Ever stumble onto a pay wall at the likes of the Wall Street Journal but aren’t ready to subscribe just to read one article? Tech blog Digital Inspiration highlights a classic Google hack for breaking through the pay wall for free.
Weblog Google Operating System points out a new search option in Google Image Search that filters images by colour. Colour search isn’t available as an operator yet, but a simple URL hack will do the trick. To start searching Google by image colour, all you have to do is append &imgcolor=colorname to the URL of a Google Image Search—where colorname is replaced by one of a number of colours of your choice. So, for example, your search URLs might look like this:
Google Operating System offer up a useful script for automating the process of saving Google Documents sent to you by others into your own account – useful if you’ve been sent a document for viewing but don’t have editing rights. The script relies on a simple URL hack which replaces the normal ‘view’ function with a document copy action, so if you don’t want to mess with Greasemonkey, you could perform the same task with a little typing. Copy Google Documents to Your Account [Google Operating System]
Web site ShareTabs is sort of like TinyURL when you want to share several links, allowing you to send one link that will open a number of links in separate tabs with one click. Here’s an example:
If I wanted to share all of the non-Lifehacker US Gawker Media sites with someone, I could simply send the following ShareTabs link: http://www.sharetabs.com/?gawker
When you follow that link, you’ll see the page below. The thumbnails display each site, and clicking a thumbnail will open that site in one of the faux tabs you see at the top of the screenshot (they may look like Firefox tabs, but they’re actually just a graphical element inside the ShareTabs site). You can either navigate the sites by clicking around the faux tabs, or you can click the Open all links link at the top of the page to actually open each link in a separate tab. If you’re looking to share a lot of links without taking a lot of space to do it, ShareTabs is a great tool.
ShareTabsWeblog Google Operating System rounds up eight different Gmail modes worth a shot next time you have trouble accessing Gmail. That includes everything from Safe mode—which runs Gmail without any Labs features—to Basic or iPhone mode.
When every character counts, the right URL compacting service can mean the difference between saying what you want and desperately trying to fit a coherent thought into a few insufficient words. Read on for a closer look at the five best URL shrinkers.
Web site (and Firefox extension) LongURL expands URLs that have been shortened by services like TinyURL, Ping.fm, is.gd, and tons more, so you know where the link is pointing before you follow it. The site itself is a decent tool to begin with, but the Firefox extension is what makes LongURL really useful. Once installed, the LongURL extension will automatically expand a shortened URL in the tooltip when you hover over the link with your mouse (it doesn’t waste bandwidth until you hover over a compacted link). Since it uses a web service, the supported services are automatically updated when new services come and go. LongURL also comes in Greasemonkey script and Ubiquity form, so be sure to check the tools page for the add-on you prefer. While you’re at it, check out previously mentioned Embiggen and Tin Foil Hat.
LongURLYou already saw Google Chrome’s humorous about:internets Easter egg, but reader nettleman points out that Chrome’s got several special about: pages that reveal all sorts of interesting information about what’s going behind the scenes. Here’s the full list, with screenshots.
