Chrome posts

Firebug is one of the most popular add-ons for Firefox: it's a web development tool that highlights elements in a page's HTML source, allows for live editing of CSS, and more.

Now Chrome users can get on the Firebug bandwagon, too, with the new Firebug Lite extension. It's not a full Firebug, and it's not meant to replace Chrome Developer Tools, but it does replace the Firebug bookmarklet for Chrome.

This release -- Firebug Lite 1.3 -- doesn't have everything the Firefox version of Firebug has, but it's getting there. 1.4 is slated to include important stuff like live editing for all panels and a search feature. For right now, though, Firebug Lite is an essential download if you want to see what's going wrong with your stylesheet or get a detailed look at how someone else's page layout was built.

Plus, it lets you turn on Firebug for any domain, right from a toolbar icon - no more messing around with bookmarklets!

If you've ever written a blog post and wondered who's tweeting about it and linking to it on Twitter, wonder no more. A Google Chrome extension called Twitter Reactions can quickly show you the buzz on any webpage you visit. While its most obvious use is the Twitter equivalent of a vanity search, you don't have to use it on your own pages. Twitter Reactions can also reveal the conversation around news stories, downloads, businesses, and more.

The cool thing about an extension like this is that people don't have to put comments into some specific form (as with Google Sidewiki, for example). They can just Twitter about a page as normal, and Twitter Reactions will pick it up. It appears to decode shortlinks, too - at least from bit.ly - so even tweets without the page's full URL will be revealed. Twitter Reactions is definitely one of the most clever implementations I've seen of Twitter as a way to extend comments.

[via Lifehacker]

On a recent Google Chrome post one of our commenters -- MoneyMike -- lamented the apparent passing of one of Chrome's popular UI features in recent nightly builds: pinned tabs.

I, too, noticed the change recently and wondered what was going on. There's been plenty of discussion amongst Chrome developers, and it boils down to an evolutionary step for Chrome and the introduction of app tabs. The arrival of phantom tabs recently is also part of the change.

To clear the air, I pinged Google's Eitan Bencuya to see if he could shed any light on the situation. Here's his response:

"As you know, all of these features are still pretty experimental (they're not even in the dev channel yet) and we're trying out different approaches to see what works. In this case this is part of a larger set of tweaks we are making related to extensions but we haven't yet fleshed out all the details of app tabs specifically."

Right now, changes to the tab strip are a moving target. Developers are also working hard at tweaks for the almost-certainly-coming tablet version of Google Chrome, and the extension API is still evolving as well.

Ultimately, while this kind of change might be frustrating to us it's all part of the thrill of using experimental software. Yes, it comes at the expense of perhaps watching a feature you like fall by the wayside, but you still get to play around with all functionality users of the stable version may never see.

Gentlemen, start your userscripts! The insanely powerful Greasemonkey extension is now natively supported by Google Chrome, and it's bringing a library of over 40,000 scripts with it.

Scripts can modify your favorite webpages in all kinds of useful ways, whether it's cheating at Mob Wars, adding nested replies to Twitter, or "unf**king Facebook." If you think a website needs a cosmetic alteration or a user experience facelift, you can probably make it happen with scripts.

Greasemonkey started out on Firefox, and has been added to Safari as Greasekit, but Chrome has a secret weapon. His name is Aaron Boodman, and he created Greasemonkey. He now works on the Chrome Extensions team at Google. Even though Greasemonkey on Chrome isn't yet as mature as the Firefox version -- 15-25% of scripts might not work on Chrome yet -- it will definitely get there with Boodman's help.

If you need some scripts to get you started, you can scope out Download Squad's 10 Greasemonkey Scripts You Shouldn't Browse Without, or peruse the large selection at userscripts.org.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Welcome to February 2010, and welcome to another installment of Chrome Corner! There's plenty of action to cover this week, so let's not waste any time!

Chrome OS to feature touch capabilities?

Of course it is.

I mean, can you imagine anyone developing a sexy, new OS for any electronic device at this point and not including some touch elements?

What the blogosphere (TechRadar had the scoop, and Mashable et al went giddy) is in a twitter about is the deer-in-headlights routine by Google's search lead Anders Sandholm -- who didn't know how to tactfully respond to a reporter's question without giving something away.

Instead, he looked to a PR teammate for help and sputtered, "I can't... I mean... right now we are targeting netbooks, that's what we're focused on, but I expect it to work well... we expect it to target everything up to desktop computers." TechRadar refers to Sandholm's response as the "strongest hint yet" regarding touch.

My vote for strongest hint: Google isn't run by complete idiots.

Oh, and there's also this documentation over at the Chromium Developer site which details UI possibilities for a touch tablet. A Google tablet device is coming -- probably from HTC (the same folks who built the Nexus One) -- and that thing would look pretty silly running a touch-stupid OS.

It appears an email is being sent out to the administrators of Google Apps accounts informing them that support for legacy browsers is going to be discontinued. Specifically, IE6 is being called out, but Google specifies that only Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox 3.0, Google Chrome 4.0, Safari 3.0 -- and all newer versions of these browsers -- will continue to be supported.

This is great news, as it will lead to more rapid deployment of updates and features to the Google Apps, and will hopefully also lead to speedier performance from them.

Though we haven't yet received this email we expect to see it any day. An old DLS blogger (Adam!) gave us the tip.

Read on to see the full content of Google's browser support email.

Don't you just love it when you find a way to make something good even better? Remember the Milk is a fantastic online task management application, and here are a couple of browser extensions that make it even better if you're using Firefox or Chrome.

Both of these extensions have existed in some form in Firefox for a while, but they have both recently been released for Chrome, and they're worth investigating for either platform if you haven't already.

A Bit Better RTM

Remember the Milk's primary view is through its web app (though you can access it via email, mobile, Twitter, iPhone... the list goes on and on), and unfortunately the web app leaves a little to be desired. The layout is mostly fine, but the biggest problem I have with the site is the use of tabs across the top for your lists instead of a simple list down the side.

Heavy RTM users find they can easily have 20 or 30 lists, particularly when you include smart lists, and the tab metaphor does not scale well. A Bit Better RTM (Chrome / Firefox) solves this problem by changing the layout exactly as I described, adding the ability to reorder your lists, and adding some nice keyboard shortcuts for navigating your lists that match up well with the keyboard shortcuts you know from Gmail and Google Reader.

It seems natural that we'll see the addition of click-and-drag to reorganize buttons as well. That would allow us to keep the extensions we use frequently within single-click reach. I'd also like to be able to double-click to fully expand and contract the browser actions area.

Hopefully those features will be added soon -- until I can choose which extensions are visible and which aren't, this isn't very useful. The Chromium dev team will sort it out, so I'll just have to be patient and keep checking the new snapshot builds..

[via Techie Buzz]

This extension makes Voice a lot more practical by removing the need for a standalone app, single-site browser or separate browser window. Soon, you'll even be able to use it to play back your voicemail. Windows users should be good to go with the new extension, but Mac users will need the latest build of Chromium to make it work properly.

[via TechCrunch]

1Password is finally available for Chrome. Sort of.

1Password is a favorite password manager among Mac users, with a passionate fan base -- and that fan base has been clamoring for a version of 1Password that included Chrome compatibility ever since Chrome was released for the Mac!

Well, the time has come, and an alpha version of 1Password has been released that does indeed support Chromium (the developer version of Chrome). Chromium is necessary because the current version of Chrome for Mac does not support extensions. (You can grab a nightly build of Chromium over here.)

Keep in mind that this version of 1Password is alpha software, and that means it is by definition not yet stable. It also currently only supports the most basic of 1Password functionality: unlocking 1Password and filling in simple login forms.

If you're brave enough to try alpha software, let us know how it goes!

We've published a lot of posts about features in Google Chrome and Chromium which require you to add command line switches to activate them.

So how exactly do you do that? Watch the video above, and refer to the notes below -- it's a simple process!

1. Locate your Chrome or Chromium shortcut. There should be one on your desktop and one in your start menu - either one will work!
2. Click the shortcut with your right mouse button and choose properties.
3. Find the target box (it will be highlighted when the properties screen appears).
4. Left click at the end of the line (after chrome.exe).
5. Press space.
6. Add your command line switch. The result looks like this:
   C:\Users\LeeM\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --bookmark-menu
   
   
7. If you want to add more than one, separate each switch with a space. The result looks like this:
   C:\Users\LeeM\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --bookmark-menu --enable-phantom-tabs