eezzyweb

Screenshot sharing made easy in Google Chrome

mirko.menegazzo — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:32:31 +0000

Lately I found myself mailing out loads of screenshots with annotations on a daily basis due to several projects I was working on at the same time. There are some details you cannot agree upon just by talking on the phone, even though the people talking are looking at the same screen. An image with red crosses, green arrows and annotations does the job in less than a minute.

My old fashioned way to send a screenshot with proper annotations was taking a snapshot of the screen clicking “Print Screen”, firing up my favourite image editor to make the necessary tweakings, saving the file and eventually attaching that file to an email to send away. It is a pretty acceptable pattern if you do it only once or twice a day, but since I had to do it way more than, I found it extremely frustrating and time consuming.

As usual, Google Chrome Extensions repository came to the rescue. After a couple of minute of searching, I found a really interesting free extension called Awesome Screenshot. Once installed, it allows you to capture either a selected area of the screen, the whole visible part or the entire page (basically giving you a scrollable snapshot) clicking on the lens icon on the top right of your browser bar.

Afterward it opens up a sleek and oversimplified but still powerful set of tools to draw your own notes on the image.

When you have finished, you have the chance to upload it directly on their server (without the need to save it on your computer if you do not need it) and from there getting a link for sharing with the service you prefer (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, etc.).

Easy, fast, Awesome!

Watch the video tutorial

Awesome Screenshot official extension page

Your precious passwords are only a few clicks away

mirko.menegazzo — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:37:56 +0000

If you, like me, surf the internet a lot you probably came across many websites which prompt you to enter username and password like you do for your e-mail or Facebook account.

Since doing this over and over can be quite a chore, any browser gives you the possibility to save your username and password details in that the next time you go to a previously page which requires a login you enter straight away. It is a good feature to save you time as long as you are aware of where, exactly, these details are saved. There is not any rocket science or particular security encryption involved; you might think your details are safea nd hidden from anyone, even because any website gives you this fake illusion. How many times have you seen something like “I forgot my password, please mail it to me” or “Forgot your password? Click here” and similar?

To get your password back you would need to undertake some really annoying procedures involving entering the secret answer to your secret question along with checking your e-mail over and over to get some confirmation links and bla bla bla.

Well, there is not any necessity of going through something so time consuming if you saved the passwords in your browser.

If you are using Google Chrome, you just need to click the wrench icon (top right) and then Options > Personal Stuff (middle tab) > Show saved passwords (yes, pretty self explanatory).

4 clicks and presto!

Have a look at the screenshot below ( a little blurred for my own privacy)

Both Chome and Firefox are so kind to provide you the website url address and the username associated with it as well.

If you use Firefox the process is quite similar:

Tools > Options > Security > Saved passwords >Saved passwords. 5 clicks.

Here is a screenshot:

Both Chome and Firefox are so kind to give you the website url addresses and the usernames associated with them as well. If you are not using any of the browsers I mentioned, do not worry, a quick search on Google will give you the instructions you need.

If suddenly you feel a little bit worried about security, you are right. Anyone who gets hold of your computer can steal your passwords (if they are saved of course). I did a test on my mate’s unattended laptop and I was able to grab a screenshot and send an email to myself in less than a minute.

You are advised: always lock your computer up. Or do not save your passwords, that would be even better!

Virtual Web – Fancy toolbar for your site

mirko.menegazzo — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:42:40 +0000

Virtual Web is a cool toolbar you can easily add to your website for enhancing user experience.

Once you register (for free!), you can customize look and feeling of your own toolbar by adding or removing tools, changing colours, moving stuff around and so on. I found particularly useful the “Translate” function which translates all your text content in several languages and it is pretty fast. It is a good add-on for people who are not using Google Chrome and its built-in translation service. Aside from adding functionality to your site, having the toolbar installed means you can take advantage of basic analytics about your website visitors and usage.

If your site runs on WordPress, there is already a Virtual Web plug-in to add the toolbar without making any changes to your core files. The only issue with the plug-in is that it overrides the basic comment behaviour and not everybody will be happy with that. Harcoding the toolbar solves the issue, and it is just a matter of copying and paste a few lines of code.

Be aware it is still a beta release: I tried to install it on a site running on Prestashop and it did not work, since the script variables were conflicting with the Smarty template engine Prestashop uses for rendering the pages. The developer team is aware of that and it will be probably solved by the time the official release comes out.

Official website

Apture. Contextual Search for website

mirko.menegazzo — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:15:30 +0000

Apture is a free online service which allows you to integrate a contextual search in your website, in the form of a Web 2.0 pop up window. You just need to highlight any word (hovering or double clicking on it) and this will give you a “Learn More” button to open a pop up window with information related to that word from Wikipedia, Google and Bing (by deafault, but 60+ sources are available).

The information are divided automatically in 3 categories: text, images and videos making easier to have a quick look at what it is all about. If you are using a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox or Safari) you might want to install the Apture Highlight plug-in to have the functionality in any page you visit.

Apture official website

Chrome Os Pilot program

Mirko — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:27:21 +0000

If you are lucky enough to live in the USA you might want to apply for the Chrome Os Pilot program.

If you are successful, Google will send you a netbook (Cr48 they call it) with the brand new Chrome Os pre-installed for you to use, test, play and maybe, complain!

This is what Google is trying to achieve with this program: getting real user feedback to improve its own operative system web based.

Here is a picture of the Cr48 netbook, directly taken from the official website

If you want to know more head straight to the official website

As far as I am concerned, I am currently living in the UK therefore I will not be able to participate in this initiative. Unfortunately!