Luckily a new project called CrossOver Chromium could be a stop gap between Google Chrome and Mac and Linux users until any official version pops out.

CrossOver Chromium is a Mac and Linux port of the open source Google Chrome web browser created by CodeWeavers. But beware fellows, according to the devs, Google Chromium shouldn’t be run as the default browser on any of the systems as this project is just a proof of concept and besides that a natively supported Linux and Mac version might just be around the corner.

CrossOver Chromium on Mac OS X

CrossOver Chromium on Ubuntu Linux

CrossOver Chromium is available for Intel based Macs and Linux systems. Download links after the jump.

CrossOver Chromium

Love or hate it Google Chrome is really making headlines, be it the good or worse security features, speed and looks. Now welcome ChromiFox, a bright and soft blue theme for Firefox 3 which brings the looks and feel of Google Chrome to Firefox.

For users who love the Chrome interface but simply cannot live without Firefox, ChromiFox is the ultimate deal. But considering Firefox has millions of die hard followers it won’t be easy for Google Chorme to persue them to use there browser. Until then ChromiFox will tame your urge to move over to Chorme!

The theme is created by the developer of Camifox and is still in a BETA, so you’ll require to sign to download this addon.

It works on all platforms i.e. Windows, Mac and Linux.

Download ChromiFox

You’d already know Google Chrome’s incognito  mode is quite cool and less sophisticated than IE8’s InPrivate browsing and will be more then useful if you have multiple gmail or other accounts.

When you open a window in incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N), Chrome doesn’t saves your cookies like a standard session would, so you can easily log in to another Google account.

Chrome’s help center has more details about this feature. “Webpages that you open and files downloaded while you are incognito won’t be logged in your browsing and download histories; all new cookies are deleted after you close the incognito window. You can browse normally and in incognito mode at the same time by using separate windows.” Michael Jeffrey explains that “incognito mode is a window-level mode – all pages viewed within this window are not persisted to the user’s history, and incognito pages use a temporary cookie store that is blank at the start of the incognito session”.

When you close the incognito window, all the cookies will get deleted so you need to log in again the next time you browse in incognito mode. But hey you can only login twice at a time one in the standard window and other in the incognito mode.

As you would have already came across the latest attempt at world domination by Google, Chrome! These latest browser from Google has some great new features,Incognito being one of them. Which is similar to the InPrivate sand-boxing mode in IE8, also known by us geeks as the infamous porn mode, which doesn’t saves any information related to your browsing will be saved in your computer.

How To Browse Privately In Google Chrome

If you would like to know how to browse privately in Chrome, follow the steps below.

1. Open Chrome

2. Press the page button (menu) next to the address bar.

3. Select “new incognito window” from the menu

A new window will popup in incognito mode which will you to browse the web privately and while not storing any browsing history or information on your computer.

Alternatively, you can also access this quickly by using a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + N ]]> http://www.techocrunch.com/how-to-browse-privately-in-google-chrome/feed/ 0 http://www.techocrunch.com/5-great-applications-to-get-over-distraction-while-working/ http://www.techocrunch.com/5-great-applications-to-get-over-distraction-while-working/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:08:15 +0000 Pranjal http://www.techocrunch.com/?p=41

Distraction is something evident with almost everybody. Especially people working over the internet, bloggers, writers, journalist can get distracted easily with latest and great of the social media, feeds, emails, IM and almost all flashy desktop softwares.

Recently i did a topic on how to efficiently save time, and improve productivity. But you won’t be productive until you pull the plug or apply some drastic measures to reduce distraction.

Here are 5 ways to help block distractions while going through your work.

1. Limit Time-Wasting Web Sites with LeechBlock (Firefox)

With Leechblock you can block all your addictive websites.You can specify the time periods and its GUI interface is pretty good. If you are an ace blogger but get easily distracted with the social stuffs, leechblock is your buddy! After from that LeechBlock is free, works wherever Firefox does.

2. Configure Your IM to “Invisible”

The best way to avoid distractions while working is to make your IM status “invisible”, with little settings changes you can easily focus on the task at hand. It’s always best to shut of IM like gtalk, yahoo, while working.

3. Avoiding, Spam, useless messages with Mailwasher

MailWasher Free blocks spam with any email client, well most of them do the same, but Mailwasher is a tad different. Rather than blocking spam after you download it, it checks mail on your server before downloading them to your email client. After that you can see what you’ve got waiting and tell the program to kill what you consider spam, and let the rest through. The program also lets you create blacklists and filters, so that it will automatically detect and kill spam. A must have detraction buster.

4. Minimize Your Word Processor

Microsoft Word’s toolbar is bloated with unnecessary applications and things that your wouldn’t use atleast in this life. Try removing unnecessary items or try a stripped-down, word processor alternative like Writeroom for Mac or Darkroom for Windows.

5. Minimize Unused Windows with Swept Away(Windows)

With Swept Away let your computer automatically do the work of minimizing applications that you aren’t using. You can set amount of time, after which Swept Away will quietly minimizes background windows so you can focus on the one you are working on. For Mac Geeks you can try SpiritedAway.

Do you think I missed something. Apparently I’m not the best googler around. If you have any better application feel free to comment.

If you really liked this article, please bookmark it in del.icio.us or Stumbleit . Thanks!

 As you would know Gmail is of the most coolest and useful web based email. I’m sure most of the gmail geeks atleast have two Gmail accounts for different purposes. But managing multiple accounts at once is kinda tough.

Here is where GMail Manager an extension for your favorite browser Firefox does the dirty job. Gmail Manager helps you manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications and displays them.

GMail Manager is a Firefox plugin that helps you manage different Gmail accounts in the same Firefox window. The extension lets you receive email notifications, and display your account details which includes unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets etc.

Its pretty straight forward once you installed the extension. Upon receiving a new email , simply click on the Gmail icon on the status bar and you’ll be taken directly to your email account- the most coolest part is that you don’t need to enter our username and password each time for accessing the different. The plugin will automatically instruct Firefox to login to that particular account. The extension is highly customizable – you can show unread message counts in all labels or just the Inbox, and in the case of multiple accounts, set it to automatically switch to the one with new mail.

I’m having this in my must have lists what about you.

Gmail Manager

 An extensive list of gmail tools, scripts and addons compiled to really jazz up your favorite email app “Gmail”.

• Official Gmail Notifier from Google - Downloadable Windows/Mac application that alerts you when you have new Gmail messages.
• GMNotifier – More configurable notifier based on .NET (Via here)
• GTray – Another configurable Windows notifier includes XP welcome screen integration
• Google Toolbar with Gmail search – Official IE toolbar featuring one-click Gmail search
• Gmail Search Extension – Search your Gmail account from the Firefox search bar
• Gmail Tray – A search box for the Windows taskbar
• Gmail Notifier – Firefox extension, installs an icon on your toolbar that displays the amount of new messages in your inbox (previous post)
• Gmail-to – Associate all mailto: links with Gmail as opposed to Outlook
• Gmail-to Bookmarklet – Compose messages from your Gmail account from any page (previous post)
• Gmailit – Bookmarklet to send the current page you’re viewing to someone through Gmail
• GMail Loader (GML) – Cross platform application forwards your existing email to Gmail
• Gmail Address Book Exporter – Requires Java (via here)
• Pop Goes the GMail – Gmail > POP3 converter (obsolete)
• gExodus – Graphical user interface tool allows you to import your emails into your Gmail account.
• gCount – a menu bar item for Mac OS X 10.3 or later that displays the number of unread messages in the inbox (Via Google Blogoscoped)
• GMail, RSS Feeds – .php script to retrieve notifications of new mail through RSS
• Adding Gmail Inbox to your News Reader – Receive new emails in your RSS reader with the Atom feed (Caution: this is not very secure)
• Gmail as online backup system – .php script to back up files to Gmail and retrieve them
• GFile – Easily installed front end script for ‘Gmail as online backup system’ (Recommended by Evan White)
• Gmail in Opera – Use Gmail with the Opera browser, which currently is unsupported (Opera is now supported with the basic HTML view option)
• PINE Addressbook to Gmail – Export addressbook in CSV format from PINE to Gmail. Via here
• GmailFS – Gmail Filesystem – GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium. (Via Scripting.com)
• GMail Drive Shell Extension – Enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer.
• G2G Share – Service that indexes the files in your Gmail account and makes them available for public sharing
• GSuite – Lets you access and use Gmail from a mini-browser in the system tray
• GmailStatus – Shows the number of unread messages in the Mac OSX menubar
• gmail copy – Command line utility to copy files to and from gmail (Via del.icio.us)
• GMailer (libgmailer) – A PHP library/class that helps you accessing/checking/using GMail through PHP scripts. (A blog that uses this to convert Gmail messages into the blog posts)
• Goollery – Uses libgmailer to make a photo gallery from a Gmail account: example (Via AimlessWords.com)
• Gmail icon generator – Create an image of your Gmail address to minimize spam exposure (Via here)
• [PHP] Gmail Invite Sig – Displays your currently remaining Gmail invites in a PNG image (Via ResearchBuzz.org)
• Gmail Image Viewer (beta) – IE addon that displays image attachments inline
• Gmail Agent API – Open Source extensible foundation for interfacing with Gmail. Written for .NET framework
• GMail API for Java – Allows Java programmer to communicate to GMail (Via comments)
• Google Talk – Slimline Instant Messenger from Google uses your Gmail contacts for the friends list. Also acts as a Gmail notifier
• You’ve Got Gmail – Gmail Notifier for Trillian Messenger Pro (Via Metafilter.com)
• Gmail IM Logger for Trillian Pro – Log Trillian IM Conversations to Gmail
• Gmail Mobile by Google – Check your Gmail messages for free on any phone with a web-browser by pointing it at http://m.gmail.com
• Gmail on Sony PSP – Official PSP browser capable of displaying Gmail Mobile
• Gmail-Mobile (unofficial) – Use Gmail from a WAP enabled device with .php (Via here)
• Gmail Gems – Tips and Tricks to use Gmail more efficiently
• Picasa integration – use Picasa to easily attach and send photos from your Gmail account
• Larry’s Gmail Indexer – Plugin to index your GMail messages in Google Desktop Search (this functionality is included by default in Google Desktop 2)
• Use Gmail in the Google Deskbar mini-browser
• Gmail as a journal – use Gmail as a repository of personal information categorized by Gmail labels
• Gmail Delete Button – Add a one-click delete button to the Gmail interface (Firefox only, requires Greasemonkey)
• Save searches in Gmail – Again, Firefox only, requires Greasemonkey
• Skin Gmail – Use a custom stylesheet in Firefox to skin Gmail (Via Furl)
• Disable Gmail Ads (Firefox) – Use custom css to remove Gmail ads in Firefox (Via A Welsh View)
• Using Gmail as a Spam Filter – (Via iBLOGthere4iM)
• Unread Gmail – Create a label called “Unread”, Gmail will automatically add all unread items to it (Via Gmail Wiki)

Greasemonkey Scripts

• Gmail Super Clean – clean and distraction-free gmail. Looks great, check it out here
• Gmail Spam-count Hide – hides spam count link
• GMail Attachment Icons – adds attachment icons to emails, letting you see what kind of attachment an email has (HTML, JPG, PDF….) ‘Attachment icons’ isn’t a standard greasemonkey script, it’s an addon for a similar Firefox extension known as Stylish. However, installing it on greasemonkey should be fine as well]
• Google Reader Integration – integrates Google Reader into Gmail. Highly Recommended (demo)
• GmailTo – forces all ‘mailto’ links to open in GMail
• Saved Searches – lets you create ’saved searches’(aka smart folders) and display them in the separate box in the navigation menu. Clicking on a search executes the saved query. Demo
• Conversation Preview – handy addon that lets you quickly preview message contents right from the main inbox window. See demo below
• Google Calendar Integration – integrates Google Calendar agenda into Gmail. Demo
• Label Colors – lets you color menu labels to make them stand out better. Demo
• Gmail Macros – adds extra keyboard shortcuts to Gmail (i.e. “t” for move to trash, “r” for mark as read, “p” for mark as read and add to archive…etc). Read more
• SSLGoogle – force google mail, docs and cal pages and their intra-links to a secure connection (HTTPS)
• Gmail Encrypt – encrypts outgoing emails
• Gmail Date Search – adds a Search by Date button to Gmail’s search form
• Gmail Signature Float – moves your mail signature to the top of the message rather than the bottom

Firefox Addons

• Gspace – multi-platform firefox addon that turns your gmail account into powerful online storage tool
• Gmail Search Extension – search your gmail account directly from the firefox search bar
• GcalQuickTab – toggle between gmail and google calendar with keyboard shortcuts
• GTDInbox – turns your account into flexible and feature-loaded ToDo-management service (GTD = Getting Things Done)
• GMail Manager – manage multiple GMail accounts right from your browser
• DragDropUpload – this handy extension lets you quickly attach one or more files to your emails by dragging them over the “Attach a file” link
• CustomizeGoogle – removes ads, switches you from http to https, hides the spam counter, quick contacts box, invite box and forces fixed font
• Better Gmail – integrates bunch of cool features, i.e. attachment icons, attachment Reminder, mail preview, filter assistant, label colors, macros, and saved searches
• GmailSkinz – powerful firefox addon with lots of cool features: (Note: some users reported having problems with this addon), change the colour of your inbox(from green to dark green), view weather, google calendar and news headlines along side your emails, integrate any Google IG module to sidebar menu(Awesome), insert images from your Picasa web album in to emails, insert smileys, change the attachment paperclip to an icon indicating the type of attachment, make the navigation (Inbox, Starred, Sent Mail, etc) horizontal, hide various page elements (invite panel, page footer and your email address from the top right of inbox). Complete integration with Gmail: addon settings can be changed directly from the Gmail settings page.

• Google Toolbar with Gmail search – Official Google toolbar featuring one-click Gmail search
• E-Mail Notifier Toolbar | Gmail Notifier – as titles say says it notifiys you of new emails.

Desktop Applications

• GmailDrive (Windows) – adds a new virtual drive(’Gmail Drive’) to ‘My Computer‘ folder and uses gmail as its storage medium. Drag’n drop files Gmail Drive and it will store them on your gmail account as if on additional hard drive. More on GmailDrive
• gDisk (Mac) – similar to above mentioned GmailDrive but for Mac users
• Gmail ToDo – handy desktop application that stores entered todo’s in a todo label on gmail
• Desktop Notifiers: GMail Notifier(official release from Google), GTray (Win XP), GCount (Mac), Gmail+Growl 2.0 (GmailNotifier addon that lets you further customize ‘new mail’ alerts)
• GMail for Mobile – access gmail from your mobile
• GmailFS – mountable Linux filesystem which uses Gmail as its storage medium
• Google Talk – Google’s IM service which is fully integrable with GMail
• You’ve Got Gmail – Gmail plugin for Trillian IM client
• more notifiers: KCheckGmail(Linux), Notifier2(Win)

Thanks to Robs Blog and MakeUseOf.com

Actually Google already offers this update service in Orkut and Picasa web albums. Besides this recently Google Feed Reader has recently started to displaying shared items from your Google Talk contacts. But i don’t get it why we need more of these lousy services that do nothing then cluttering your workspace.

For more check out the Google Operating System Blog.

The Gmail updates will probably gather all this information, merge it with recent activities from other Google services and display it in a continous stream, similar to Facebook’s newsfeed.