If you were one of the three million people who watched Google’s Gmail Blue video yesterday and found yourself wondering just how horrible it’d be if it weren’t, you know, a joke — you’re in luck!

Thrown together overnight by developer Shon Dalezman, the aptly named “Gmail Blue” extension takes every terrible detail from the video (embedded below for good measure) and brings it to life. The “Compose” button? Blue. The word “Compose”? Blue. Underline? Blue!

Yeah, yeah — it’s just a quick CSS hack applied to any detected instance of Gmail, but imagine all the jealous looks… sympathy… hipster cred* you’ll get from your friends and colleagues when they find out that you actually have Gmail Blue!

Now, if someone could go ahead and make a Google Nose extension that actually makes my laptop emit scents, that’d be great. Come on. It’s like 2 lines of code. cough.

[* fact: hipster cred is an accepted currency in most major West Coast cities.]

[Pro tip: If you install this and find yourself hating the world thirty seconds later, just go to chrome://extensions/ in Chrome and uncheck the "Enabled" box next to the extension]

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Verrrrry interesting. Last week, amid the Google Reader fallout, we noticed that Google had removed its RSS Subscription Chrome browser extension from the Chrome Web Store. While the move was not as high-profile as the Google Reader shutdown, it spoke more broadly of Google’s intentions towards the RSS format itself – that is, maybe the search giant was ready to distance itself from the technology altogether? But now, that extension is back.

For background, the extension in question had previously placed a small, orange RSS icon next the website’s URL in Chrome’s address bar, allowing users an easy way to subscribe to a site’s feed. But that extension disappeared last week, after being removed from the Web Store.

According to the extension’s author, Finnur Thorarinsson, the extension was “deleted by mistake.” CNET was the first to notice the extension’s resurrection, from what we’re seeing.

Thorarinsson made his comments on a thread on the Chromium project’s issue tracker, in response to a user’s comment about the extension being shut down, given how closely tied it was to Google Reader.

The extension’s creator notes that his add-on wasn’t necessarily tied to Google Reader per se, because it did allow users to pick which feed reading service they wanted to utilize. However, he adds, “I’ve now removed the Google Reader option for new users to prevent them from getting hooked on Reader and then be disappointed in a few months time.” However, for current Google Reader users, the option remains.

Thorarinsson also urges people to use the official extension instead of the clones available now in the Chrome Web Store as some of those were copied long ago and may be out of date, while others might be vulnerable to security issues.

We reached out to Thorarinsson for additional information about the removal – specifically how was it that the extension came to be removed “by mistake,” but he declined to provide further comment.

Perhaps the mistake was that Google thought no one would notice?

For what it’s worth, Thorarinsson concluded his post by saying that he sympathized with those upset over the Google Reader shutdown. “I’m an avid user of Google Reader and am pretty unhappy about the Reader situation as well,” he said.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

If you’ve ever gone “deep” into the nastiness that the YouTube commenting section can be, then you know that it’s not a pretty place. Depending on the type of content you’re visiting, fights will break out, mothers will be dragged into the conversation and it’s just not fun to be around. Who are we kidding? No matter what type of content it is, a YouTube commenter troll or 10 will say something nasty to start a feud.

Today, a tipster sent us a browser extension called YuleTube and it works on Safari, Chrome and Firefox. What it does is turn naughty comments into nice ones. With precision and hilarity. Sorry, Internet Explorer users, you’re fucked not included.

Once you install the extension, all of the filthy words that appear in comments will be replaced with Holiday-themed ones that are much nicer, and thus funnier.

I implore you to install this extension if you use YouTube. Happy Holidays.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Some of my friends are idiots. And by idiots, I mean they disagree with me about who should win the upcoming election. What’s worse, is that they continually post these erroneous opinions of theirs to Facebook, and back them up with statements which I can thoroughly debunk via Politifact. C’mon people, fact-check yourself! The thing is, I don’t have time to engage in inane political discussions on Facebook. They don’t change anyone’s mind, and only serve to turn people against each other. They’re not worth my time.

Thankfully, there’s a new Chrome extension that will help get me through this political season: noppl, which stands for “no politics please.” The Chrome extension, also available as a bookmarklet for other browsers, lets you completely hide unwanted political posts from Facebook.

Noppl is a fairly bare bones effort, but it’s simple and it works. After installation, you just click the button and enter in the words you want to block. The extension has helpfully pre-filled in some suggestions for you, like “romney, paul ryan, obama, biden, election.” Of course, this setup means that you can also use it to block any unwanted content from Facebook, based on keywords. But I’m not sure why you would want to do that – after all, we already have Unbaby.me, right?

I didn’t care for Unbaby.me, since it’s somewhat mean-spirited. Your friends are having babies, and you just can’t stand to see the accompanying pictures? Then why are you friends with these people? But politics is another matter. I’m actually capable (OK, I try) of being friends with people who share differing views on the economy, government, taxes, etc., but I don’t really want my News Feed filled with these opinions, causing me to miss out on…well, you know…the important stuff on Facebook, like new and ending relationships, vacation photos, events and parties, and yeah, all those baby pictures.

Noppl was thought up by Kevin Faul, who had it built as a side project not related to his day job as VP of Product Management at RealD. “I’m not against politics,” Faul told me. “I just don’t want to be bombarded with political posts while on Facebook, and it turns out other people don’t either.” Noppl is his idea, but because he’s not a programmer, he had the folks at Agile Consulting build the extension for him, which is why the company is also credited on the noppl website. Faul says that the extension has actually been out for a few weeks, but he kept quiet about it because it still had a few bugs. Now, it’s ready to go, and you can grab it here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

One of the pieces of functionality that Google+ provides is the ability to share your location with your circles. It’s pretty handy when you’re using Google+ from a mobile device.  The way that the location is displayed isn’t anything to write home about, so a former Google intern took it upon himself to write a Chrome extension that brings locations to life in Google+.

The intern, Martin Matysiak, has finished up at Google, but that didn’t stop him from moving his pet project forward. It’s called “Dynamic Maps for Google+” and it’s a quick install for those of you that use Google’s Chrome browser.

Here’s what Matysiak shared about the project:

One thing I was working on during my internship at Google was a beautiful new look for Checkins. The extension I now made* takes map images shown in such Checkins and replaces them by an actual map which you can zoom and drag around!

This extension is a result of me playing around and experimenting with code hosting on Google Code (which is pretty nice!). The extension is extremely lightweight and easy to use. Just hover the Checkin Map and a real map will be shown.

As it stands, when you view someone’s check-in on Google+, you’re shown a static map with no ability to zoom around to get a closer look. This extension solves that. Here’s a look at a Google+ location check-in with the extension installed:

People will use a feature if it gives them all of the functionality that they’re used to. I’m honestly surprised that this hasn’t been officially implemented by the Google+ team already, but hey, that’s the power of browser extensions for you. It’s very likely that someone over at the Googleplex will see this and get it in the product pipeline immediately.

Until then, give it an install.

[Image source: Flickr]

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

A developer known by the nickname of welder has just released CLMapper, a Chrome extension reminiscent of PadMapper. When that extension is installed, you see a map view on the right side while browsing apartment and housing postings on Craigslist. In other words, the developer found a workaround to provide the PadMapper experience without the legal issues that have been troubling the service.

Indeed, when it comes to displaying Craigslist listings on a map, CLMapper and PadMapper use two completely different methods. PadMapper used to index Craigslist posts on its server in order to display them on a map using Google Maps API while CLMapper is a client-side Chrome extension. It means that when you visit craigslist.org, your browser executes some JavaScript on your computer to add a map with all the listings using Google Maps API. So in addition to displaying the map on Craigslist’s website, no server is needed to make it work. All you have to do is install the extension and you won’t rely on any third-party service.

In June, PadMapper received a cease-and-desist from Craigslist because it was using Craigslist’s valuable data without the consent of the listing site. Yet, PadMapper found a workaround to get Craigslist postings by partnering with 3taps. However, as users have noticed lately, PadMapper is inconsistently updated with Craigslist data. The new terms that were deployed this morning and the lawsuit against PadMapper are probably the reasons behind that new outcome.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

When New York-based SiteSimon first emerged from Entrepreneur Roundtable’s accelerator program last year, it was as a social browsing tool that aimed to automate the process of finding and discovering personally relevant content on the Web — not unlike StumbleUpon. A good idea, to be sure, but co-founder Steven Gutentag tells us that, in fact, users were less interested in new destinations than they were in finding better ways to filter and discover content from sites they’re already visiting.

The team listened to its users and is today announcing a pivot and re-launch of SiteSimon, which sees the startup turning its full attention to the browser. SiteSimon is, for now at least, a Chrome extension that seeks to transform your browser into an intelligent assistant, locating the content that it has deduced will be most relevant to you — in near realtime, within whatever site you happen to be visiting.

Right now, SiteSimon is Chrome-only, and Gutentag tells us that the team is focused on building an awesome product, focusing on Chrome due to its traction among early adopters and its (comparatively) stellar developer tools. The team wants to build comparable add-ons for Firefox and Safari, but only if and when the Chrome extension is in fighting shape.

So how does it work? The extension integrates with Chrome and crawls your browsing history, learning as it goes, identifying patterns in your clicks, and directs you right to the content it thinks you would find interesting and relevant. “We are trying to create an interest graph for the user,” Gutentag says, in that, as you surf through TechCrunch content, for example, SiteSimon pulls in data as pages load, parsing data and analyzing metadata, titles, and keywords, before serving you relevant suggestions.

These relevant suggestions appear in a sliding sidebar — and this is what’s really cool — the team is trying to reduce the annoyance factor, so that it will only make recommendations if it has ones it thinks you’ll like. If there aren’t any good recommendations, the sidebar won’t appear on the site. If you click on its recommendations, the extension gets smarter.

And, for those who have recently cleared their browsing history, you can import your history from Chrome and set SiteSimon on its way. Generally speaking, it only takes a few minutes before its recommending you content, although there are exceptions, something the team is working on.

Of course, news sites tend to be far richer when it comes to metadata, which means that it’s recommendations really shine on content sites, blogs, and the like, but it still works for others, like Yelp and YouTube, for example. As its powered by learning algorithms, SiteSimon tends to work better if you have a lengthy browsing history. I do on Chrome, and it’s been working like a charm.

Some might say that it’s not worth spending the time it takes to train the extension what you like and what you don’t like, but that’s the thing, once you download the extension, it lives in the background and gets smarter just by hoovering up all the activity from your browser. It analyzes keywords and patterns in your browsing, the frequency, how long you spend on the site, and then offers three recommendations for you — no categories, no overloading you, just the three best recs.

You can think of it like the personalized results TechCrunch had in its side bar alongside Trending Posts for awhile, or for those who’ve visited Business Insider, a less annoying version of those pop-up recommendations that appear at the bottom of the page. The team likens it to an intelligent personal assistant for your browser.

And considering Google and others are busy collecting and using your history for their own purposes, whether nefariously or not, SiteSimon wants you to take back control of your browsing data, insofar as that goes. And, to that point, Gutentag stresses the fact that the extension “discreetly” analyzes your browsing patterns — just as any app or extension that pokes around in your browsing history should.

While it may sound creepy, the service is completely secure, 100 percent private, and automatically turns off on any personal sites. Once you’ve signed up for a free account, you can go to “Settings” and type in the sites you don’t want SiteSimon touching, although it already filters out all “https” secure domains and adult content.

Again, the extension is still in the early phases, but the concept is appealing. If you’re on a large content site, like TC or ESPN, it’ll recommend new articles, or if you’re on Yelp or Seamless, new restaurants. Best Buy … products. Brands and sites, if they’re paying attention, could get behind the idea, because it doesn’t take you off site, it finds what you want and personalizes your experience once you get there.

In my eyes, Google is already using bits and pieces of your Chrome activity to personalize your experience, some transparently, and some likely not. So, if you’re going to have all this data sitting there collecting, why not have a relatively noninvasive, smart recommendation tool that travels with you as you go?

At this point, SiteSimon isn’t focused on monetizing, just on building its user base and honing its technology. But, in the end, this is the type of tool that every browser could benefit from integrating right out of the box, and you can see why that’s in the back of Gutentag’s head. Right now, it still has a ways to go before it’s ready. It needs to offer an easier way to shuffle recommendations. If it keeps serving the same three, press a button and move on. Makes sense, right? And learning can be slow. It’s still evolving, but the concept here is sound, and with some help, this could be a really valuable tool.

Last year, SiteSimon raised $500K from angel investors, which included contributions from Ken Cron, the former CEO of Vivendi Universal Games and former president of CMP Media, John Ason, an early investor in Diapers.com, Ology.com, and Hotlist.com, as well as Vault.com and Zeel co-founder Samer Hamadeh. The startup will likely begin going after more capital this summer.

What do you think?

For more, check out SiteSimon at home here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google started rolling out its new user interface for Gmail late last year. Soon, Google will migrate even those users who have, until now, resisted this change to the new design. Not everybody is in love with the new design, of course, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that a little cottage industry of new Gmail enhancement tools has cropped up over the last few months. Thanks to browser extensions like Gmelius, which came out of beta today, you can reclaim some of your sanity – and screen estate – once you switch over to the new design. Among Gmelius’ most useful features are the ability to customize Gmail’s navigation icons to show both text and icons, for example, as well as tools to remove Google’s people widget and Google chat from your inbox. Gmelius is available for Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

If you have friends or colleagues who like to write their emails in Comic Sans, you can also tell Gmelius’ to homogenize the look and feel of all your incoming messages based on the default Gmail settings.

Other useful changes Gmelius makes to your Gmail inbox include the ability to pin a link to Google Voice to the top navigation bar and add subtle row highlights when you mouse over your emails. In addition, you can use the tool to remove all ads from Gmail.

One nice aspect of the extension is that you can choose which one of these features you would like to turn on or off. You can download the extension here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

CloudMagic, the personal search service that indexes your Gmail, documents, contacts, calendar and Twitter updates, is now available as a mobile app. The release follows a major update for the service this past fall, which added the ability to search Twitter and a move to host your personal index in the cloud.

This switch is what enables CloudMagic to work across multiple devices, including now, iPhone and Android smartphones. Using the new mobile app, CloudMagic is surprisingly fast – and far more useful than the phones’ built-in search functions alone.

We first looked at CloudMagic back in summer 2010 when the startup made its debut as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that indexed your Gmail and Google Apps. The extension is still around, if you want it, but is not required for the service to work. Instead, you can simply connect your accounts (Gmail, Google Docs, Google’s Contacts and Calendar, and Twitter) using OAuth. If you choose to use the extension, however, you’ll also have access to a CloudMagic search box you can access within Gmail or Twitter.

Using the search box is fast, and helpful in the way it aggregates and organizes the data. I like using the extension in Gmail better – in Twitter, it feels a little more in the way due to its placement. And while Gmail’s search is already very good, CloudMagic is helpful in that you can remain in your inbox, or even with an email open, in order to search. (Gmail’s search makes you navigate away from what you’re doing to a standalone search page to see your results.)

But even though Gmail’s native search is OK on the desktop, on phones, that’s another matter. Email search there is far more broken.

Email search on the iPhone, for example, only lets you search by “From,” “To,” “Subject” and “All.” CloudMagic, on the other hand, allows you to search for names, a company name, a phrase you remember from a tweet or anything else. It also supports the use of the advanced search operators listed here.

So now, for example, you can search for “filename:pdf” on your mobile to find all emails that have a PDF attached. Handy.

The app is also really, really, really, fast. It felt more like using the iPhone’s Spotlight Search feature than some cloud-hosted thing. (Hopefully that will remain the case after everyone signs up all at once!)

CloudMagic, which competes with Greplin, still needs to integrate more services to be competitive. Greplin already includes Twitter, and it offers Facebook, Tumblr, Dropbox, LinkedIn, and Google Reader, too. But it’s still good to see some competition in the desperately under-served, on-device mobile search market. Yes, that’s a thing. A thing we need!

You can grab the updated CloudMagic iPhone and Android apps from their respective app stores if you want to give it a go.

The service comes from the same folks who brought you IssueBurner, the combo task management/helpdesk solution for small teams.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

fPrivacy is a Chrome plugin that lets you granularly opt out of stalker-esque Facebook app permissions like “Post to my wall” or “Access profile info” whenever the app authorization dialog appears. Woohoo!

Creator Chad Selph made the extension because Facebook apps have been too grabby for far too long — taking an all or nothing approach to permissions.

fPrivacy sets those gladhandling apps straight by allowing you to specify which permissions you want to allow versus which you’d like to block. And the best thing about fPrivacy is that I helped Selph come up with the logo/name — Come on, think about it …

Said Selph somewhere in the process, “Someone from github suggested Defangbook which I also like, because then the logo could have fangs. I kind of feel like it might be too cutesy or clever or something though. I’m about 82% convinced on fPrivacy.”

I’m 100% convinced, Chad. fPrivacy for President. fPrivacy, for when you don’t want some shadyass Facebook app posting to your wall, but you still want to read your Biotrend Horoscope or whatever.

This post is epic, I know. Please leave your thoughtful feedback in the comments.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch