Daily Bits

google chrome

Google Puts Chrome for Mac and Linux into Stable Beta Version

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Alright, Chrome browser users, here’s some good news from Google. The latest Chrome for Mac and Linux has been finally put into a stable beta mode and will be gradually rolled out to all Chrome for Mac and PC users. You know what it means when something comes out from being “unstable” to “stable” version, right? Well, it simply means that most often than not, the stable version is more reliable and has lesser bugs. Plus of course, tons of new features are also brought in.

For both versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux browsers, these features come in bunch. Generally these new features include – browser preferences synchronization in addition to the previous bookmark synchronization feature. Browser preferences include themes, homepage and startup settings, web content settings, preferred languages and even page zoom settings.  This means that once you’ve synchronized all these settings in one of your Chrome beta installation, you’d get the same settings in all your Chrome installations on various dekstop and laptops that you use.

In addition, the new Chrome beta release also enables each Chrome extensions to work in incognito mode. You can set this up via the Chrome extension manager.

The new Chrome beta release also incorporates HTML5 features including Geolocation API, App Cache, web sockets and file drag-and-drop.  You may want to see how HTML5 function by browsing websites developed in HTML5 such as http://scribd.com. You can also try dragging and dropping attachments in Gmail or enabling geolocation in Google Maps.

If you’re a Chrome for Mac user like me, you’d be glad to know that the latest version of Chrome beta now has full-screen mode and a powerful bookmark management feature. We’ve been wanting these features since Chrome for Mac was released and so the Google Chrome folks are finally giving it to us.

If you can’t wait for Chrome for Mac to be automatically updated, you may want to download it from this link.

Delicious is Alive, Goes to Chrome as an Extension

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Delicious, the social bookmarking site  has been pretty quiet for the past couple of months.  While the site is still alive and kicking nothing much has been heard from it for a long time now. No news, no updates and no new features, until now. And guess what’s keeping the Delicious folks busy? A Delicious Extension that sits right on your Google Chrome’s toolbar.

Yes folks, you read it right, Delicious a Yahoo property just got a new iteration as a Chrome extension.  Don’t get me wrong here, there’s nothing utterly incorrect about this. It’s just don’t I don’ t really expect Delicious to make its presence felt anew by way of Google Chrome extension.

Anyway, what does this early beta of  Delicious Chrome Extension has to offer? Pretty much actually. It lets you sync your Delicious bookmarks, get all your bookmarks right on the Chrome Omnibar,  bookmark a current page in just a click of the Delicious button and search your bookmarks right on the current Chrome tab you are viewing.

The Delicious Chrome Extension works pretty much the same way as other Chrome Extensions. But to guide you in using it properly, the Delicious team has prepared this guided tour.

And to install the Delicious Chrome Extension, just click this link. After installing you just need to register your Delicious account and you’re all set to go.

Google Chrome 4 Supports Greasemonkey Scripts

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If you’ve been using Google Chrome 4 as your web browser, you’ve probably installed several extensions right after it was launched recently. But if you feel like that currently available Google Chrome extensions is not enough, how’s 40,000 more extensions sound to you?

Yes, believe it or not there are around 40,000 new extensions which you can install/activate on your Chrome 4. Well, thanks to Greasemonkey user scripts which has just been supported by Chrome. If you’ve been using Firefox before, you’d know that these scripts lets you customize web pages through simple Javascripts

Actually the 40,000 extensions are basically the converted user scripts available on Greasemonkey before. And with Greasemonkey enabled, you can practically use these user scripts on your Chrome browser after it is converted into Chrome Extension.

Installing these  scripts is just like installing or activating the usual Chrome extensions. That means the process can be done easily.

Of course there’s caveat emptor here. These scripts are very powerful and even has full access to your data, so be cautious of what scripts your are going to activate. In addition, some Greasemonkey may not work with Google Chrome 4 just yet.

So there. To make Google Chrome 4 more fun and useful either you check out the extensions gallery or get more Greasemonkey scripts.