Google rolled out an improved iPhone interface for Google Reader this week, and here's something neat you can do with it: Add it to your Firefox sidebar. While you can open practically any web site in a Firefox sidebar, some web pages are better suited to the sidebar than others. And the iPhone version of Google Reader fits the bill because unlike the full version of Reader, it's designed for small, narrow screens. And fortunately, you don't need an iPhone to access the new interface.
So here's how to add Google Reader to your sidebar:
Create a new bookmark in your bookmark manager, or by right-clicking on your bookmark toolbar.
Make sure to check the box that says "Load this bookmark in the sidebar."
And that's it. Click on your bookmark and you should see the iPhone version of Google Reader. Bear in mind that while it's easier to navigate the new iPhone interface than the old one, Google Reader does still look best in full screen.
Here are a few other pages that work well in the Firefox sidebar:
Facebook has finally rolled out its new chat feature to all users. That means you can chat with anyone on your Facebook contact list if the two of you are logged into the Facebook web page at the same time. But what if you like the idea of chatting with your Facebook friends, but hate the idea of keeping Facebook open in a browser tab all day?
Mozilla Links discovered a nifty trick for adding Facebook chat to your browser sidebar in Firefox. All you have to do is click on your bookmark toolbar and create a new bookmark. Give it whatever name you like, and enter this for the URL:
http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
Make sure to select the button that says "Load this bookmark in the sidebar" and you should be all set.
Note that you can drag the sidebar divider to make the Facebook Chat window larger or smaller. If all you want to do is see your contact list, the sidebar doesn't take up much space as all. But if you want to actually open a chat window with one or more of your contacts, you'll need to widen the sidebar a bit, which will cost you some valuable web browser real estate.
Facebook Chat isn't the only instant messenger you can open in a Firefox sidebar. You can also create bookmarks for Google Talk and Meebo.
gDocsBar is a new sidebar extension for Firefox that gives you instant, always-on access to your entire collection of Google Documents. With built-in search and filtering, and easy browsing of your online documents, gDocsBar will quickly become a "how did I do anything before this?" Firefox add-on.
Once installed, you'll be prompted to login to your Google account (you do have one by now, don't you?). Don't worry about the vulnerability of your login information; the credentials are sent to Google directly over SSL.
Now that you're logged in, you'll see a list of your Google Documents, including Spreadsheets and Presentations. You have the option to sort them by date, title, or author, in ascending or descending order. There are also tabs for each type of Google Doc, so that, if you so choose, you can see only one type of document at a time. All your documents are instantly searchable by name, author, or content.
Uploading documents to Google Docs has never been easier than with gDocsBar. Simply drag and drop a file to the upload section at the bottom of the gDocsBar sidebar, and the file is instantly uploaded. Word to the wise: it has to be a file type that Google Docs supports, or else you will run into errors.
If you're a steady user of Google Docs and Firefox, this is a no-brainer.
In the past we've covered how to put Google Notebook and Google Personalized Home in your sidebar. And although you were able to see your calendar through iGoogle in the sidebar, there's a better alternative that is cleaner, better, and most importantly, all about the calendar.
Mitch from Firefox Facts came up with this solution by tearing some code out of the iGoogle gadget. Nicely enough, it comes without the extras of iGoogle and is better than Google's mobile calendar site. You can select to view any of the upcoming appointments from any of your calendars, all below the month overview. And best of all, obviously, it loads in your sidebar.
Clean, sharp, simple. Here's how to make it happen:
Meebo, the web-based instant messaging application that runs across all major IM networks has released a Firefox add-on giving users a browser sidebar for easy chatting.
The Meebo Firefox add-on makes it much easier to chat with friends while browsing online. No more switching from application to application or from the Meebo homepage to the page browsing. The sidebar gives users a visual notification, the side pane pops open, when contacts send you an instant message. No more pasting links and uploading and sending images either, the add-on allows for dragging and dropping links and images right onto contacts you wish to send them to.
It would be nice to have all actions take place in the sidebar, but one drawback with the new add-on is that when IMs are sent and received you are instantly booted to a Meebo Firefox tab that must keep open at all times in order to remain signed in. Meebo's line of web based IM tools include Meebo; a web based IM for all networks and MeeboMe; a way to chat with people directly from a website.
Google has been flogging its developers with wet noodles ramping up development to make your desktop more functional with the release of Google Desktop 5. The team at Google have been busy working on ways to pipe more information through Google gadgets and sidebar elements on desktops.
The biggest noticeable changes are in the gadgets and sidebar elements. They now provide more visually appealing content that is easier to read. Google Desktop shows previews of search results in browsers instead of making users wait for another application to open. On a security note, Google Desktop will also give warnings when users are accessing links from documents, IM's, emails or browsing the web, notifying when sites might be trying to steal your personal information, or trying to install malicious software. Looks wise, the new sidebar samples the color of your desktop wallpaper and blends in so that it's not distractingly sitting out in the open which makes it easier to distinguish between gadgets for faster perusal of information.
Check out the Google Desktop site for downloads and more information on improved content.
Amnesty Generator is a free app which converts web widgets from Google, PicGames, SpringWidgets, Grazr, and You Tube into Vista Sidebar gadgets. Whoa, rewind, what? That's right, convert Google widgets into Vista Sidebar Gadgets. Where do I sign? You may remember that we covered this last year for Google Gadgets in the OS X dashboard, but alas it is in fact available for both OS X and Vista.
Amnesty makes the process very quick, but beware that most Google gadgets are huge and don't make great gadgets for reasons of size. I suggest resizing your widget on the "Add to your page" config page. You can change the border, the width and height, as if you were going to put it on your own site. It helps to play around with sizes a bit to get the optimum size for a sidebar gadget. Once you are happy, simply click the "get the Code" button on the Google config page and paste the code into Amnesty.
Multi-Meter Dual-Core displays a dual-core system's usage stats much like the CPU Meter that ships with Vista. There aren't yet many friendly apps that cater to that dual-core behemoth you just purchased, but this is one Vista sidebar gadget to join the team.
Multi-Meter Dual-Core has a plethora of different background themes to customize the gadget any way you like. You can blend it with the your Windows Vista background or choose some other shiny motif to suit your whim. It displays real-time info on both your cores, as well as your current memory utilization too. It is fun to watch this gadget go crazy when you load Photoshop or some other CPU intensive app.
Facebook has released an official browser toolbar, and somewhat surprisingly it's available for Firefox only. It displays the number of pokes, friend requests, and messages you have waiting for you and has the obligatory search box and Share button for sharing links, videos, etc. It also has notifications for when your friends change their statuses, write notes, or interact with you in other ways. Finally, the add-on lets you open a sidebar that displays all of your friends for quick messaging, poking, and wall posts. The free add-on will be a welcome tool for the truly Facebook-addicted. It's a wonder MySpace didn't think of it first.
Ah, the marriage of two of my favorite programs, uTorrent and Firefox. Over at TorrentFreak they've got an add-on for Firefox that integrates the two, putting uTorrent's WebUI (which you must download separately) in Firefox's sidebar and reporting you download and upload speeds in the status bar. You can also start downloading torrents simply by dragging the .torrent link onto the sidebar. Not mind-blowing, but a welcome convenience nonetheless.
You wouldn't think that dragging and dropping some Google code into your site would be so difficult, but obviously in WordPress, things aren't that easy. This is mostly because Google gadgets are pretty much fixed width at 320px wide, and the sidebar in default theme as well as many created themes for WordPress are not quite as wide. ranging from 140 - 170px wide. Lorelle's blog has a nice article on your options for integrating Google gadgets with your WordPress blog. There are a lot of cool options for making your WordPress pop with Google magic. I suppose you could figure all this out yourself, but it is so much eaiser sometimes when someone lays it all out for you.
This idea seems a little obvious in hindsight, but I didn't think of it, Google field technician Erica Joy did: Rather than keeping Google Personalized Home (a.k.a. Google IG) open in a tab, change the layout of your Gadgets so they're all in the left column, then configure Firefox to open it in the sidebar. That way you can always have quick access to your Personalized Home without switching away from the page you're interested in. For complete instructions, head over to Erica Joy's blog.
Last week, to not very much fanfare, Google released Google Desktop Gadget Designer, a full-fledged Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Google Desktop sidebar widgets. Er, gadgets. Gadget Designer features a drag-and-drop interface design tool, integrated debugging, project management, and most of the other basic features you expect in and IDE. Google also released of Google Desktop 4 (final) and announced the first Google Desktop Gadget Contest, which is underway. The prize is $5,000 for the best gadget, $2,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third. Gadget geeks, start your IDEs.
The exclamation in the
title isn't so much out of excitement, but surprise. It's rare that we see anything out of the Googleplex graduate from
Beta, and this is Google Desktop 3's big week. The new version
includes a new feature that lets you lock the search box when you're away from the computer and a new Quick Search Box
that can be summoned by tapping Ctrl twice. Google Desktop is still Windows-only.
Finally, the add-on lets you open a sidebar that displays all of your friends for quick messaging, poking, and wall posts. The free add-on will be a welcome tool for the truly Facebook-addicted. It's a wonder MySpace didn't think of it first.
