SAN FRANCISCO — What if nearly everything you usually keep on your computer – photos, documents, music and software – was stored online? Your machine would be speedier and perhaps less vital because you could simply use another machine to recoup your digital life should you lose your laptop.

This premise – somewhat scary, yet liberating – is behind Google Inc.'s upcoming Chrome OS, which will make notebook computers more like netbooks than most actual netbooks.

The software powering Chrome OS, which is based on the search giant's eponymously named browser, serves mainly as a tool for connecting your computer to the Web. That's where nearly everything you use is housed and linked to your Google username and password. It's a concept known as cloud computing.

A peek at the upcoming operating system and its vision of cloud computing shows a promising idea that could make computing faster and more convenient. But it still needs a lot of work.

Google expects the first computers powered by Chrome OS to be released this summer, and initially they'll be made by Acer Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

For now, though, Google is operating a pilot for some individuals and companies to test an unbranded laptop that runs Chrome OS. The company lent The Associated Press one of these machines, which aren't going to be sold to the public.

The laptop itself, called the Cr-48, doesn't really deserve to be critiqued, because it is a stripped-down machine that is chiefly a frame for Google's OS oeuvre. The shell is entirely matte black plastic, without a hint of branding. It has a webcam, a screen that is about 12 inches diagonally and a full-sized keyboard with a search key in place of the caps lock key.

The machine also has 16 gigabytes of flash memory for storing files, if you feel absolutely compelled to download something. Downloads are obviously discouraged, though; my music collection alone would nearly fill this allotment.

Moving on to the main event, Chrome OS brings a few clear benefits: Starting up the notebook takes just seconds – roughly 13 of them, according to my stopwatch – and waking the closed notebook from "sleep" mode is as quick as opening it up (almost too quick, as the notebook couldn't regain its wireless service quite as fast). By contrast, my Windows machine at work takes more than two minutes to boot up.
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After you sign in with your Google account, the same username and password you would use to access Gmail, you can pull up a home page showing all the apps you've installed from the Chrome Web Store. Assuming you're connected to the Web, you can just start using apps and surfing the Web right away.

There were plenty of free and paid Web apps and browser extensions available when I tested the notebook. Some are only for the Chrome OS; others also work with Google's Chrome Web browser for other computers.

I installed a range of the free ones, some of which seemed to be just links to existing Web pages. The apps I snagged included Web-based office suite Google Docs, the chatting service Google Talk, Aviary's Advanced Image Editor and balloon-popping puzzle game Poppit.

As with smart phones and tablets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad, publications are also making Chrome apps. USA Today, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are among them.

On my work computer, it can take ages to open up applications that are stored on my hard drive. With the Cr-48, I could immediately start editing a Google Docs spreadsheet or tweak the colors in a photo using Aviary because the programs are all running online. I only needed a strong Internet connection.

Surfing the Web was a pretty normal experience, with most websites loading speedily, though the Cr-48 was not that good at displaying Flash videos.

But I felt constrained because I had to use the lone browser that comes with the system and the Web-based apps I obtained. Apps loaded slowly when my Internet connection wasn't stellar. This wouldn't be a problem with programs stored on a regular computer's hard drive.

If a Chrome OS-based laptop becomes my primary computer, a data plan would be a must.

I feel anxious just thinking about the possibility that I couldn't access my documents at any time, and I don't even keep anything that important on my own laptop.

I mostly used the notebook with Wi-Fi at home and at the office, though I also tried out its 3G network service, which is provide by Verizon Wireless.

So what happens if you don't have any Internet access? The Cr-48 is pretty useless.

I could still write in an already-open Google Docs document, add notes in Scratchpad and look at photos I'd downloaded. But I couldn't use apps that are not yet opened because they're all connected to the Web.

If you lose your connection while using an app, you may be able to view some information that has been temporarily stored in memory, as I could when browsing The New York Times' app. But you'll need to get online as soon as possible to really use the machine. Faced with this situation, I'd probably just search frantically for an Internet connection or simply put away my laptop.

In its current state, the Chrome OS is far from ready to take over as my main computer, even if I were using it on a more powerful machine than the Cr-48.

Sure, I spend most of my time on the Web already, but I'm not quite ready to rely on having Internet access to do almost anything with my computer.

I can imagine getting comfortable with that in the not-so-distant future, though, and I'm curious to see if Google can make it happen.

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Online:

Links:
http://
www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program.html
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Online:
http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program.html

Gmail is the most used mail service on the web. It is ahead of all the other service providers. Gmail offers better features, better speed, and better functionality with simplicity. There is no doubt that Gmail comes with many features. One of them is Labs, which can drastically improve its functionality. It allows us to add more features in already feature rich Gmail. Have you ever tried Gmail Labs? They are interesting, aren’t they? But there are so many of them. Don’t worry, we will help you choose some of the best and top Gmail Lab Experiments.


1. Add Any Gadget By URL

This is a must use add-on if you experiment a lot with Gmail. Apart from the add-ons present in the Gmail Labs section in Gmail settings, this add-on lets us add external add-ons to our account. This can enhance our usability to a great extent. View 10 Best Gmail Gadgets.


 2. Inserting Images

Gmail, by default does not have a feature to add images directly while composing. Enabling this lab feature allows you to add images in a neat manner. This helps us make our emails more professional. It’s a must use add-on! Read the post “How To Add Images In Gmail E-Mails” in order to know more about adding images in Gmail.


3. Undo Send

I have no words to describe this add-on. It has proved very helpful for me. Sometimes before proof-reading an e-mail, we mistakenly click the Send button. If this is regular with you, then this feature is boon for you. This add-on adds an “Undo Send” feature, which allows us to revert sending. Though this feature stays active only for a few seconds after the Send button is pressed, it is still very helpful.


4. Create a Document

Ever wanted to add information from an e-mail to a document? If yes, you need to enable this extension. This add-on lets you create Google Docs document straight from your Gmail e-mails. This is another must use feature.


5. Message Translation

This lab experiment translate your foreign language mails to languages of your choice using the most popular translation tool, Google Translate. This is very helpful if you deal with people using a different language other than yours.
Bonus: Use Canned Responses For Mailing in Different Fonts.

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This is a guest post from Saksham Talwar. If you are also interested in writing for Gtricks, then visit contact page.
Saksham is working for Go-gulf.com, a Kuwait web design company that provides web development solution in Middle East.

Mozilla Firefox is becoming more and more powerful tool in these days. Using right add-ons it will start to become a tool, You can`t live without as web-developer! Each of these plugins can make certain things easier and that`s especially important for web-developers, because searching for errors and optimizing your pages can be pretty painful and time-consuming process. And that`s the reason, why I looked over 100+ pages, to get overview which add-ons are used and recommended by amateurs.

1.Web developer`s toolbar

Web Developer`s tool bar probably will become one of the best plugins You`ve ever seen. It comes with his own tool bar that gives many useful tools for analyzing, validating and optimizing web-pages. The great thing about this plugin is that it’s on a few different browsers, so if you switch between them you will be able to use the same plugin on all.

2.Firebug

Firebug is pretty similar as web developer, but it comes across with few different powerful options. You have an ability to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript right in any web page.

Add caption

3.ColorZilla

ColorZilla offers You an advanced eyedropper, colorPicker, page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.

4.MeasureIt

Little Firefox extension that enables you to draw a ruler across any webpage to check the width or height of a element.

5.HTML Validator

This plugin displays the number of found errors of the site you are viewing. It adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla.

6.IE Tab

Pretty handy extension to see how your site is displayed at Internet Explorer.

7.YSlow

YSlow, a Yahoo product, analyzes web pages and tells you why they’re slow based on the rules for high performance web sites. YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the popular Firebug web development tool.
This plugin completes FireBug functionality to make Firefox an unbeatable web development tool.

8.Greasemonkey

Allows you to customize the way a web page displays using small bits of JavaScript;

9.FireFTP

FireFTP is simply an FTP client built into the Firefox browser. Important thing it is free and you can flip to it just like any tab in your browser.

10.Live HTTP Headers

It allows you to view and analyze HTTP headers (requests and responses) in web-browser with several useful features built-in. It’s great tool for watching a series of HTTP requests and their result codes.

11.ScreenGrab!

Screengrab saves entire web pages as images. This tool will allow You to take screenshots of what is currently on your screen – you can even choose the portion of the screen you want to “grab”!

12.StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon helps you to find new sites very easy.If you are a web-developer, StumbleUpon can drive a huge amount of visitors to your website.

13.SEO for Firefox

Excellent plugin for all those, who like to watch statistics right into Google and Yahoo search results. You can get Alexa, Google PageRank, Tehnorati rankings and many other useful data. Plugin You can`t live without!

14.Adblock Plus

Adblock is an adblocker and really helps to get rid of unnecessary ads and banners, to browse web pages much faster.

15.Delicious Bookmarks

Delicious bookmarks is official Firefox addon for del.icio.us. It integrates your browser bookmarks and tags, to keep them in order and “easy to find” way.

16.X-Ray

Not supported at Firefox 3.0
You can check out all the HTML tags right on the page without using the view page source option. Unfortunately not yet supported at Firefox 3.0

17.CSSViewer

With this extension you can view CSS properties of related page elements. Very handy, when You got large CSS file with styles overlapping each other, to analyze why something is not displayed in the way You wanted.

18.Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer

If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you’ll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. Similar as del.icio.us.

19.Aardvark

This tool can be used to clean page from unwanted banners and ads, especially prior to printing a page. Pretty useful for web developers for analyzing the structure of a page.

20.Tab Mix Plus

If You always have many Firefox tabs opened at the same time, then you need to have this plugin. This plugin provides better management of these tabs.

21.NoScript

Winner of the “2006 PC World World Class Award”, good choice for blocking JavaScript, Java and other executable content in certain pages You don’t trust.

22.Unhide Passwords

Unhide Passwords is a tool for everyone who is bad at remembering or typing passwords correctly. It’s good for using at home, but shouldn’t be used at public accessible PC!

23.Image Zoom

If you have ever had an image that was too large to fit on your screen or too small to see the finer detail in your browser or email, then image zoom can help. Image zoom gives you complete control of the size of most images displayed in mozilla based software. Both individual images or whole pages of images can be zoomed.

24.JavaScript Debugger

A powerful JavaScript debugging environment for Mozilla based browsers.

25.FireShot

FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations.

26.IE View

Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click, or mark certain sites to *always* load in IE.

27.Dummy Lipsum

This interesting add-on generates automatically “Lorem Ipsum” dummy text. I found it to be pretty useful as web designer.

28.Font Finder

Just highlight and right click to see all of the styling information you could require including font-size, font-family, color (in both hex and RGB), line-height, letter-spacing, and much much more..

29.Opera View

Extension based on IE View. If you want quick view in opera, just right click somewhere on page and choose “View This Page In Opera”.

30.Total Validator

Provides true HTML validation (HTML 2.0 to XHTML 1.1) using the official DTDs, plus added attribute checking. So you no longer have to put up with the limitations of the W3C validator (no type checking) and tools like HTML Tidy which interpret the standards incorrectly (they don’t use the official DTDs).
Also performs accessibility validation (WCAG, US-508), broken link checking, spell checking (5 languages), and takes screenshots using 32 browsers on Windows, Linux, and OS/X.

31.Poster

A developer tool for interacting with web services and other web resources that lets you make HTTP requests, set the entity body, and content type.

32.EditCSS

Truly a time saver if You’re experimenting with the CSS style of your site. Avoids the modify,save,upload,refresh,repeat cycle.

33.PicLens

Full-Screen, 3D – PicLens transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for finding and viewing online photos and videos.
Work on : YouTube, Google Images, Flickr, FaceBook, Myspace, Photobucket and more..

34.RSS Validator

Validates a page using the W3C RSS Validator.

35.CSS Validator

Validates a page using the W3C CSS Validator. Adds an option to the right-click context menu and to the Tools menu to allow for easy validation of the CSS of the current page. Opens the results in a new tab.

36.MinimizeToTray

Not supported in Firefox 3.0
A powerful extension to minimize Windows versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite, and Nvu to the system tray.

37.Tab Scope

Shows a popup on tabs and enables you to preview and navigate tab contents through popup. Very useful to help navigate between many tabs.

38.FasterFox

Not supported in Firefox 3.0
Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.

39.Server Switcher

Server Switcher is a navigational help tool for web developers. It allows you to easily switch between sites on your development (hosting the temporary version you are currently working on) and live servers, so that you can immediately see the differences.

40.Smart Bookmarks Bar

Smart Bookmarks Bar modifies the bookmarks bar to show bookmarks icons only.
Bookmark names will be displayed on mouse over. This feature can be disactivated if you just want icons without the rollover effect.

41.Favicon Picker

Not supported in Firefox 3.0
Tired of that boring default icon next to your bookmarks? This extension adds a interface allowing you to pick the icon for each of your bookmarks.

42.Download Statusbar

View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

43.Stylish

Stylish is a Firefox, Thunderbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, and Songbird extension that allows easy management of user styles. Stylish is to CSS what Greasemonkey is to JavaScript.

44.Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for Selenium tests. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit, and debug tests.
Guide for Selenium IDE

45.ScrapBook

ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. My personal one of favorites.

46.Platypus

Platypus is a Firefox extension which lets you modify a website from your browser. In addition to that you can save your modifications as a Greasemonkey script to make them “permanent”!

47.ColorfulTabs

Very beautiful addon – automatically changes firefox tab color and makes easy to distinguish one from another.

48.Window Resizer

The Browser Window Resizer is useful for testing different screen sizes.
Supports the 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1600×1200 resolutions.

49.Autofill Forms

Autofill Forms enables you to fill out web forms with one click or a keyboard shortcut.

50.Clippings

Saves and manages frequently-entered text for later pasting into Web page forms in Firefox or email and newsgroup messages in Thunderbird. Pasting a clipping is accomplished with just two mouse clicks, eliminating the hassle of retyping or repetitive copying and pasting.