It has been a while now since Google Chrome has been released with extensions, but one of the most requested featured add-on/extension was the IE Tab extension, i.e, opening websites in Internet Explorer while using Google Chrome browser.
This was one feature which was integrated into ChromePlus, a web browser based on the source code of Chromium (which is also behind Google Chrome). Having a “Chrome” browser with IE Tab functionality was one of the prime reasons for its popularity.
Now, IE Tab functionality is also available for Google Chrome which can be easily downloaded in form of an extension.
IE Tab Extension
It allows you to use Internet Explorer to display web-pages in your Google Chrome Tabs. There are certain websites which can be viewable only in Internet Explorer and not in other browsers, IE Tab extension solves this problem by opening those pages via Internet explorer in your Chrome Browser itself without the need to change your browser.
This extension works with the latest developer builds of Google Chrome. I am sure this extension is bound to shift a lot of users from other browsers to Google Chrome. If you need help on this extension please refer to the above link. Let us know your thoughts via comments.
Last few posts on our site has been about Google Chrome themes, and this post is also going to be about themes for chrome. This one however, is for all the Bioshock 2 fans. Bioshock 2 is the latest edition from 2K games which would be released in Feb 2010.
P.fil, our very talented theme designer made a couple of themes inspired by Bioshock 2.
Many users wanted the original Aero theme converted to the .crx format due to it being easy to install. Since Stamga didn’t have time to update the .dll format of the theme every week, he decided that it would be a good idea to remake a similar theme using many features of the .crx format.
Compatibility : Latest Developer/Beta and Stable Builds
A few guys in your Chrome Request Post had asked for some furniture related themes, well its not exactly furniture related but certainly would give a nice woody effect.
Google announced in July this year that they were working on a new Operating System, Google Chrome OS and today they released its source code and also outlined some of its features and what keeps it apart from the other operating systems.
Pricing, Release Date & Speed
Though, Google released the source code of their Chrome OS, a finished and complete Google Chrome OS would be available for the general consumers only after a year from now. It is interesting to note that Google wont be providing its OS to be downloaded for installation on any computer, instead it would run on computers with specific hardware which would save a lot of boot time by skipping a lot of hardware checking steps.
Google emphasized that they would be pushing the manufacturers to develop notebooks with larger keypads and mousepads along with better display. Although, they did not gave any pricing hints for their Google Chrome OS, but said that the notebooks would be released as around the same prices as we see today.
If the speed of Google Chrome Browser is any indication to go by, topped by the live boot up time as Google showed earlier today, Google Chrome OS would be super fast as compared to other operating systems. The project head for Chome OS mentioned a 7 seconds Boot-up time, now that’s really fast.
Google Chrome OS : Interesting Notes
Every application a web-application in Google Chrome OS : There are no conventional or traditional application in Chrome OS. All the applications are a web application, a url, a link.
It has been assumed that Google Chrome OS would be integrated with your Google Account, this would enable users to login to their computer using other netbooks which run Chrome OS.
Google Chrome browser would run faster on Google Chrome OS than on a Mac or Windows since Google has re-done the browser for its OS.
Everything Online : This is the thing which made head turns when Google first announced its Chrome OS plans earlier this year. Although, it is not clear as to what sorts of applications would be available on Chrome OS, but by the looks of it i guess it “only” suitable for people who are “online” round the clock. Every settings on your netbook, whether its notepad or wifi settings everything would be backed up in your Google Account.
Since everything is on the cloud, there are many concerns which were raised such as printer’s support and other hardware support. Google assured us that Google Chrome OS would definitely be able to print but would take a “more innovative approach’ for supporting printers.
As was announced earlier, Google said they were at present only focused on releasing the OS on netbooks, and depending on its success, they would also impart it to laptops and desktops.
Our Take
I personally like almost all the Google Products. Going by the information available so far on this new Chrome OS, i think it would be a real time saver for users who are Google savvy and use it for all the needs. If Google entirely links it with its Google Account then their might be some resistance by a section of users who are not using Google much, apart from searching. One more issue might be the security aspects, since all thing is done online using your Google Account, if by any chance the account gets hacked or you loose password or something, it can lead to disaster. I am sure security is main aspect at which guys over at Google would be looking at.
Twitter as everyone knows is the new craze among people on the internet. When extensions were supported by Google Chrome, there was a great demand for twitter extensions for Google Chrome. Now that the extensions system is somewhat generalized, though you never know with Google, i am listing 3 handy little twitter addons for chrome.
Twitter Ticker Extension
One of the latest extension released for Google Chrome. As the name suggests, the extension displays tweets which are posted by the people you are following in an animated ticker format. This is possible by the use of jquery which the extension uses to retrieve and parse the information from twitter.
An extension for twitter which uses the recently introduced browser actions. Once the extension is installed it adds a small twitter button in the address bar of the browser. Clicking on the button opens twitter homepage with pre-filled status that contains the Page Title and the URL of the page you were browsing. The message gets shortened by bit.ly if needed.
The chromed bird extension is at present one of the most used extension for twitter. As the description given by its author - ” it is an open source chrome extension that allows to follow your twitter account”. It adds an icon besides your address bar which when clicked upon opens a small window showing your twitter account page as seen in the image.
I hope you like these extensions. For any troubleshooting queries and support on Google Chrome please refer to our Google Chrome Forum, and do not forget to follow us on twitter.
The Beta Channel of Google Chrome has been finally updated to 4.0.223.16 which is the 4.0 release in Beta. Some of the notable changes in this release has been the inclusion of Bookmarks Sync feature along with several other speed enhancements.
Bookmarks Sync Feature
Like we already have in Developer builds, Bookmarks Sync allows users to sync their bookmarks across multiple computers. To enable Bookmarks Sync feature on your Google Chrome browser you will need to download the latest Beta Build of Google Chrome from here and follow the instructions or you can see the video below.
More Speed & Improved Performance
One of the prime factors for users shifting from other browsers to Google Chrome was its simplicity and speed. This seems to have got a further boost with this Beta release. The Beta 4.0.223.16 improves speed and performance by 30% over the current Stable release over 400% since the very first stable release.
Extensions Dissapointments
Even though the Bookmarks Sync is the most notable addition to the Beta release, Google has still not debuted Extensions support on Beta builds yet. Their post stated :
Extensions are disabled until the final API changes arrive. Please use the dev channel for the latest extension API.
So i guess it would not be a long time before we see extensions in beta builds of Chrome as well.
For any support queries please refer to the link above. I hope you guys like this release. The theme will work on the latest Developer, Beta and Stable builds only.
I was getting a few inquiries from various users of Google Chrome that they do not like to see the “Toolstrip” at the bottom on the Google Chrome browser window. Many of them complained that it makes the window look divided.
One of our members at the forum,pjfla, posted about a command line which can be put into Google Chrome target and it makes the toolstrip to appear at the top of the window,just below the Omnibar (address bar).
Make Extension ToolStrip Appear at The Top
Right Click on the desktop shortcut of Google Chrome and go to properties.
Put the following command line at the end of the “Target” field. (See Image)
––show-extensions-on-top
Click on Apply and you are done.
Now Start Google Chrome, and you would see the extension toolstrip at the top as shown in the image below.
Let us know via comments how you liked this tip. I guess in future builds of chrome, Google will integrate this option via some GUI from the browser itself. But till then you can always use this.
Please Note: This was only tested on the Developer Build of Google Chrome which is at present 4.0.220.1
For any support queries, feature requests and troubleshooting, please click on the above download link. Please note,the above theme would work only on the latest version of Beta and Developer Builds of Google Chrome.
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