1. Incognito This

Incognito This is a useful addon that allows you to seamlessly switch open tabs to Incognito windows with a click of the icon.

1. Install the extension here.

2. In your Chrome, go to the “Manage Extensions” page and scroll down till you see “Incognito This”.

3. Click the arrow icon on the left to expand it. At the end of the description, check the box “Enable in Incognito” (the same steps apply for the rest of the addons mentioned below).

4. That’s it. At any website or tab that you wish to make incognito, simply click the Incognito This icon and it will move the current tab to a new Incognito window. You can do the same thing in the Incognito mode too, switching a tab to the normal mode.

Incognito This also comes with several useful customization options. You can get it to close tab on switch, clear tab and page history, and add a shortcut to make the switch, either with the shortcut key “Ctrl + B” or via the context menu. One cool setting is that you can specify a keyword in the URL so it will automatically switch to Incognito mode upon detecting the URL. For example, you can specify “maketecheasier” as the keyword and everytime you open a MTE page, it will auto-switch the tab to Incognito mode.

2. Incognito Button

If you are looking for a no-frill option to switch tab to Incognito mode, Incognito button could be what you are looking for. There are no options to configure. Once installed, it just works.

One thing though, it works one way only (Normal to Incognito mode) and you can’t switch it back from Incognito mode.

3. Incognito Regex

Instead of manually clicking an icon to switch to Incognito mode, Incognito Regex allows you to automate the process by entering a list of URL (regex based) that should be opened in Incognito mode. When you load a URL in the normal mode and it matches the regular expression in the list, it will be moved to a Incognito window automatically.

4. Incognito Search

As the name implies, this addon allows you to do a Google search in the Incognito mode. There is no option to configure. While browsing on any site, you can highlight the word/sentences/phrases that you want to search, right click on the mouse and select “Search Google Incognito for”

Incognito Search

5. Go Invisible

Go Invisible is similar to the Incognito Button as stated above, but it has an additional feature of being able to move all the tabs in the normal mode to a Incognito mode. This allows you to quickly switch from one mode to another.

Conclusion

The above mentioned extensions are only few of the many Incognito extension in the Chrome store. What other extensions do you use to manage your private browsing session?

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Most of the websites on the Internet have tracking software installed on the web pages. Although the information sent to the website owner can be harmless and may help better serve your needs, it is not always the case. If you are also concerned about your privacy over the Internet, here are a few tools and services which can help you in preventing the websites and services from tracking you online. You will become completely anonymous while browsing the Internet.

Do Not Track Plus

Do Not Track Plus is my favorite tool which I am currently using for my online privacy. Since I use Firefox as my primary browser, I have installed “Do Not Track Plus” as a Firefox Add-on. It is also compatible with Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. Do Not Track Plus can prevent tracking of social buttons, ad networks and other tracking companies. The thing I like about Do Not Track Plus is that it shows the information about tracking website in a pop-up when its toolbar button is clicked. Do Not Track Plus protects your online privacy from more than 600 trackers. The tracker database is updated regularly to combat new emerging trackers.

Download Do Not Track Plus for Firefox

Ghostery

Ghostery is another useful tool which can do the same job as Do Not Track Plus. Ghostery is compatible with Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer. It also supports mobile version (iOS). When a website is opened, Ghostery will list down all the trackers on the web page on the upper right corner of the browsing window. Ghostery gives you more control over which site to block and which one to allow. You can block the trackers you want and leave others as it is.

Download Ghostery (You can download Ghostery for each browser separately)

Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is by far the most popular tool for blocking ads. Since most of the trackers are advertisements on the webpages, Adblock Plus can be handy in fighting online privacy issues. Adblock Plus supports Firefox and Google Chrome. Adblock Plus, rather than blocking the tracking of any service, blocks all the advertisements on the webpage. This can be beneficial if you are not interested in the advertisements. This can help improve browsing speed as most of the Javascript and advertisements are blocked.

Download Adblock Plus

NoScript

Most of the tracking is done through Javascript. If you disable Javascript in your browser, most of the privacy issues can be solved but the problem is that it is not always possible to disable Javascript and use all the functionality of the website. NoScript is a Firefox add-on which can prove very beneficial in this regard. NoScript does one thing and does it very well. It prevents Javascript and Flash based contents from running on a webpage without your permission. If you are extra cautious about your privacy, NoScript can be the tool of your choice.

I hope these tools will make your life easier and will help you fight against hidden leakage of privacy. Which tools are you currently using for protecting your privacy?

Image credit: alancleaver_2000

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1. Installing Stay Focused

It’s really as simple as downloading the plugin and giving it permission to access your browsing activity. Click “Install” and it will load to your Google Chrome browser.

2. Determine Your Distractions

In order for you to really stay focused, you will first need to determine what sites actually distract you. There are some obvious ones, like Facebook and Twitter that you could knock off right away but I bet there are some others you aren’t even aware of. The best way I have found to determine distractions, is to track them with RescueTime. This tool has helped me to regain my day and recognize sites and activities that were taking away from my productivity. The arrows show you where I have been spending unproductive time, so those are the sites I would choose to block in the next step.

 3.  Set Limits

Now that you have determined the root cause of your distractions, you can begin the process of setting the limits for those sites. Navigate to the sites you identify as a distraction for you, and do the following for each; Go to the top, right corner of your Google Chrome toolbar, you will see a blue circle (Is it me, or does it look like an eyeball??) Clicking on it will open the site settings window.

As you can see, I spend a lot of time on Twitter reading articles and promoting material. That’s not a bad thing, since it’s required for my job and important for my blog, but on days when I have a task list longer than the hours in the day, I need limits to help me stay on task. By default, Stay Focused allows you 10 minutes to browse the sites you add to your blocked list, which is plenty of time to send a few Tweets and read a few posts without eating up any of your productivity. You can change the amount of time you are allotted by right clicking the Stay Focused icon. When you navigate to the site, you will notice the icon has turned from blue to red. If you open it, you will see the remaining time you have to visit that site. It doesn’t have to be used all at once, so you may feel less likely to cheat if you break it up and do a little all day.

4. Settings & Options

Your not always working, so you can adjust the settings to only limit or block sites during your designated work hours. Right click on the Stay Focused icon, and scroll down to “Active Days” and mark the boxes you want the settings to be active. Note that you can’t tun it off for the current day, so make sure you turn off the weekends ahead of time!

Next, you will want to set the hours you want to block out distraction for each day. In the same window, scroll to “Active Hours” and set your workday hours in the boxes. Note that any changes you make to the hours, won’t take effect for 24 hours. The delay in changes will take away the temptation to stretch the time you are allowed to browse.

If you’re allowing yourself too much browsing time within your limits, your still not going to get anything done. Some of you might need to enable the Nuclear setting! It will block every site except for specifically allowed sites for a specified period of time. To enable it, scroll to “The Nuclear Option” and enable the settings you want. Again, there is no way to cancel this once it is enabled.

If you made a resolution to be more organized and productive in 2012, give this a try and see if it helps you to Stay Focused!

Image credit: Education by Big Stock Photo

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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

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Backtracking for a second, you might be wondering what exactly these “about pages” are that I keep speaking of. You may notice that when you open a new tab in chrome, the address bar contains the text “about:blank”. That code simply tells Google Chrome to display a blank page. Varying the text after “about:” allows you to access special pages. I outline some of the most interesting and useful of these below.

1. about:about

This page lists most (but not all) available about pages that you can access. In my testing, however, the links on this page are not functional despite being clickable, and you need to manually type them into the address bar.

2. about:flags

One of the most interesting about pages, this allows you to turn on what Google terms “experiments”, modifying various functions of the Chrome browser. Some examples are an FPS counter that displays when hardware acceleration is in use, the option to disable VSync, and the ability to enable an in-tab preview of print. I tested a couple of the experiments and found some working, while others didn’t seem to do anything. Please report your findings here.

3. about:plugins

This gives you direct access to the options page where you can enable and disable any plugins that you may have installed for Google Chrome.

4. about:net-internals

A very useful backend tool that gives you access to a list of currently open connections, the ability to check what current proxy settings are in effect, and even a test tool that will try and identify why a certain page is not loading properly. Be careful with what you do here, as I could not find any documentation for it.

5. about:memory

This shows you the memory in use by Chrome as well as any other browsers you may have open. Furthermore, it shows you the memory in use by specific tabs and other processes running under Chrome. This allows you to get a better idea of the resource load of the browser, and to perhaps compare it to other browsers you may use. The memory use summary is currently buggy on OSX.

6. about:cache

This allows you to view everything currently in the browser’s cache. The only catch here is that if you click on a link, it does not actually load the image or the file in a normal way. It will display a hexadecimal & ascii form of the file. You could likely copy and paste this into a hex editor if you wanted to retrieve the contents in a usable format.

7. about:version

This displays the current version of Google Chrome that you have installed, along with the version of JavaScript, Flash and the User Agent that it will be giving to pages that it accesses. It also shows you the currently installed directory as well as the location of your profile. The latter might be useful if you want to back it up.

What other about pages did I miss out?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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?

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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.

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1. Tabbed Browsing. For Safari to not have tabbed browsing on the iPad is really just inexcusable. It’s understandable on the iPhone, as you don’t have that type of space anyway, but for the iPad, you need it. iChrome’s tabbed browsing works just the same as you would expect it to and want it to. You can add tabs by clicking the “+” and delete them by clicking the “X.”

2. Bookmarks. All web browsers have bookmarks, even Safari, but iChrome makes them easy to use. There are no extra menus to add them. You simply click the star to the right of the URL field. To recall your bookmarks, click the bookmarks menu that looks like an opened book. To delete them, click edit, then the minus that appears next to the one(s) you want to delete. Click the icon in the far right to move them up or down in the list, and click the arrow next to that to edit the URL or name of the bookmark.

3. Reading Offline. There are a lot of apps and websites you can use to save web pages for offline reading. iChrome puts that option right there in the browser for you. If you click the eyeglasses in the URL bar, it adds the website to the Read Later list. If you click the icon that looks like a list, it recalls all the sites you saved to read later. Clicking edit allows you to delete them by clicking on the minus.

4. Sharing. It’s extremely easy to share your web pages with social networking sites. Clicking the icon that looks like a box with an arrow gives you a menu that allows you to share the site with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Diigo, or Email. If you choose more, you get even more social networking sites. There’s no need to add other apps to aid in sharing. It’s all right there.

5. Tools. iChrome used to end with the above options, but they have now added even more that allow it to act even more like a desktop browser. It allows you to print, which depends more on the type of printer you have than the browser itself. It also allows “find in page,” something lacking in Safari and other mobile browsers.  Additional options are controlling passwords, and clearing history, cookies, and caché, things you can only do with Safari if you go to the general iPad settings. It also offers you a choice of search engines to work within iChrome and a list of browsers you want it to “behave” as.

Using iChrome is still very much using a mobile web browser, but with all of these options, it makes it so that you don’t miss using a desktop browser at all.

iChromy (iTunes link)

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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.

[feedomit][/feedomit]

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

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There are many times when I find myself needing to print out a document that is on my phone urgently. There are a number of methods of doing this, but the easiest I have found is to use Google Cloud Print.

Set-up Google Cloud Print

Firstly, to use Google Cloud Print you will need to have Google Chrome installed.

Once it is installed select the wrench icon from the top left portion of your browser window.

From the drop-down menu that appears select “Options”.

A new tab will pop-up with a number of different settings. Select “Under the Hood” from the menu on the right pane.

This will display a variety of new options. Scroll down the page until you reach the Google Cloud Print section. Select “Sign in to Google Cloud Print”.

You will have to enter your Google Account username and password. Select the Google Account you would like to associate with Google Cloud Print. It is a good idea to choose one that you use frequently, since it will be linked to your Chrome account.

After signing in you will be prompted to “Print a Test Page” do this to ensure your printer is properly connected.

Set-Up a Google Cloud Printer

If nothing happens when you print a test page, ensure that your printer is connected.

Firstly, return to the “Options” tab, select “Under the Hood” and scroll down to the Google Cloud Print section. You will now see a new option for “Manage Print Settings”. Select this.

This will launch a page from where you can manage your print jobs and your attached printers.

Select the tab labelled “Printers”.

Here you should see all the printers that are attached to your computer. If you do not see the the printer you would like to use, then you may have to re-install the drivers for that printer.

Printer Options

Once your printer appears on the list and is able to print test pages without a problem, there are a few settings you can tweak.

Firstly, select “Actions” to “Share” it with others or to “Delete” it off the list.

The “Share” option allows you to connect the selected printer with other people using their Google Account. This is useful if there a number of people sharing a communal printer.

You can also select the printer itself to open the list of current jobs.

Now head over to the Google Cloud Print set-up page to print a test page. Select “Print a test page”.

The pop-up that opens will display a list of installed printers. Select the printer you wish to print from.

You will be given the chance to make changes to the printing options before printing out the test page.

When you are ready hit “Print”. This will create a new job and your printer will start printing the test page.

You can view all your current and past print jobs from the “Manage Printer Settings” option.

Set-Up a Cloud Ready Printer

If you have a Cloud Ready printer, such HP’s ePrint line of printers, then select “Add a Cloud Ready printer” from the Google Cloud Print landing page.

Get the Android App

So far you have made your printer into a Google Cloud Printer. Now you need to set-up your Android smartphone to print to your Google Cloud Printer.

There does not appear to be an official app from Google, so I have started using the Cloud Print BETA app.

After downloading and installing the app launch it to associate it with the same Google Account as the one you used on Google Chrome.

A list will appear showing the printers associated with your account. You may need to select “Refresh list” if your printer does not appear automatically. Select the printer of your choice and select “Done” to enable it.

A number of print options will appear, including the option to print a test page, random files, SMS messages, mails (requires K-9 Mail), drawings and Google docs (requires further authentication).

Select the type of item you want to print, navigate to the specific document and then select it.

You will then have the option to print the document (“Click here to Print”) or change the printer (“Configure”).

If you select to print the item, it will upload and start printing immediately.

You can view your current print jobs from the “Jobs” menu.

That’s it! You will now be able to print most files and other items straight from your phone.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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)

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• TelePrompter Autoscrolls Any Page in 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.

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.

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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.

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