19 Jun 08 Behind Google's Chrome Intentions and Outcome…

We all want to know what Google is thinking and what their goal is with this Chrome browser.  Personally, I thought Google did a great thing by making it open source.  For god sakes, you can now basically create your own browser based on the Chromium and maybe even add your family album as Google gadgets plugin.  (or whatever)

The same thing can be said of Firefox, of which some companies have took advantage and even made a Web Browser-based SQL database browser called Kirix Strata. (It’s built on the Gecko, the open source engine behind Firefox.  You can find details here.)

By open-sourcing it, Google’s already ahead of the competitions like Microsoft while Mozilla is also open source and has been proving itself in the open-source world for years.

I think in 2-3 years, Google can easily blow the market away from everybody not because Chrome browser is awesome right now, but because it will be 5-10 times more awesome by then.  Knowing the number of people who work on the Google search engine as a mass collaboration of engineers to build a highly scalable search engine system, I think this Browser market is already in their hands as they have proved once before with GoogleMaps overtaking YahooMaps with its itsy bitsy pixel mapping technology . (although Yahoo now has the same technology, their maps are almost identical to Google except StreetView and some other features, which make GoogleMaps better.

We will keep a keen eye on how this all turns out, stay tuuuuned by subscribing to the blog! Tags:3 years, browser market, Chrome Rumors, chromium, competitions, firefox, gadgets, gecko, google, google search engine, itsy bitsy, keen eye, mapping technology, mozilla, open source world, scalable search, search engine system, strata, streetview, yahoomaps

19 Jun 08 Chrome Hack – How to change Bookmarklet Favicon Icons!

Here’s a cool Chrome Hack, it’s how to change your Bookmarklet Favicon Icons using a Windows SQL database browser and switching around some values.  It’s very interesting to note that the Chrome browser uses a local database within the program, thus making it more stable and scalable.  (I am not sure if the same thing is done with Firefox but I believe there’s a bunch of libraries that you need to know.)

This is a rather complex hack involving numbers so I will just wait until the Chrome adds automatic favicon recognition feature like Firefox.

But if you really want it NOW, you can click the via link below and knock yourself out.

I added quite a few bookmarklets to my Bookmarks bar and was unhappy with the same default icon that showed for each one. There are no settings currently available within Chrome to change the icon, but there is a way to fix them that works quite well.

via tech-recipes Tags:bookmarklets, database browser, default icon, favicon, firefox, Google Chrome Hacks, libraries, recipes

19 Jun 08 Google Chrome Short Hack – How to Backup History, Bookmarks with Google Chrome Backup!

, gHacks, Hack Page Tags:chromium, google, Google Chrome Hacks, hack page, personal data, profiles, web browser

19 Jun 08 Chrome Hack – How to Launch Google Chrome straight into Incognito Mode!

Here’s a simple Chrome hack that will allow you to launch Google Chrome straight into Incognito Mode:

If you would like an icon on your desktop to open straight into incognito mode create a new shortcut with this as the target “C:/ blah blah blah /chrome.exe -incognito”.

(Thanks Ryan for the tip!) Tags:google, Google Chrome Hacks, hack, incognito mode, target

17 Jun 08 Chrome Tips – Chrome Channel Switcher allows you to switch between Chrome beta and dev versions!

Tags:channel chooser, channel switcher, chrome tips, chromium, current release, google, Google Chrome Hacks, security flaw, service pack 1, stable releases

17 Jun 08 Chrome Hacked – Mac and Linux Google Chrome available!

Although not the official version of Google Chrome for Mac and Linux, the CrossOver Chromium is pretty much the Mac and Linux version of Google Chrome since it’s built on Chromium.

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. The Chromium codebase is the basis for Google’s Chrome browser.

Until Google officially releases their Linux/Mac versions, you can resort to downloading the CrossOver Chromium on your Mac and Linux.

via codeweavers Tags:chromium, codebase, crossover, google, Google Chrome Hacks, internet users, linux, linux mac, mac versions, open source, source browser

17 Jun 08 Chrome About Hack – How to retrieve DNS Prefetching Times!

Tags:bottom line, dns prefetch, dns prefetching, dns resolutions, domain names, google, Google Chrome Hacks, hack 1, host names, latency, omnibox, popularity, prefetching, search provider, startups, target domain, urls, variance, worst case

16 Jun 08 Chrome Hack – How to change User Agent String in Chrome!

Changing User Agent String with any browser is a useful hack that can be used to get free WiFi at Starbucks hotspots .

Here’s a real ghetto hack that involves changing the hex values of chrome.dll using a free hex editor.

Simply open the file and look for something like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.X.Y.Z Safari/525.13.

Then change to something like this or any other user agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543 Safari/419.3

The result is shown below where the browser will act like an iPhone Browser.

This might actually be useful for testing applications for the iPhone browser.  Of course, you can do it in Firefox too but Google Chrome browser is probably closer to the iPhone’s Safari browser since it’s based on the WebKit.

via labnol Tags:free hex editor, free wifi, gecko, ghetto, google, Google Chrome Hacks, hack, hex values, hotspots, iphone, khtml, mac os x, safari, starbucks, user agent string, webkit

14 Jun 08 Chrome Hack – HOWTO create your own Google Chrome Themes using Chromium Theme Creator!

Here’s how you can create your own Google Chrome Themes using the Chromium Theme Creator:

Download Chromium Theme Creator Here

With this tool, to build the themes\default.dll file is far from a click.
A rewrite from scratch has been done, because I’ve lost (or almost) my previous source code, now I’m working on another computer. Since my notebook has its LCD display’s backlight damaged I couldn’t reach the previous source code. However this new one is written for Lazarus compiler.

First and foremost -> Requirements:
GoRC.exe
- Authorship details inside the same theme file, now.
- Preview themes: This tool will show some images from the Theme file itself by dragging theme files and dropping over it in order to preview it and if you want you can replace default.dll in Chrome’s path and after that Launch it by clicking Apply button.

via chromespot Tags:angus johnson, authorship, backlight, dll file, freeserve, google, Google Chrome Hacks, hack, images, jeremy gordon, lazarus, lcd display, new features, open source, png image files, preview themes, reshacker, rewrite, scratch, source code

14 Jun 08 Google Chrome Comic is Viral Marketing at its Best!

Although you might get a laugh from the bastardized versions of Google Chrome Comic, the comic itself is a viral marketing feat at its best.

Why?

Well, take a look at this marketing strategy where a company sends out fake employee badges and fake company organization chart just to get the bloggers’ attention.  (I actually had chance to talk to one of the founders of the company at the Web2.0 show)

In a similar fashion, Google sends out their Chrome Comic Book to all types of bloggers, developers, and press people before you can even download the browser itself.

What happened after that is you know what.    (Yes, very badly bastardized versions of the comic indeed but the fire spread wildly through the blogsphere causing people like me to make a blog about the Chrome)

I think Google Chrome will keep going strong as long as the Chrome developers (Chromers) respond to wanted features and bugs quickly. Tags:bugs, Chrome Rumors, comic book, company organization chart, developers, employee badges, fashion, founders, google, laugh, marketing strategy, viral marketing, web2 0