UPDATE: This plugin has been reported as spam and the links are disabled till further updates. Refer the comments section for more details.

ight from the launch of the new social network, there has been huge buzz around Google Plus. Now that Google has opened doors to everyone, it would be worth watching the public response. With Google Plus giving Facebook a run for their money, here is something that can make things even worse for the latter. Here is a browser extension that will let you access Facebook from within Google+. So you won’t have to miss out on your already over-burdened social-life (thanks Facebook) while being on Google Plus.

1. Head over to the Google+Facebook download page and get the extension for your browser. Use the Google+Facebook button.

2. Allow the download to start if your browser (most likely Firefox) blocks it. Install it as you do for other add-ons or extensions.

3. Now log into your Google Plus account and you will notice a Facebook button to the left of the Home button in the top navigation. Click on it.

4. You will now need to use the fConnect button to connect your Facebook account.

5. Once prompted, allow the request for permission to access your Facebook data.

Voila! you will now be able to check your Facebook wall feed from right within Google Plus. You can also update Facebook using this added functionality.

The extension is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Techie-Buzz Verdict:

Users of both the service will naturally love the added usability of Google Plus. However there are limitations to the extension currently. You cannot comment or like any of your friend’s activities or updates the Facebook way unlike any other popular apps. Well that would mean I’m too demanding. Whatsoever, it definitely is a good attempt to bring things together specially when socializing is the word of the day.

NOTE: You can also try and get a Facebook lookalike Google Plus and vice versa with a little help.

In today’s world of social networking, Facebook is the word of the day. And so is anything that gets posted on it. Every major incident happens and it goes viral on Facebook. Someone updates and everybody else follows the suit. Sharing information has never been easier. However, people with evil intentions are not lagging behind. They misuse this addiction for all the all the wrong reasons.

Recently as Osama bin Laden was shot dead in an US raid, Facebook was scattered with fake links pointing to Osama execution censored video. And the result was obvious. Curious people ended up clicking them and falling prey to it. The more worrying news is that, those links are going to appear again. So what do we do to stop from getting affected? Well, some rational thinking helps. However here is a great free tool that can save you the worry.

Installing Using Protection

Using Protection is a free (for personal use) browser extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer that does the job for you. Google Chrome let me install the extension, although, there were no significant changes to the scam links I tested.

3 simple steps and you are done. Provide an email to sign up. You will then be prompted to post an update letting your friends know about the installation. This is optional and you can choose to skip this step. Finally, download and install the add on.

How Does It Help?

Every time you visit any page on Facebook, the page will scanned for any suspicious link. Once detected, the link will be removed and instead it will be provided with a link to post an update letting your friends know about it. Yes, it is as simple as that.

The tool performs the job silently without cluttering your screen space which makes it even better. Provided the fact that Facebook is not going to be clean any time soon, the tool is a definite necessity for any Facebook user.

Yes, WOT, not what. It stands for Web Of Trust. WOT is an addon for Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE. Once installed, it can scan links in search engine results and web email. When it finds dangerous links, it lets you know with red and yellow symbols, as shown in this video below.

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As you can see, it’s not safe to search for screensavers. That is, it’s not safe unless you are using WOT or a service like it. You’ll see similar results in your online email, such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail. I’d say it’s a must have addon for those new to the internet.

Today, I received a notice from WOT telling about the addition of social networking sites to their link scanning. What does this mean? Take a look at Facebook with the new WOT addon for Firefox.

Opera has always been a browser with a small (as compared to Firefox or Google Chrome) but devoted following that keeps increasing with each iteration of their browser. While their simple mobile version of the browser (Opera Mini) is vastly popular they never saw a similar growth in the desktop market. The folks at Opera Inc. thought it was probably due to the unavailability of Extensions for their browser, and so they added the extensibility of extensions in Opera 11.

So without further ado, here’s a look at the top extensions for Opera 11.

NoAds: NoAds is a NoScript + AdBlock extension. In the words of its creator NoAds = (NoScript + AdBlock)/2. It blocks 99% of scripts on a site that originate from a different domain, blocks text ads and you can even import subscriptions from AdBlock as well as EHH! No more ads.

FastestTube: This simple and sweet extension just adds a drop-down menu on any YouTube video page where you can download the video that is playing in many formats. There are some minor problems with the integration with Redirect to HTTPS videos, but that should be fixed shortly.

Reddited: Are you an avid Redditor? Do you scramble up to submit a page to Reddit only to find that it’s already been linked to? Do you hang your head in defeat and rage at the trolls that are laughing at you? Then this is the extension for you. All it does is tell you if the page you’re looking at has been reddited or not. If it has been submitted, it shows you the comment count on the link as well.

Translate: If you’re one of those anime fans without a drop of Japanese within you, or if you’re the newshound who has to go to various foreign-language sites for news then this extension will do you a world of good. Translate auto-magically detects the language of the page you’re currently working on and will offer to translate the entire page for you. Built on top of Google Translate framework, the translation, although slightly grammatically off, works and works well.

Opera Mini Simulator: This one is for the web developers. The add-on loads your focused tab as how it would look under the Opera Mini environment. Though a little slow when simulating, the add-on is quite useful for mobile developers.

Gmail [iOS Mode]: Don’t want to wait for the Gmail page to open when all you need is to know if you have unread mail or not? Enter the Gmail [iOS Mode] extension that changes the UserAgent of Opera to an iOS device’s. So you can use the slick and lean Gmail interface on your desktop browser itself!

Do you have any favorite Opera Extensions? Do feel free to share them with me through your comments.

Finally!!!! The long wait is over. The latest dev channel of Google Chrome comes with the ability to sync your extension with the “cloud”.

Google Chrome build has officially added support to sync extensions along with the earlier ability to sync preferences, bookmarks and themes over the cloud, this was a highly demanded feature and will definitely add more value to the already feature rich browser.

Also Read: Ultimate List of Google Chrome Tips and Tricks | Best Google Chrome Extensions

To enable Extensions sync for Google Chrome, edit the Chrome shortcut and add the –enable-sync-extensions to the end of the file path preceded by a space as shown in the screenshot below.

This is definitely good news since now users will be able to access all their Chrome settings from anywhere. Lets hope that they add password synching too now. More info on the latest dev build for Chrome can be found here.

(Source: LH)

[Windows, Mac, Linux] Web of Trust (WOT) is an addon or extension that identifies risky or dangerous links and websites while you are using your web browser. This addon is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers. There is also a bookmarklet for Browsers such as Opera and Safari.

Here’s what the WOT website says about their product:

Protect yourself from online scams, sites with adult content, spam and other Internet threats. The WOT community has rated millions of websites so you can search, shop online and surf for fun without worrying.

When the WOT addon is installed in a web browser, it displays safety information about web sites in two different ways.

First, there will be a WOT icon at the top of the browser next to the address bar. It will be colored green, yellow or red to show you the general rating of the web page you are currently viewing.

If you click on this icon, you’ll be able to see more details about the ratings.

The detailed ratings are broken down into four categories: Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy and Child Safety. As you can see, Techie Buzz is a winner in all four areas.

The second way that WOT displays it’s ratings is while you are searching at one of the popular web search engines. Ratings are shown for Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing and Froogle.

As you can see, there is a colored icon next to each search result. Clicking on the icons there also gives you more detailed information about each site. You won’t have to worry if it’s safe to click on search results once you have WOT installed.

Some online email services are also covered by the link identification from WOT. Here’s what my Gmail looks like in Firefox. This also seems to work in Yahoo Mail, Live Mail and AOL Mail.

The WOT addon will make your online email far safer to use.

Downloads:

Download the WOT addons for Firefox, IE and Chrome

The WOT Bookmarklet for Opera and Safari

For those who don’t wish to install anything at all in their browser, I’ve found an online search engine which uses WOT to rate the search results.

Safe Search:

Try SurfCanyon’s WOT Search

Techie Buzz Verdict:

There are several other services that offer similar addons or toolbars to make surfing more safe. WOT is my favorite and it supports the widest range of web browsers.

Techie Buzz Rating: 4/5

I think it’s safe to say that most people use Google Image Search when it’s time to look for images they want. There are many other image search engines, such as Imagery, Yahoo Image Search, Ask Images Search, MSN Live Image Search, AltaVista Image Search, but Google Image Search is the most widely known.

I haven’t seen very many complaints about the way Google Image Search works, but any trick I can use to find images there is always welcome. Now I’ll tell you about the latest trick I’ve learned. There’s a cool Chrome browser extension called clickGOOGLEview which lets you quickly see full size images you’ve found.

Normally while searching, you’ll see rows of image thumbnails for the search results.

When you click on a thumbnail, you are taken to another thumbnail image and a copy of the web page it is displayed on. You have to click a link labeled See full size imageto see the full size version of the image.

Once you’ve installed the clickGOOGLEview extension in the Chrome web browser, clicking on the image thumbnail on the results page opens up the full size image in a new tab. This saves an extra click and it also makes it easier to return to your search results.

Get the clickGOOGLEview extension.

That may not sound like a big time saver, but if you use it often, you will save big chunks of time. This is true, especially when you consider that you normally have to hit the back button in your browser to return to your search results.

If you use Google’s Chrome browser and Google Image Search, the clickGOOGLEview extension is something you’ll learn to love. If this extension isn’t something you need, be sure to check out our list of the Best Google Chrome Extensions and our reviews of other popular Chrome Extensions.

We have talked about the various ways through which you can post to Tumblr; through the desktop, mobiles or browsers. Putting stuff on tumblr is so easy, that you can also do it through email and a phone. However, all that aside, right now I have two Google Chrome extensions to tell you about.

Tumblr Dashboard: the Tumblr Dashboard extension for Google Chrome brings together the Tumblr interface for iPhone and the Tumblr bookmarklet for the web. If you need to see your dashboard quickly, see it through the iPhone interface. If you need to post content, you get the bookmarklet interface. In the dashboard mode, clicking on a post shows you details such as number of notes and options like the ability to like and reblog a post. If you click on a picture thumbnail, the extension will enlarge it for you.

Share on Tumblr: If you just want a quick and easy way to post content, the Share on Tumblr extension might be what you are looking for. It gives you the same features of the Tumblr bookmarklet, in fact, all the extension does is load the bookmarklet in a frame. You can choose this option if you like a fixed placement for the frame and want an interface the feels native to the browser, as compared the bookmarklet.

For Google Chrome on Windows and Linux Only: The Chrome Radio extension for Google Chrome makes it much easier to playback online radio streams right inside the browser. The extension is very nifty, streamlined and fits smoothly in the browser without interfering with the user’s browsing experience.

Radio stations can be saved within the extension and can be organized in groups, or say, genres. You can also assign quick access keys to five of your stations so that your favorites stay at your fingertips. The extension keeps track of your most played stations and if you want, will also autoplay the last played station on browser startup. Import and Export of station database is also supported.

Coming to the source of media, you can add radio stations from sites like di.fm, sky.fm and shoutcast. Just copy the playlist url (or stream url) from the webpage and add it to the extension. If you get lost, the extension should help you out with its FAQ page which highlights many questions such as how to add stations, where to find them et al.

Download Chrome Radio Player | Developer’s Website

In recent days, Google Chrome has really picked up pace. Hot on the heels of Firefox, Opera, Safari and pretty much any other browser out there, Google is trying to grab some significant market share and establish itself in the browser mart. When Chrome was still young, people hesitated to change browsers because they were wary of Chrome’s lack of support for extensions and other features that mature browsers like Firefox had, especially those gained by addons. Now that Chrome supports extensions and has nearly 4,500 of them in its repository people are considering using Chrome as a primary browser and ditching Firefox for the memory hog* that it is.

If people are going to use a browser full time, how can it not have support for Twitter? Chrome has had a few nice extensions for Twitter and we’re going to see which one is the best.

Chromed Bird

Chromed Bird is perhaps the first Twitter client that I tried on Chrome and I have been hooked onto it since day one. The only problem with Chromed Bird is that I can’t find any problem in it. Really. It just works, that’s all. It’s regularly updated and several of it’s setting can be modified from an options’ page. It has support for Lists and can also preview short urls on mouseover. Other than that, you can set refresh intervals for each column, define font for the text and color for the columns. People who’d like to keep a track of their shortened links would be delighted to know that Chromed Bird supports bit.ly authorization through it’s api key.You can also choose from 3 provided themes for the extension.

Pros: bit.ly and lists support,   agile, notifications.

Cons: No support for Twitpic or other similar services.

Tweetings

The first thing that you are going to notice about Tweetings is its beauty. It’s got that Mac-like look with sleek columns and shiny buttons. It looks just elegant. However, beauty and brains should go together, and for Tweetings, this combination came hereditarily. Tweetings is based on on Chromed Bird. The underlying engine is probably same and the functions and features are also identical. All you get apart from Chromed Bird is a new design a good design. (Tweetings is also available as a separate application for Windows and iPhone)

Pros: Personal account support for bit.ly and twtn.gs. Customizable retweet format.

Cons: No support for Twitpic or other similar services.

Metrist

Metrist’s design is nothing better than mediocre. Like all the others, you click a small icon in the menu bar and the application comes rolling down. Unlike Tweetings and Chromed Bird, Metrist doesn’t support Twitter’ oAuth, so you’ll have to enter in your Twitter username and password. Also, there is no support for lists, favorite-ing a tweet or Twitter new Retweet API. In spite of a dire lack of features, Metrist still stands as a decent Twitter client, for those who don’t need much except to post their one-forty characters.

Pros: Simple minimalistic design, agile.

Cons: No support for oAuth, no url shortening, no Twitpic, no new retweets or favorite-ing a tweet.

Skeet

The description for this extension is A simple, usable Twitter client for Chrome. Ok let’s see. Skeet might be simple but there ain’t no fun of being simple when you ain’t usable. All I could get on installing skeet was a 400error. The developer said that this error occurs when the user has crossed his Twitter API limit. However, I was still afar from reaching my limit when I always got this error. So instead of taking the pain myself, I referred to Clif’s review of Skeet that he made a few days ago. He says: Currently, my biggest problem with Skeet is that it disappears as soon as you click away from it. This can be maddening if you are in the middle of tweeting or replying, because your unfinished message also disappears.Oh well, I know how that feels. Making a compact 140 character tweet from thoughts of a million words takes effort.

Pros: Search twiter from within the client, attractive UI.

Cons: Unstable.

Verdict

If you ask me, I’d say Chromed Bird any day; but if you want your tweet workstation to look pretty, there’s no harm in using Chromed Bird’s little brother Tweetings.

*Memory hog: Now people may comment that firefox is no memory hog. People, once you use Chrome, firefox looks like a fox with a butt larger than Manuel Uribe. Believe me. :P