Not even a few months ago, I thought Google’s idea of an OS like Chrome, which is mainly dependent on web based applications, is a bad idea and at least isn’t going to be something I would be interested in.
However like the saying goes, only thing constant in this world is change; my view towards Google Chrome is also changing.
Today, apart from composing blogposts like these (which I can easily do online) and a little bit of photo editing and website designing and of course listening to music and watching movies, I am doing rest of the things online, with plans to switch entirely from desktop based email client to web based ones (already using Google Calendar and Reader).
Using online apps gives me the flexibility and convenience of being able to access my data from anywhere in the world with just about any internet enabled device like mobile phone, laptop etc. without worrying about synchronization and cross platform compatibility.
Of course this also means that I am more and more dependent on the internet and cannot afford any downtime, however with internet access getting cheaper and easier to acquire, this might just become least of my worries with the benefits outweighing the negatives so much, that they cease to exist from the decision making process.
Of course till that happens, I would still like to have local copies of everything I work on, to ensure that not only is there a backup of important things, I am able to get at least some work done, even if my internet connection is down.
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Many websites look up the IP address that you are connecting with, or other browser header information, to redirect you automatically to a language specific website. While those systems usually get it right, they are annoying for users who do not want to be redirected to a country specific domain name or different language version.
The search engine Google is for instance redirecting first time users automatically to a localized search engine when they open google.com but do not have an IP address that resolves to the US. You can click on the go to google.com link at the bottom to force the switch but this is saved in a cookie which means that you will be redirected again if you delete the cookie or if it expires. Some users do not like to be patronized.
1. Go to chrome://settings/
2. Under Search, click Manage Search Engines
3. Add a new search engine
– Name: Encrypto Google
– Keyword: encrypted.google.com
– Search: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%s
4. Make default
If you load https://www.google.com/ncr you tell Google that you do not want to be redirected. The NCR supposedly stands for No Country Redirect.
1. Go to chrome://settings/
2. Under Search, click Manage Search Engines
3. Add a new search engine
– Name: Encrypto Google NCR
– Keyword: encrypted.google.com/ncr
– Search: https://encrypted.google.com//ncr/search?q=%s
4. Make default
Now, there are Extensions for Chrome & Firefox, which provide another Layer of Encryption from DISCONNECT.ME, they provide 4 Privacy Extensions, 1. Disconnect Search, 2. Disconnect Facebook & 3. Disconnect Twitter, there is Fourth one called Privacy Icons, it provides Information from Websites which collect information based on categories, but, is available for Chrome.
There is a Google Opt-Out Extension of Google Analytics for Chrome.