebook. The same goes for the case with all other websites. Tab Notifier is a good solution but it has a few limitations. It can’t detect any changes in the website in question if the title doesn’t change and remains the same upon each update to the website. It also can not detect any changes while the browser is not open or even the website tab is not opened.

Download Tab Notifier add-on for Firefox

Download Tab Notifier extension for Google Chrome (Please note that this link is of the author’s website where you can download Tab Notifier for Google Chrome. I couldn’t find Tab Notifier in Google’s app store.)

If you don’t like Tab Notifier, there is another add-on – Update Scanner which can check for updates on selected sites after a specified interval of time. All the notifications will be given within Firefox so you will need to have Firefox opened although you don’t need to keep the website tab opened all the time. The changes to the pages will be highlighted automatically. Although Update Scanner is available on the latest version of Firefox i.e, Firefox 10, I wasn’t able to install it on Firefox 11 beta.

Download Update Scanner Firefox Add-on

After installing Update Scanner, press Alt-U and the update scanner sidebar will open. You can add sites to be monitored from there.

If you still choose the email to be the best method of getting yourself notified, there is another solution that you can choose. You can use the services which let you send the feed updates to your email. I am listing a few RSS feed to email services:

FeedMyInbox ( I personally use this)

Feed2Mail

reblinks.therssweblog.com

RSS Fwd

Blog Alert

All these services require RSS feeds to be enabled on the sites to be monitored. If you want to follow a site which does not have RSS feeds enabled, you can use these services:

Change Detection

Change Detect (Registration required)

I hope this information will be helpful for everyone and will make us better and more productive. What is your favorite method of staying up-to-date?

Image credit: Secure Website : WWW by BigStockPhoto

These extensions allow users to remove the junk (e.g ads, links etc.) around the reading material allowing them to focus more on the material rather than on the distracting ads, links, etc.

1. Readability

Readability is a great app for people who intend to remove the clutter from a website and just read the information provided on the web page now or later. The app “zaps” the clutter and saves the web articles in a comfortable reading view which ensures maximum focus on the content and not on ads. To get started, you must create an account on Readability.

Just click on the “Read Now” button to disable surrounding webpage clutter and noise and take the reading material into a very clean area. If you don’t have time, you can save the article to your Readability account and read it later. You may also share the articles with your friends via e-mail or Facebook or any other social networking website.

You can easily send material directly to your Amazon Kindle if you have one (with subscription).

Readability

2. iReader

iReader allows the user to take the reading content available on a web-page to a simple one-panel scrollable window, thus avoiding the clutter and junk displayed on the website and keeping your focus on the news you came for.

Using the app is simple. Once you arrive on a web page where reading material is available (the iReader icon will appear), just click the iReader icon to open the iReader window with the material displayed in a simple one-panel display.

You can also print the article quickly, or share it with your friends over Facebook or send the article via E-mail to anyone you wish quickly.

iReader

3. Clearly

Clearly is a great and innovative app for people who often visit blogs and news websites.

The app allows such users to bring down the blog posts, articles and webpages into a clean and easy to read format. The best thing about the service is that the user can save the article to their Evernote account allowing them to read it from anywhere they wish.

If there are multi-pages on the news site, Clearly will bring them down to one seamless window.

Clearly

4. Instachrome

If you have an instapaper account, you should definitely check out Instachrome, which allows users to save URLS and collect articles on the web to read later on through their instapaper account.

The whole process is a matter of one-click by which you can save the article for later viewing or even view at that very same time if you have the time to do so.

If you like the article so much, or if you feel the article might come handy later on, you can archive it for later viewing purposes.

Instachrome

There you have it folks – some four really helpful apps available for Google Chrome that allow users to cut down web-pages into simple one panel view box ensuring that the user pays maximum focus on the article itself and not on distractions at the side of the web-page.

Image credit: markhillary

All of the below links are to Google Chrome apps and extensions from the Chrome Web Store. Many applications like MS Word or Open Office have some of these features built in, but not everyone used those apps to write. And if you are using a web-based word processor/ text editor application, you may not have any of them.

1. EZ Auto Corrector

EZ Auto Corrector is fantastic. Many people are used to the instant auto-correct of common words. With the amount of emails people send, it is good to have them at least appear like you know basic grammar. With this app enabled, you can type like you are sending an SMS. Some of the default corrections are:

• r – are
• u – you
• gr8 – great
• ur – you are

Another great use for EZ Auto Corrector is a text completer. When I used a Blackberry, there was something similar you could do on there. I had all kinds of shortcuts installed to complete common phrases. Here are some examples you could use to make typing faster.

• ty – thank you
• np – no problem
• yw – you’re welcome
• ang – angioplasty
• stg – small town girl

I did not see a character limit for the end result. It was able to add 50 characters as a replacement “word”

2. Write Space

If you use desktop applications like Write monkey or Darkroom, you will like Write Space. It offers a minimalist, distraction free place to write.

There are no real features to adjust while you are in the app. All you have on the screen is a word counter and it is at the very bottom.

If you want to change some settings, there are options accessible through the Manage Extensions menu. If you want a different background or font color, you will need to know the HTML code for the color.

3. Phras.in

Phras.in is a good word or grammar helper extension. It can tell you which word or phrase is more popular. There are many times where the English language can throw you for a loop and you aren’t really sure what word to use in a sentence. Simply open the app and type in the two choices into the text boxes to see which one is more popular.

You will see how may hits each one got. Underneath the results, there will be an explanation of the two words or phrases.

You can also access similar results by using this URL http://phras.in/phrase1/phrase2. Just replace phrase 1 and phrase 2 with the word or phrase you want to compare like this http://phras.in/alot/a lot

Conclusion

Writing is a process. it can take years to get to a point where you feel comfortable letting others read your work. As anyone who writes for a living will tell you, the only way to get better is to write… A LOT.

What are the writing applications or extensions you use in your Web browser?

Image credit: intro image

Installation

RSS Share for Google+ and Google Reader (henceforth referred to as RSS Share) is a Chrome/Chromium extension, so yes, you will need to be running Google’s browser. If you haven’t already tried Chrome, you may be surprised by the speed and simplicity of the UI.

The extension can be installed from this page. It’s a simple one-click install that should operate like any other Chrome extension.

What it Does

The features, as described by the developer, are as follows:

• “Share on Google+” button in Google Reader
• (Optional) Add Google Reader section to Google+
• Show read and unread RSS items on Google Plus
• Choose if read items are shown
• Instantly share any link
• Google Reader unread count on Google Plus
• j/k key bindings for scrolling through RSS items on Google Plus
• Infinite scrolling for RSS items
• Click on title to refresh unread count
• Tree view of feeds

Usage

First, if you have any Google+ or Reader tabs open, you’ll want to fully refresh them after the extension is installed to make sure the page is rendered with the new bits included. In Reader, you’ll now see a Share with Google+ option at the bottom of each post.

which will bring up the sharing interface familiar to any Google+ user.

That’s nice and all, but RSS Share actually has another trick up it’s sleeve, and it’s a good one. If you open up your Google+, you’ll see that you’ve now got a list of your feeds in the sidebar, under your stream options.

Clicking on any of the titles will bring up the feed in Google+.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to post entries from Google+ to Reader, but I suppose when you consider that those items are in an entirely different format from RSS and have security and other considerations applied, it makes some technical sense.

Conclusion

It’s been this author’s experience that many similar extensions tend to feel clunky and tacked-on. RSS Share for Google+ and Google Reader is the first I’ve found that integrates seamlessly, and feels like it belongs in the base applications. There are times when such things seem useful at first but quickly get forgotten, but RSS Share is something I’ll be keeping around for a while.

1. Perform searches using the Omnibox

It is fairly simple to use the Omnibox to perform a search. Key in the query and hit Enter. However, often when you type in a query, a website shows up in the results list.

If instead, you wish to do a pure Google Search, simply put a “?” before your query.

This will perform a Google search rather than loading the URL.

2. Perform basic calculations

The Omnibox is almost like an extension of Google Search so if you wish to perform some type of calculation or unit conversion, simply input it into the Omnibox.

The result will be displayed right there in the drop-down list.

3. Add search engines

The Omnibox allows you to add search engines to it so that you can perform searches of various websites directly from the Omnibox. To do so, right click on the Omnibox and select “Edit search engines…”. 

This will pop-open the Chrome preferences tab allowing you to add the name of the external website you wish to search.

Enter the name of the search engine (e.g. “Make Tech Easier”) enter the keyword (e.g. “maketecheasier.com”) and finally enter the URL (e.g. “http://maketecheasier.com/about/search-result/?cx=012219648382774935931%3A71v9_lruh3c&cof=FORID%3A11&q=%s”). It is important to put a memorable keyword as this is what you have to type into the Omnibox before starting the search. So, if you want to search for articles on Google Chrome on Make Tech Easier, you can type in “maketecheasier.com”, hit the “TAB” key and start searching.

4. Omnibox Extensions

A few months ago, Google released the Omnibox API to allow enterprising developers to create extensions that would enhance the functionality of the Omnibox. Here are a couple of my favourite extensions:

Switch to Tab: With this extension you can search your open tabs and switch between them. Simply type in “sw<tab>” followed by the query you wish to search. After hitting Enter, you will automatically switch to the tab with the query.

Quora Search: If you are a fan of Quora, then you should check out this extension that helps you search easily on Quora without having the website open.

Currently, there are no other popular extensions, however I am sure more will be released soon.

Bonus: Icon guide

When you type in something in the Chrome Omnibox, a variety of results pop out.

These results all fall into the following five categories with differing icons:

• The icon appears next to bookmarked sites.
• The icon appears next to sites from your browsing history.
• The icon appears next to searches, including related searches if you have the prediction service turned on.
• The icon appears next to related sites when you have the prediction service turned on.
• The icon appears next to web apps you’ve installed from Chrome Web Store.

Conclusion

Google Chrome’s Omnibox is a powerful tool that negates the use of many extensions simply because it can do anything and everything. Chrome and the Omnibox are evolving everyday and to keep track of its new features head over to the Google Chrome and find more information here.

1. Audiotool - Music Creation

Ever wish you could play around with all that amazing gear some electronic musicians have? Audiotool gives you digital representations of synthesizers, drum machines, and effects pedals that you can combine and tweak in any way you wish. Each component is isolated, and it’s up to you as the user to connect them however you see fit.

Is it a full replacement for expensive hardware? Probably not, but it sure is a lot of fun.

2. Cloud9 - Software Development

One of the biggest hurdles to widespread adoption of the browser-based “cloud desktop” model (such as with Google’s Chromebooks) is the inability to do even simple software development. Much (though not all) of that can be solved with cleverly designed web apps such as Cloud9. It’s a multi-language IDE with many of the features you’d expect in a desktop code editor (tabs, syntax highlighting, etc) and a few neat features of its own, like GitHub integration.

It’s this author’s opinion that the GitHub integration is probably the most valuable feature of Cloud9. Not only can you sync up with the code in your GitHub repository, you can even use your normal GitHub credentials to log in to Cloud9.

3. Chrome Theme Creator – Browser Customization

We previously touched on ways to create Chrome themes, but this one based out of ChromeTheme.net has proven itself to be quite simple and capable. You can choose the colors and images you desire for your theme and once everything’s ready, just download the pack.

4. Flixster - Movie Reviews and Showtimes

If you’re a movie nut, this app from the infamous RottenTomatoes.com will likely keep you happy. It includes film details, trailers, reviews, an extensive rating system, and even helps you look up local showtimes.

5. 3DTin

A few years ago, the idea of a functional 3D modeling program inside a browser might have seemed pretty ridiculous. Through advances in technology (and the valiant efforts of standards boards) we’re now closer than ever to having our browsers as fully capable gaming platforms. 3DTin is a fine example of one way these new technologies can be used.

6. Angry Birds – Game

This list would not have been complete without at least one game, and when it comes to free Chrome games it’s hard to beat Angry Birds (though some would argue in favor of Plants vs Zombies). Chances are you’ve at least heard of this game – it’s shown up in commercials and movies and it’s even shown up during Rifftrax commentaries.

Conclusion

While many Chrome apps are indeed just links to existing independent web apps, the Chrome Web Store always provides an easy way to browse and rate them, and often provides something new. Perhaps it’s a free version of a paid app, perhaps it’s new features, perhaps it’s nothing. Whatever the details, Chrome Apps can be a great place to find the application you never knew you were looking for.

FeedSquares is a Google Chrome extension that shows your Google Reader feeds in a beautiful feed wall. Each square on the wall represents a single feed and the first image from each feed is used as the background for each square. The result is a visually stunning photo wall.

When you click on a square (or feed), the article list from the feed will appear as a scrolling (horizontally) panel at the bottom of the wall. You can scroll through the list to look for interesting article to read. Clicking on the article will pop-up a window with the article content.

At the end of the article, there is also a box with all the various social sharing options. You can “star”, “like” or even share the article. FeedSquares sync with your Google Reader, so whatever changes you make here will be reflected in Google Reader as well.

If you have organized your RSS feeds into various folders, these folders will be displayed as a navigation link above the feed wall. At the bottom of the wall, there is also a link for you to switch between day and night mode. The night mode comes with a dark purple background and is more soothing to the eyes.

At the backend, there are several options that you can configure for FeedSquares, including feed refresh interval, use secure connection, show unread counts and many other options.

FeedSquares Android app

FeedSquares also comes with an Android app (free) that you can install on your mobile phone. It is pretty cool too.

If you are into fancy stuff, do give FeedSquares a try. It is nice, fun and pretty impressive, definitely better than the dull Google Reader interface.

FeedSquares | Android app

1. Google+ Ultimate

Is the Google+ design too bland for your taste? You can now customize the color and style of Google+ with Googlt+ Ultimate. Things that you can customize include the background, scrollbars, left and top panel, navigation bar, image size in stream, side-by-side view (for large monitor).

2. GTools+

GTools+ is developed by the same developer as Google+ Ultimate. It acts as a complement to Google+ Ultimate and allows you to customize the Google bar as well as integrating the chat feature to the Google bar.

3. Google+ Tweaks

The Google+ Tweaks extension is a wrapper for a series of userscripts to customize the usability of Google+. Features include

• Preview images when you mouse-over them
• Favicon badge shows the number of new notices
• Make Google+ use your browser’s full width
• Force all images in posts to thumbnails
• Pin the Google bar and other navigational elements
• Yellow “Post muted” notices automatically fade out
• View post actions as buttons instead of as a drop-down menu
• Hide various elements of Google+ you don’t use

4. Google+Facebook

If you are not ready to give up your Facebook yet, this extension can show your Facebook news feed in Google+ stream so you can manage both in one place.

Note: While you can post to and view your Facebook feed, you won’t be able to comment on other’s update.

5. Surplus

Surplus integrates Google+ deep into your Chrome browser, allowing you to read notification and post to Streams right from the Google taskbar. It also supports desktop notification and notification sounds.

6. Extended Share for Google Plus

If you are using other social network platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr, this Extended Share add-on will add a “Share on” button below each post in Google+, allowing you to share to other social networks.

Similar extension: Share+ Social Buttons for Google Plus

7. Favorite G+ Stream

By default, when you log in to your Google+ account, it will show you the posts from all your circles. However, there will be times where you just want to follow the streams from a particular circle of friends. Favorite G+ Stream allows you to set a particular stream as the default. When you load your Google+ page, your favorite stream will appear.

8. Move Your Photos

Do you have a lot of photos in Facebook and wanted to migrate them to Picasa (so you can share in Google+)? Move Your Photos can do just that. All you have to do is to connect it with Facebook and it will immediately export your photos from Facebook to Picasa.

9. Goo Plus Manager

Goo Plus Manager adds a shortcut menu so you can quickly access the various part of Google+. In addition, Goo Plus Manager also comes with a series of keyboard shortcuts that you can use, for example:

• g + h : go home
• g + p : go to profile
• i + i : go to photos
• i + p : go to photos > phone
• i + m : go to photos of me
• i + a : go to my photo albums
• g + i : go to incoming
• g + n : go to notifications

For more keyboard shortcuts, check out the list here.

10. G+ Extended

G+ Extended adds a different set of keyboard shortcuts to your Google+. The shortcuts are:

• Press “+” for +1′ing a post.
• Press “-” for removing your +1 on a post.
• Press “p” to toggle your +1 on a post.
• Press “s” to share a post.
• Press “e” to expand older comments on a post.

11. Helper for Google+

As its name implies, Helper for Google+ is indeed a very good helper for Google+. Once installed, you will be able to share posts via Twitter, translate posts with Google Translate, bookmarks individual post (locally or to delicious.com), linked #hashtags, search Google+ posts and profiles directly from your omnibox.

12. +Comment Toggle

A simple extension to allow you to hide/show comments on Google+

13. G+ Count in Title

Another simple extension to show notification count at the document title in the page tab.

14. Usability Boost for Google Plus

The Usability Boost for Google Plus extension adds several CSS rule to make Google Plus more pleasant to use. Once installed, it sets the background to gray color, the post area white and the comments section light blue.

15. Native GMail for Google Plus – Beta

This extension allows you to check your Gmail inbox right inside your Google+ page.

What other extensions do you use to enhance your Google+ experience?

Search Sidebar is a very useful add-on that allows you to search multiple sites with one query and search interface. The best thing is, all the search results appear in your Google search result page, so you don’t have to get used to any new interface.

Once you have installed the Search Sidebar extension, you won’t see any configuration option in your Firefox toolbar. Instead, you will see a search strip at the sidebar when you perform a search in Google (Note that this extension will not work for Google encrypted search).

When you hover your cursor over the icons in the search sidebar, the search result for that site will pop up.

If you are logged in to your Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook LinkedIn or Dropbox account, it can even search your personal account.

To see all the search results, simply click on the blue “WebMynd” button and the strip will expand to show all the search results from different sites.

You can add more sources for it to retrieve the search results or to remove the default source from the list.

Conclusion

Search Sidebar is useful if you search from multiple sources regularly. My personal favorite is the ability to search your personal accounts, like Gmail and Google Docs, without having to visit the sites.

My only gripe is there is no easy ways to organize the search sources. I prefer to have my Gmail account at the top of the list. To do that, I have to first remove Gmail from the list, then re-add it again to make it appear at the top. You have to do this for every other sources. It would be great if the developer can come out with a drag and drop solution to rearrange the search sources.

Search Sidebar is available for Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari.

1. AdBlock Plus

AdBlock Plus was for the longest time one of the most installed extensions for Mozilla Firefox. When Google finally started allowing extensions for Chrome, many users cried out for AdBlock Plus to port an extension over to Chrome.

The extension is fairly simple to use: install it, pick a “filter list“, add any whitelisted domains and you are good to go.

Ads are blocked on every website that is not listed in your whitelist and it even blocks ads within YouTube videos.

I will leave it to your judgment to decide whether it is appropriate to use ad blockers on the web.

2. Shareaholic

Most websites and blogs have a Twitter “Tweet” button or a Facebook “Like” button, however what happens if you want to post the contents of that site to a Tumblr blog or Reddit it? If you find yourself in a situation like this, I would recommend installing the Shareaholic extension.

This extension places an icon on your Chrome toolbar that lists your chosen social media and other links allowing you to share, email, print and save the blog post or article that you are reading.

You can login to your own Shareaholic account and tweak the services that are visible on your Chrome browser.

3. Mega Buttons

A large majority of Chrome’s features are buried within the about:plugins, about:flags, about:extensions and other pages. The Mega Button extension places a large green button on your Chrome toolbar that allows easy access to all these and more features.

While the extension is useful, unless you know what each icon refers to, it can be a little difficult to find the right link.

The links (in order) refer to the following features:

• Download
• Extensions
• History
• Bookmarks
• Plugins
• DNS
• Memory
• Cache
• Flags

4. Clickable Links

This extension simply converts “unclickable” URLs and Email addresses into clickable ones.

Websites and blogs will often post links such as:

www.google.com

In some cases, they decide not to turn the link into a hyperlink. This extension automatically generates a hyperlink out of the unclickable links. Simply install it and restart your browser for it to work.

5. Send Using Gmail

This is another extension that is very simple but immensely useful.

Some sites have Email addresses to contact the sites owner, usually these are in the format:

abhiroopb@maketecheasier.com

If you click on the Email address it automatically opens a compose window within your default Email client. Unfortunately, most computers have their default Email client set to their desktop client, such as Outlook. After installing this extension, when you click on an Email link, it will automatically open your default email account.

Bonus: Greasemonkey Scripts

On Firefox, Greasemonkey is an extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to the HTML content of a web page immediately after it has loaded. Unfortunately, Greasemonkey is a Firefox only extension, however most of the scripts that work with Greasemonkey on Firefox also work on Chrome. Furthermore, there is no need to install the Greasemonkey extension. All you have to do, is head over to http://userscripts.org/ and click “Install” on any script you wish to install in Chrome. Some of the scripts will not work correctly, but most do.

Image credit: shauser

Scroll down the list until you see the option “Print Preview”. Click the Enable link.

Now restart your Google Chrome. Go to Print option and you will see the print preview.

Similarly, to disable the Print Preview feature, go to “about:flags” and click the Disable link.

One thing to note is that the Print preview feature is still in experimental stage and is not ready for general use. I have tried it on several occasion and it doesn’t load the preview correctly.

In addition, if you are using Linux and often using the print feature to convert webpage to PDF file, then this Print Preview will not work as it doesn’t detect the postscript driver as a printer.

Registration

Firstly, you will need to sign up for the Texty beta program. Unfortunately, the developers have not fully rolled out this app to everyone, but I received an invite fairly quickly.

Install Texty on your Android Device

Once you receive an invite, head over to the Android Market and download and install Texty on your Android device.

Homepage | AppBrain | Android Market

The setup process on your Android device is fairly simple and just requires you to select Next on different screens.

Install Texty on Chrome

Texty works by connecting your Android device to your Chrome browser through your Google account. So, after installing Texty on your Android device, you must install the extension in your Chrome browser.

Set-up Texty

Once Texty is installed you will see the icon for Texty in the main Chrome toolbar.

You will be met with a blank page when you launch it using the icon from the Chrome toolbar.

You will have to sign in with your Google Account to activate it. Ensure you sign in with the same Google Account as the one you used on your Android device.

Once you have signed in, the extension will prompt you to sync your Google contacts. This is useful as it will then display the names of contacts when messages are sent.

Simply click the link provided and then select Grant Access on the next page.

That is all you have to do to set up Texty on your PC.

Using Texty

Once everything is set up you should start receiving popups whenever a new message arrives.

You can hit Reply to open a popup where you can compose your reply to the message.

Simply type in your message and hit Send Reply.

If you click on the Texty icon in the Chrome toolbar, you will see all the messages you have sent and received from all your different contacts.

The tabs at the top show you the different conversations you are having with all your contacts. You can click the small red “x” to delete a particular message or you can select Delete All Messages From user to delete the entire conversation thread.

If you want to send a message to someone not on your list, select Compose New Text Message.

In the Send To field, you can key in the mobile phone number of the person you wish to send the message to, or alternatively type in that person’s name and the number should automatically appear. Texty is still in beta and sometimes the contacts do not sync properly.

Once you key in a message and send it, it will append itself to the main conversation window.

Conclusion

Texty is much easier to use than the previously mentioned TalkMyPhone, however it is still in beta and there are a number of kinks that need to be worked out.

Thanks to Android Police from where I discovered this wonderful app.

Personally, I prefer Google Chrome over all other web browsers. I like the quick response time and security it offers. The browser also offers a gallery of themes that can be used to customize its look. But instead of selecting something from a list, I like to create my own themes.

Below you will find the tools that I use to create my browser themes for Google Chrome. I hope they will help you personalize your Chrome experience as they helped me.

1. ChromeThemeMaker

ChromeThemeMaker is the first entry in my list because it is the easiest one to use. The application is basically an online tool. It lets you modify numerous factors that contribute to the look of Google Chrome. You can edit the frame, toolbar, tab, and background of your Chrome window.

You can select from a list of available options for each modifiable control.

Alternatively you can upload your own options to give your theme a truly personal touch. The site provides some samples for inspiration.

When you are done editing your theme, you can either download it or directly apply it to your Chrome.

ChromeThemeMaker can be visited here.

2. CRX Theme Creator

CRX Theme Creator is a freeware application for Windows operating systems. The slight delay in response time experienced in ChromeThemeMaker is absent in CRX because it is a desktop application. The app comes as an EXE download sized at 256 KB. To run CRX you simply double-click its EXE file – no installation is required. This is what the programs looks like when running.

Through a single window you are able to control almost all aspects of Chrome’s look. To name a few, you can set colors for the toolbar, bookmark text, and the browser’s frame.

You can also set images for the tab background, frame, and toolbar.

After completing your modifications you can name your theme and create it to be loaded to Chrome or shared on ChromeTheme.net.

The “CRX Theme Creator” can be gotten from here.

3. Chromium Theme Builder

Chromium Theme Builder is another desktop application for creating Google Chrome themes. This one has comes as a ZIP archive sized at 816 KB. You have to decompress the archive and run the extracted EXE file to run the program. Just like CRX, Chromium Theme Builder does not require an installation. This is how the program looks like while running.

Usage of the application is very simple. A mini-view of Google Chrome is presented in the app’s interface. You click on the Chrome element that you wish to modify. Doing so will open the images folder of that element. All you have to do is edit the PNG images contained within this folder.

Repeating this step for all Chrome elements will give you a fully customized Google Chrome theme that you can later build and test using the application.

Check out the “Chromium Theme Builder” over here.

What other tools do you use to create Google Chrome themes?

I came across a solution to ease this burden. Android2Cloud is an Android application similar to Chrome to phone. Android2Cloud is in-fact the opposite of Chrome to phone. It lets you send a link to the page you are looking at on your Android device to your Google Chrome browser.

Setting up Google Chrome

There are a couple setup steps you will need to do before you can use android2Cloud. You will need to download the application and install it on your Google Chrome browser.

Download Android2for Google Chrome.

The Google Chrome side of it may cause confusion for some people. It is not complicated, but has a step that could be confusing to some people. Follow these steps and you should be fine.

Once you install the Google Chrome web app, a new tab will open walking you through the setup.

Most of the steps are easy enough. The step that may throw you is step 2. This step asks you to pick a host for your information. Leave this as the default and you will be fine.

Follow the rest of the steps, making sure to press save for each step. You will be asked to log in and grant Android2Cloud access to your Google Account.

The next step is to download Android2Chrome to your Android Phone.

Install Android2Cloud from the Market. Alternatively, you can scan the QR code displayed after you set up the Google Chrome app.

Configuring the Android phone side of the pairing is really easy. You will only need to install and sign in using your Google account information.

Using Android2Cloud

When using the browser on your Android phone, you will undoubtedly come across a page you that would be easier view on your computer. From your Android phone, you can follow the steps below to send the page you are viewing Google Chrome on your computer.

As a reminder, you will need to be signed into Google Chrome on your computer for the process to work.

To transfer this page to your desktop, you will need to access your share menu.

Just like of you wanted to post a link to the page on Facebook or email or message.

You will see Android2Cloud as an option to share.

Tap on Android2Cloud and your message will be sent to Google Chrome.

I tried sending web pages from my Android phone while Google Chrome was open and while it was closed. When Chrome is open, the page will automatically open in a new window. If Chrome is not open, it should show when you open it next.

Conclusion

I find that in more cases, I use Android2Cloud more than I use Chrome2Phone. It is more likely for me to be looking at a page on my Android and need to watch a video with a larger screen than the other way around. Android2Cloud had been an extremely useful application.

What tricks do you have to blur the line between phone and desktop browsing?

Image credit: deege@fermentarium.com

Google Shortcuts displays all Google services as buttons or as a space-saving dropdown menu next to your address bar (or anywhere you like it). You can then access your frequently used Google services with a single click from the toolbar. It currently supports over 110 Google services and it is highly configurable and customizable.

Install Google Shortcuts for Firefox or Chrome.

After the installation, immediately you will see a row of icons appears beside the address bar. The default list of Google services include Gmail, Reader, Google Encrypted Search, Maps, Calendar, Wave (is anyone still using this?), Dashboard and Settings.

Don’t like the way that it is messing up your toolbar or that you can’t find your favorite Google services in the list? Don’t worry. Just click the Settings button and you will be able to configure it to your liking.

In the Settings, you can add the Google services that you use frequently and remove those that you have totally no interest in. You can also arrange them in the order you like and even edit the URL of the shortcuts. What makes it even more powerful is the various function buttons such as “Gmail This” or “New Doc” to quickly email a selected text from the webpage to your friend or to quickly create a new Google document on the fly.

And if you think Google Shortcuts only handle Google services, then you are wrong. You can even create your own shortcuts with a custom name and URL.

The Advanced Options is where all the good things are. Here, you can define the layout of the Google shortcut, either as a horizontal or vertical toolbar, or as a dropdown menu. I personally prefer the dropdown menu as it does not clutter my toolbar with icons. You can also configure the tab behavior (to open a new tab or in background tab) and also use Google Apps for all your Google services.

The Import/Export Option allows you to backup your Settings and import to another Firefox browser.

The Import/Export feature is only available in the Firefox version. This also means that you won’t be able to export your Firefox Google Shortcuts settings and import it into Google Chrome.

There is no doubt over the usefulness of this Google Shortcuts extension. It is highly configurable and could save you ton of times typing the URL on your address bar. If you are not using it, go install it now.

Google Shortcuts (Firefox | Google Chrome)

TelePrompter is a simple extension that only do one thing – set any webpage to autoscroll mode. When set, the webpage will scroll up or down by itself at a regular speed. You can switch the scroll direction with the mouse or keyboard shortcut and change the scrolling speed on the fly.

Here how it works

Install TelePrompter in Google Chrome.

Once the extension is installed, reload the web page you are currently at. Double click at any where on the page. The web page will now automatically scroll by itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUcmDHv0mt0

As it auto-scrolls, you will see a slider just beneath the toolbar. You can drag the slider to increase/decrease the scrolling speed.

TelePrompter Options

In its options page, you can configure the initial speed of the autoscroll and also the range of speed (the lower and upper limit of the slider).

Wrapping up

This is a simple extension that allows you to sit back and enjoy your reading without having to bother about mouse scrolling. Is this a must-have extension? Nope. Will it save you time and make you more productive? Probably not. But if you enjoy giving your hand a momentarily break, yet not disrupting your workflow, this could be priceless.

Open your Google Chrome and type “about:plugins” in the URL bar.

Scroll down the list until you see the option “Chrome PDF Viewer”.

Click the “disable” link beneath it.

That’s it. From now on, whenever you click on a PDF link, it will prompt you to download the file instead of displaying it in the browser.

To restore the PDF Viewer feature, just follow the same steps and click the “Enable” link.

Minimalist Gmail is a Google Chrome extension that gives you the power to strip your Gmail to the bare minimum (if you want to) and customize it to your liking. It is a powerful tool that allows you to change almost every single aspect (of the looks, not the functionality) of Gmail.

Let’s take a deeper look.

First, install Minimalist Gmail from the Chrome extension page.

Once installed, open its options page to view of series of customization options. There are mainly 8 areas where you can configure: General, Notification, Google Bar, Header, Main, Navigation, Chat and Footer.

General – disable the Gmail options icon and change the font and background color of all the buttons.

Notification – Enable favicon unread counter and desktop notification. it can support Google Apps domain as well.

Google Bar – Google bar is the top most bar of Gmail, the place that contains link to your various Google accounts. Here, you can configure whether to show the Google bar and set custom links to appear. For example, if you visit Youtube more often than Google Reader, you can replace the Reader link with your Youtube link. You are not restricted to Google-only sites. You can even change the link to point to an external site.

Header – Fancy your own logo in place of the Gmail logo? Here is where you can change the logo and enable/disable the search field.

Main – The Main section is related to the main message area. You can get it to highlight the starred email and change the background color when hovering over the messages. You can also disable the various icons (starred, attachment etc) and change the behavior of the toolbar. The best part is, you can turn off the ads at the sidebar and the bottom of the page.

Navigation – Control what appears on the sidebar.

Chat – show/hide the chat box

Footer – Toggle on/off the footer links. Most of the stuff are things you won’t take a second look, so you might want to turn them all off.

Here is the screenshot of the before and after Minimalist Gmail customization.

Before:

After

The best part about Minimalist Gmail is that it shows a preview window when you hover over the option. This allows you to see the portion of the site that you are changing before you make any changes. It also saves you the trouble to keep refreshing the browser to see the changes.

Wrapping up

While there are several extensions and userscripts for Gmail, minimalist Gmail seems to be the best out there with plenty of customization options. Even if you are not into minimalism, you still can use it to improve your user experience in Gmail. One caveat though, it is currently only available for Google Chrome. Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera users, sorry, you have no luck here.

Thanks to Jeff Studenski for the tips.

Minimalist Gmail

Google recently launched the Chrome Web Store which stocks Chrome “webapps” as well as Chrome themes and extensions. These free and paid webapps allow you to extend the functionality of your Chrome browser by installing small third party programs within your browser. we have outlined the method of installing and uninstalling these webapps as well as making effective use of them. In this article, I will highlight some of my favourite webapps.

A number of the webapps in the Chrome web store are merely links to standard HTML websites, and these really aren’t worth installing. Instead, I have selected six of my favourite free webapps (so far) which use the latest and greatest browser technologies, such as HTML5, to provide specific functions in the Chrome browser.

Note: These apps all require a Chrome browser to run.

1. New York Times

Browsing the news on a dedicated website usually involves reading blocks of text and navigating a plethora of ads. The NY Times Chrome webapp is refreshing in that its design is focused on solely displaying the news story, complete with a large headline and thumbnail picture (where relevant). The more relevant stories are also in a larger font to make them stand-out. Additionally, there are no ads to distract from the text of the articles. Clicking on an article pops up a window which displays the complete text of the article with a large photo.

Finally, it is also possible to navigate through the various sections of the NY Times.

2. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is one of my most frequently used desktop applications. It is a simple tool that allows me to aggregate all my social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, Foursquare and LinkedIn) into one interface. The user-interface for TweetDeck webapp is very similar to the desktop application, but the backend has been completely redesigned to make use of new features like HTML 5 etc. One of the most notable feature is the unique way in which the social media streams are aggregated into a “Home” column, a “Me” column and an “Inbox“.

Additionally, the webapp also displays pop-up notifications on new events.

3. eBuddy Web Messenger

The biggest problem with using a browser is that it is difficult to communicate with your friends using instant messaging applications. The eBuddy Web Messenger webapp alleviates this problem by aggregating MSN, Yahoo!, Facebook, GTalk and a number of other instant messaging applications into one handy webapp.

The webapp is somewhat similar to the eBuddy website, and it displays notifications when contacts come online or go offline. Additionally, the webapp is also separate from a particular browser session, so it almost feels like a stand-alone application.

4. Write Space

Write Space is a very simple distraction-free writing webapp. The webapp allows you to input text straight into your browser. It is a great tool if you want to take some notes, or even writing a full-length article.

The webapp also comes with some basic customisability options, allowing you to change the size of the writing space, the font colour, size and typeface.

5. Read Later Fast

If you end up reading a lot of articles online, Read Later Fast is a useful tool to keep track of the ones you aren’t immediately able to read.

Right-clicking on the page of an article and selecting “Read Later” will bookmark the article and add it to the Read Later Fast Inbox. From here you are able to read the article at any time at your own leisure.

6. SparkChess

SparkChess is a beautifully designed premium chess webapp. If you are at all interested in playing chess, this webapp is a great way to fill up some free time. It comes with three levels of difficulty (in the free version) allowing you to practice and hone your chess playing skills.

The webapp has a paid version which unlocks certain features, however it is possible to use most of the features of the webapp without paying.

Bonus: Clock

Finally, if you need to know the current date/time, the “Clock” is an invaluable addition to your list of webapps. Aside from displaying the date/time, the app can also be used to set an alarm, start a countdown timer and a stopwatch.

Conclusion

Most of the webapps in the Chrome Web Store are merely links to HTML5 rich websites. These are fairly useless as it is easy enough to bookmark the website without actually “installing” the webapp. However, there are some webapps, such as TweetDeck, which provides incredible functionality, complete with notifications, which truly enhance the users experience in the Chrome browser.

What is your list of favorite Chrome webapps?

Chrome Toolbox is a Google Chrome extension created by Google. It is an enhancement and quick access tool combined into one.

After the installation, you will see a new icon on the toolbar where you can click to reveal a dropdown menu containing various useful tools, including the mute tabs option.

The dropdown menu also allows you to save form data for the existing site and quickly fill it up next time you visit the same site. You also can get it to open closed tab and toggle Show Bookmarks Bar. (Note: Some of these features have long been available in the form of shortcut keys, but are now grouped together to provide a faster access)

Toolbar/Tab option

The option page is where you can find more interesting things.

You can activate the floating toolbar option for images and videos so that every time you hover your mouse over an image or video, you can magnify it, set it as wallpaper or open the video in a new standalone window. For the video, you even have the ability to pin it “always on top” of all other windows.

By default, when you close the last tab, the browser window will close too. With this extension, you can now configure it to open a new tab when the last tab is closed.

Quick Launch Bookmarks shortcut keys

If you have organized your bookmarks into various folders, here is where you can assign shortcut (Alt + #) to open the links in a specified folder all at once.

Shortcuts and menu

Google Chrome comes with plenty of keyboard shortcuts that you probably don’t even know their existence. This is where the Shortcuts and Menu option is useful. You can find all the keyboard shortcuts of the browser here. You can even compare the shortcuts with other browser and which one is the same and which is different.

For those keyboard shortcuts that you don’t use, you can also deactivate them.

Google Chrome is already well known for its speed and simplicity. With this extension, it is now even more user-friendly than before. What other features do you hope to see in the extension?

Note: The above extension was tested on a Windows machine. Some of the features are not available in the Linux version of Google Chrome.

Download Chrome Toolbox