Catching up on my newsie tweets this morning I caught Lifehacker’s FoxGLove headline…whoa a standalone Google Apps Portal. Let me at it!
Crafty Firefox user Alex customized his own Firefox Portable installation to tightly integrate with Google Apps. He calls his creation “FoxGLove,” and uses it as his own Google-powered productivity portal instead of Microsoft Outlook. Along with his pick of add-ons that enhance and integrate Google Apps in Firefox, Alex tricked out this portable Firefox version with a Chrome-like theme, custom homepages (that auto-load in tabs), web site favicons, and even slapped the FoxGLove name and icon onto the whole shebang. Best part? You can download and try it out right now without disturbing your current Firefox setup. Download FoxGLove below to give it a spin on your own desktop, and get the rundown of what comes with it.
link: Exclusive Lifehacker Download: FoxGLove Standalone Google Apps Portal
Okay, pity it’s only for Windows (crap the good stuff comes out after I switch to a Mac, figures), but as Gina says it is very much like Chrome.
This is pretty much what I predicted would happen after Chrome was released. Call it the “Chrome effect”, I think we’re now seeing browsers a little differently. Make and tune your browser so it runs apps in the cloud like an app on your machine.
While I’d like to see Chrome for the Mac, I think I’d almost rather see just the Chrome engine used in more web-based apps. I see that area where Adobe’s AIR is really getting some serious traction.
Look at all the apps for Twitter. Yes, I know they are using an API to make calls to Twitter, but someone could create an app that just uses the web connection (no API limits there) to make things like we see in Twitter clients.
All that’s stopping people is the idea and inspiration to do it, and I think Chrome did that for a lot of people.
What’s next?
Screenshot from Lifehacker post.
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