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

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

05 Jun 08 Number One Reason I still use Firefox over Chrome!

(Image Credit: firefox10.com)

Here’s the number one reason I still use Firefox over Chrome:

Firefox Plugins.  I have to admit, without Firefox Plugins, I cannot use my Del.icio.us (fast enough), I cannot get my Toolbars, etc…etc…

One thing I do really wish was that Chrome had been based on Gecko instead of WebKit.  That way, all my Firefox plugins would work in Chrome (and vice-versa).  Maybe someone will figure out a way to hack it though. (and we are here 24/7 to cover that so please subscribe to our blog!)

What’s your reasons for still using Firefox?

Leave in thoughts in Comments section. (For ideas, check out this post on CNET) Tags:blog, Chrome Rumors, comments section, firefox plugins, gecko, image credit, one thing, toolbars, webkit

03 Jun 08 Why did Google name their Browser "Chrome"?

If you are wondering why Google named their browser, “Chrome”, here’s my opinion.

First Hint

At the first sight of Google “Chrome”, I thought it was basically a modified version of Firefox, based on the same open-source Gecko engine used by Firefox.

Another Hint

Another hint was that the default GUI theme is called, “Chrome” for Firefox.  (As a Firefox extension developer who have developed the SiteHoppin Toolbar for Firefox, I can contest that Chrome has always been a widely used term for Firefox programmers.)

Proof

If you don’t believe me, take a look at this directory (H:\Documents and Settings\max\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xdorv70b.default) in your Windows system file where you should rename “max” to your Windows user name and xdorv70b.default would be something-similar.default.

If you open up extensions directory from there and open up any of the directories inside it, (each folder is a Firefox extension) you will probably notice that almost every Firefox extension uses a file called, chrome.manifest.  (Yes, even file names with “Chrome” in Firefox)

To sum it up, I am not saying Google Chrome was taken from Firefox but only that “Chrome” has always been widely known among the Firefox Development crowd.

Coincidence or not, you be the judge. Tags:application data, coincidence, crowd, documents and settings, firefox extension, gecko, google, Google Chrome Hacks, modified version, open source, profiles, programmers, windows system, windows user