Four New Chrome Extensions - Picozu, Page Snooze, MondoWindow, and Wajam

Are you looking for some new applications to use on your Chrome browser or Chromebook? Below you will find four new Google Chrome applications to try. Each application or extension was installed and tested to be able to give you real life comments. Share with everyone in the comments if you try one of these out and what you thought. What other new applications or extensions have you seen?

Picozu (website) - This is a robust photo editing, drawing, and sharing application. It was smooth to use and is loaded with features like brushes, filters, layers, history, batch processing, curves, cropping, and many more advanced tools. You can get photos to edit from your computer, Picasa, DeviantArt, SmugMug, Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, or Fotolog. Then you are able to save the modified image, or a new drawing, to your Picozu cloud account, Dropbox, Facebook, or your computer. It it built with Javascript, HTML 5 and CSS3 (no Flash).


Page Snooze - A great idea! With this extension you can "snooze" a page. Snoozing a page closes it and sets it to be automatically reopened later at the time you selected. When you are on an open tab you can click on the extension button in the toolbar to snooze it for a week, or right click on the page (not a photo or anything) to snooze it for 5 seconds, 1 to 7 days, or two weeks. Within the options all the snoozed pages are listed for immediate access, and each individual item can be deleted if you wanted. I tested the 5 second snooze and it worked perfectly. Snoozed pages are by specific machine and are not synced.


MondoWindow (website) - You are provided your real time location and shown on an interactive map of what is below through Wikipedia, Flickr, and their own data. Next time you are on a flight this will be a great way to pass the time; just connect to the flight's WiFi. You location is not actually acquired through your device; it obtains the location from other data sources. Because of this you can try the app on their website even if you are not in flight. Flight information (speed, altitude, etc.) is given, along with the ability to see your Facebook friends' location.

Wajam (website) - Search, shopping, and travel planning are all modified with your friends' social shares and comments. This is the type of extension you will either love or hate. It will modify sites to include your social data from Google+, Facebook, and Twitter to show you what your friends thought or recommended. Sites influenced are Google, Bing, Best Buy, IMDb, Yelp, Blekko, TripAdvisor, and many more. For the record, I am not a fan of services like these, but Wajam had an easy setup and did not do anything annoying like Tweeting without permission or updating my Facebook stream. It is worth a look!

Chromebooks - A Brave New Clouded World

Since the announcement of Chrome OS in 2009 and the subsequent Cr-48 test in late 2010 I have been excited to see the possibilities and new direction of computing. My view of programs and the internet changed the day that test notebook showed up on my doorstep. The perception I grew up with further morphed when I received my Acer Chromebook yesterday.

I grew up and started using IBM/Ambra computers with Windows heavily around 1993, just as the internet was becoming consumer friendly courtesy of American Online. At that time everything was program driving; a program to get online, other chat programs, applications for spreadsheets, a compression program, etc. This became the norm. Every new computer bought would come with days of installs, uninstalls, and tweaks. The more you learned about computers and Windows the more you began to tweak settings to control the experience. This process over the years, often filled with problems, allowed me to learn a lot about computers and software.

The process became a welcomed challenge and part of the excitement when getting a new computer. Getting in there to see all the new things and perfecting your machine to run as fast and smooth as possible was fun. I realize this was not "fun" for many. Because computers were more expensive then, and with exponential growth being inherently slower in the early days, upgrading system hardware became part of the process as well. Adding an internal hard drive, wiring, RAM, video cards, and even changing the motherboard battery became common place.

The advent of economy priced laptops that do not need top of the line hardware for today's general user drastically change the field. Why update and upgrade hardware when I can just buy a new machine in under two years? I would assume a smaller amount of people growing up today, compared to when I did, have ever seen the inside of a computer. Software is all preinstalled now and has a much smoother and automated update processes because of always being online. Set it and forget!

Even with the advances in hardware and software there was still a need to spend a few hours with a new computer to confirm settings, perform baseline backups, remove unwanted software, tweak your startup, modify default services, etc. This time allowed you to bond with your machine. I went through this just last year when I picked up a new HP laptop. A bond is formed; you watch from the corner of your eye when other people use it and you update and tweak it insatiably.

Coinciding with my use of Windows machines this year I have been using the Cr-48 with Chrome OS. The use of the Chromebook and living in the cloud has drastically changed my computing behavior across all platforms. Perhaps this is Google's genius! When I use my Windows PC I now start the Chrome browser; that is it. I have no programs installed other than the ones needed for the computer to turn on; no Word, no Excel, no Instant Messenger, no Skype, no Spotify, no Outlook, etc. Everything I use is online and in "the cloud". The fact that the Chromebook changed my PC behavior is pretty powerful. You should have seen my face when Spotify finally came to the US and I learned I needed to install a program. An actually program on my computer? I was floored!

Everything is good right? Well... yes and no. When my the Acer came I fired it up, logged in, and I was done. All my settings, apps, and history where there. I was up and running in about two minutes. I felt a bit empty and no bond was formed with the device. The bond will form over time, but will not be the same. This is the future. It may be hard for my generation to switch over, but this is what the youngsters are growing up with today. Will they have the same real-life computer skills and thinking without going through the 90's? It is hard to tell.

I love Chrome OS and it does everything I need. The only true reason I have a Windows computer is because I work from home for my day job and the remote tools I need to use are not compatible with a Chromebook. I am not saying there is not a need for a full powered PC; there sure is for many things. Today, the average user can just buy a new Chromebook every year or two and have no need to tweak or install software and hardware. The same realizations are being made in conjunction with the iPad.

It's different out there!

Chrome Remote Desktop Extension, Speculation, And Foresight

Google and the Chromium Project have released the Chrome Remote Desktop BETA extension for Chrome. This initial test release is to show that the secure Chrome Remoting (Chromoting) technology that has been in development for over a year works, as well as to collect valuable feedback and information. You can currently use this extension to access another computer running Windows, Linux, Mac or Chrome OS through the Chrome browser over the public internet. As stated in the description and in the FAQ, the functionality to access your computer remotely will be coming soon.

The implications of this go far and wide. Having the ability to remotely access another person's computer is key to many tech support solutions such as Bomgar, Techinline, and TeamViewer. Bringing the access and software to the browser vastly simplifies things and lowers the cost. This also makes remotely helping a friend or family member a viable option. When the feature to access your own computer from outside the home goes live it will directly compete with GoToMyPC and LogMeIn. With the new Chrome Remoting extension and advances in Hangouts the online meeting services like WebEx and GoToMeeting could be challenged as well.

What future could all of these technologies lead to? The more we move to the cloud the less local processing power and storage is needed for the individual user. Of course "the cloud" just means that the data is on a physical server someplace else, but that server can be backed up and perform better than anything an individual user could provide. Imagine if our computer was hosted remotely and all we needed was a simple device to access it. The virtualization already used at the corporate level could be implemented for consumers. These systems are reminiscent of the old IBM mainframe and terminals, but we have come a long way since then. The screen you are looking at right now to read this could reside on a server and it would make no difference to you. For the majority of everyday users a virtual computer with inexpensive access point devices would mean greater flexibly and availability.

What do you think the future of computing looks like?

Viralheat For Chrome Shows Twitter Sentiment

Viralheat has launched a great Chrome extension that analyzes the sentiment of every Tweet. There is a lot you can use this for:

• You can go to a Twitterer's profile to measure if they are generally tweeting about happy or sad things. I am a pretty happy Tweeter with numbers of 71% positive, 9% negative, and 20% neutral.
• Search for a word to see how that topic in trending. Facebook is getting around 75% positive right now during their f8 conference.
• Reviewing hashtags allows you to drill down to a very specific term. #CERN has less than 45% of Tweets being positive; maybe because they seem to have proved Einstein wrong!

On every Tweet you will see an inline icon that says if it is positive, negative, or neutral and the percent of that sentiment. Along with the new information bar, that is collapsible, at the top of the page there are social buttons so that you can easily share interesting results. If you feel an individual result is incorrect you can click on the label in the Tweet and change it; they call this "Sentiment Training".

It is a very cool tool, but like any tool you need to ensure you understand how it is working to know you are getting accurate results. I found that because of Twitter's defaults some adjustments are needed to get truer information. Initially it only analyzes the first 20 visible Tweets. To get a larger data set I scroll down to get more "Total Tweets" to load. Twitter also defaults to give you the "Top" tweets for searches; changing that to "All" gives a more accurate reading. Doing those two things makes it more dependable.

Download it for Chrome and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Google By The Numbers

Today Google had their Q2 earnings call and Larry Page shared some impressive statistics about some of their products as well as incredible earnings (pdf) growth.


10,000,000 - People that have joined Google+

1,000,000,000 - Items shared and received each day on Google+

2,300,000 - +1 web button serves a day

550,000 - Android devices activated daily

160,000,000 - Chrome users

Your New Social Hub

Google+ is not only a new social network, it can also be turned in to your main social destination. With two new Chrome extensions you can access your Twitter stream with full functionality and your Facebook news feed with the ability to update your status. Both feeds are inserted in the page to allow seamless switching between all three.

EDIT: Some questions over the security of these extensions have emerged; proceed at own risk.

This format will come in real handy for people that are looking to transition away from Facebook and/or Twitter. There will be a transition period until most of your friends, family, and contacts make their way to G+. On the other hand, if you intend to maintain a presence on all three networks you can do that with ease using these extensions.

They are Google+Facebook and Google+Tweet. I have found it is best to install the Facebook one first and set it up, then install Twitter. (The Facebook extension is not an approved Chrome app; proceed with caution.)

Google+ Chrome Extensions

Google+ is out and I am enjoying it. They have done very well with Circles and redeemed themselves from the Buzz and Wave social attempts. Many Chrome extensions have emerged to enhance your experience:

Nuke Comments on Google+ - Delete a comment and block the commenter in two clicks. Take control of your Google+ experience.

CircleCount - The official Chrome extension of CircleCount.com - showing information about Google+ Profiles and Pages directly on Google+.

G+Twitter for Google Plus - Realtime Twitter client for Google+

Full Article+ - See full articles shared in Google+ and focus on the main clutter-free content. All without leaving the comfort of Google+

Quick Hangouts for Google+ - Adds a link underneath the 'Start a Hangout' button to join any active hangouts, in Google+ (Google Plus)

G+ Stream Pause - Pause your Google+ stream so you can take your time reading or watching videos posted

Uncircle+ - Remove inactive people from your Google+ circles

Google+ Notifications - Official Google extension to view notifications of Google+ activity when signed in, anywhere you go on the web

Google +1 Button - Official Google extension to +1 a web page, anywhere you go on the web

Publish sync for Google+ & Facebook - Provides two-way syncs Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk. It supports article, video, pictures and web links.

PinIt - Put a pin in your favourite post and add it to the sidebar in Google+

Circlestar for Google+ - Star posts in Google+ for later reference, just like you star emails in Gmail. (Does not sync across computers.)

Stationary Columns for Google+ - Keeps the Google Nav bar and side columns stationary.

Surplus - Brings your Google+ Notifications to the browser. This works great and is the best way to see your notifications as you browse.

Extended Share for Google Plus - Adds a "Send to ..." link next to the native Share link under a post. This will send a link to the post as found on your Google Profile to Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Helper for Google+ also has a Twitter share function.

Google+ - A simple bookmark. (Dial Google+ also does this.)

Notification Count for Google Plus - Extension for displaying unread notification count for Google Plus. This does not show you the notifications like Surplus does; just counts the unread ones.

Enhanced Toolbar for Google Plus - Keeps the top toolbar always visible on the Google+ page like G+Fix and Sticky+ Blackbar does.

Color Plus - An extension that replaces any Google Plus bar with green instead of black, or other colors.

Hide Google+ Notification - Takes the notifications out of the GooglePlus bar.

+Photo Zoom - Easily zoom photos and profile pics from your Google Plus Stream. Photo Viewer for Google+ is another option.

GTools+ - Change the default color (red) of the notification bubble, and other tools.

Google Plusbar (a bookmarklet) - Access to BBC News, Al Jazeera, Amazing Radio, Grooveshark, TWiT, and Pirillo seamlessly integrated into the top of your Google+ Stream.

Beautify G+ - Enhances the look of Google+ and allows you to +1 any website you are on.

G+ Count in Title - Places the G+ notification count in parenthesis in the document title located in the page tab.

Plus One Anything - Adds the ability to +1 most web pages. Google +1 provides the same functionality.

Helper for Google+ - Share Google+ Posts with people on twitter and translate posts with Google Translate.

Replies and more for Google+ - Adds reply and reply-to-author links, and other tweaks.

G+ Count Favicon - Replaces the favicon on plus.google.com with one that shows the current notification count.

QuickView for Google Plus - Adds QuickView style keyboard shortcuts for Google Plus.

Like+1 - Turns Like buttons into Like+1 buttons so you can Like and +1 at the same time.

g+ Stream Pruning - Hide certain posters from any of your streams (not blocking).

Google+Tweet - Your Twitter timeline inside G+. (Some questions over the security of this extension have emerged; proceed at own risk.)

Google+Facebook - Facebook's news feed inside G+. (Some questions over the security of this extension have emerged; proceed at own risk.)

Usability Boost for Google Plus - This extension will help you visualize the flow of informations on Google Plus.

Google+ Ultimate - Changes the look of G+ as well as making the top black bar and the left side bar float.

Google+ Tweaks - Tweaks to the layout and features of Google+ (Google "Plus") Full width, thumbnails only, etc.

Google+ Comments - Collapse comments on Google+ and just show a count under the original post.

GIF Stopper - Stops animated GIFs from running in G+ and other sites.

GPlus+ Search - Search Public GPlus Content

G+me for Google+ - Chrome extension that collapses the Google+ stream into a real-time dashboard

Google Plus Bar Minus - You can turn on/off the google bar



Check back for more as I will add them when more are created (or, delete if they become inactive). If you know of other extensions for Google+ please share in the comments. Enjoy +'ing!

(Last edited November 22, 2011)

7 Must Have Chrome Apps and Extensions

Below are what I consider the essential base of apps and extensions for the Chrome browser in no particular order. Depending on what you do and like there are many more that will improve your experience and efficiency; but, start with these.

Embedly - If you live on Twitter.com you can not live without this. Even though Twitter has been integrating more services that allow you to preview content this will take you to the next level.  Videos, audio, photos, posts, etc.; you will see it on without leaving the site.

WOT or Web of Trust - It is a simple extension that assists in keeping you away from harmful websites. Not 100% accurate, but it has saved me a couple times. I recommend to change the searching options to not display on search engines and other sites. It reduces its foot print and lets it do one simple task of warning and stopping you if you are on your way to a bad site.

Cloud Save - An excellent extension that allows you to right click on almost anything and save it to one of many cloud based services (full review). If you are on Chrome OS this is a must have.

Google Sidewiki - This was intended to be a social tool to let you leave comments on webpages for others to see. In my opinion it has failed in that regard, although it does have some use. What I use it for is my browsing history. If you install this and activate it all your browsing history will be sent  and saved to your Google account. Some may be scared of that, but I love it and have referred to it many times.

Secbrowsing - Ensures your browser plugins are up-to-date. Easy to use and out of the way when everything is good on your system.

Scratchpad - Write notes and reminders. The best part is that it will synchronize and save your notes on Google's servers so that you can access them from all your Chrome browsers.

TweetDeck - A social platform that brings in Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, and Foursquare. The interface and functionality are top notch.

Futz.me Chrome Extension Initial Impressions

Futz.me is a multi-channel communication and reminder tool that runs from the address bar. You can send texts, emails, Twitter messages, bookmarks, and many other options. Skimming the front page and the FAQ give you a real feel for what this service can do.

What strikes me as the bread and butter innovation is the Chrome extension that allows you to send a message to another user that pops up on their Chrome browser as a notification. You can message yourself to test it out or send me (dbin78) something.

It appears that testing is still in the very early stages. I do not see any user limits on the test so give it a try by signing up and downloading the Chrome extension. Their Twitter account is @Futzme. I believe this will be a hit with the tech crowd, but to get mainstream use a bit of a UI needs to be built and an option to reply on the extension notifications. They started the service in 2009 and this is a great next step for them.

Cloud Save for Chrome is a must have extension for Chrome OS

Cloud Save is a Chrome extension that allows you to, obviously, save to the cloud. You can bypass your hard drive completely, which is a much needed feature for Chrome OS and the Cr-48. Once you download it you will never let it go. You can upload directly to Picasa, Flickr, Google Docs, Dropbox, CloudApp, Box.net, Min.us, Droplr, Posterous, and TwitPic. Just right click on what you need to save and you will see the Cloud Save option. Google needs to get its creator on the payroll!

How Home Computing Has Changed And Where Google Is Taking It

As I think back to the IBM PS/2 my father brought home in 1990 thanks to an employee purchase program at his work. I can not help but think how things have changed. At that time computers were fixtures and investments purchased with years of service in mind. You would purchase a computer with the best features you could afford, usually spending thousands of dollars. This 5 year cycle is still ingrained in many buyers minds.

Flash forward to current day and and we are in a world of $600 laptops. You can buy a new one every two years and your overall cost would be lower than back in the day. You can keep up with all the needed software and hardware with ease. We are at a point in general everyday use consumer computing where you do not need to get the best of the best hardware. Software is also starting to be updated and enhanced consistently; the days of years between versions are going away. With the world of cloud computing, web apps, and offsite storage the home computer is becoming the window and not the processor. The laptop is also killing the desktop.

In a year or two the cost of a "computer" will be under $300. You will not even care about your hard drive size, RAM, or CPU processing power. As long as you can get online everything else will be taken care of. The heavy lifting and storage will be done on the server side with your device only acting as the window. Google's Cr-48 device running Chromium OS inclusive of the Chrome browser is driving this future.  The computer will have as high a turnover as your cell phone. almost disposable, allowing you to purchase a new one each year if needed.

General everyday home computers have changed and will continue to change. I like where we are headed.

Facebook Chrome Web Store App

The official Facebook Chrome Web Store app is out and taking names... well, not really. As of right now version 1 only directs you to a link with "ref=cws" so that they can track who comes their way from the app. It seems it should do something more considering that it could have deep integration into every webpage. Their Help Center does not even find a mention of the Chrome Web Store.

I will be waiting for the next version. At least for now I have a sweet Facebook icon on my new tab screen. Party.

Cr-48 Touchpad Mouse Tips

Three mouse tips to make your Google Chrome OS test of the Cr-48 more enjoyable.

• To right-click, instead of the two finger click (or tap), hold down alt and hard click.
• To scroll, instead of using two fingers at once, place the finger of one hand on the pad somewhere, and use a finger from the other hand to scroll.
• Turn off the tap-to-click in favor of hard click to avoid the frustration of accidental clicks. Hard clicking is easier at the bottom of the touchpad.

Or, you could just use an external mouse like I do on my Cr-48! :)

Cr-48

It has been a few days since I was happily surprised to get a Cr-48 from Google. They have done a great job as it does 80% of what I need (or, want) a computer for on a daily basis.

There is a lot of work to be done for it to be rolled out to the public. Although, it could still sell well if it is below a $300 price point. If it costs much more than that you would be better of picking up an HP Pavilion for around $600 or getting the Dell Vostro V130 for a little over $400 when on sale.

Chrome OS, or more generally, a cloud based system, is the future. If you have a Cr-48 be sure to use the Dev channel to use and test some more recent and experimental features and changes. The Chrome team acts fast on tickets and will surely continue to impress.