uzzer's dashboard

Google just introduced it's own browser Google Chrome. I wondered at first why have they deciced to make their own browser given the fierce competition (or maybe not so fierce given that latest versions of Opera and FF which both brought nothing new except bags of bugs...) but my first impression was positive. In Google Chrome I saw for the first time that blue bar with the title of twe window and the minimize/ resize/ close buttons cut out! It is completely useless and takes up screen space.

This thing by itself doesn't make a great browser but it might be a sign that somebody cares to make such. Opera, don't be waiting, cut the useless bar.

Update: I see that Avant Browser and Maxthon have also dealt well with the dumb title bar. They also have a minimize to tray button (next to "close") which Opera doesn't have!

Have you ever happened to need to transfer a large file over the net to a particular person? I have and I must admit it is not such an easy task as it seems. Especially if your connection tends to stop from time to time...

Skype, ICQ and other IM clients do not have a function to continue a transfer from where it stopped. You may be sending a 1GB file, the end of the transfer may be approaching, but then then your are suddenly disconnected and oh, s*it! Popular file storage servers are not a solution for the same reason. File sharing applications such as DC++ or eMule support pausing of transfers but they require complicated changes of settings to work as a file transfer application between two users only.

Firefox once had a beautiful extension for this called AllPeers. It is defunct now, which is really pity because it was a very promising and well designed piece of software. Anyway, the point is, this tiny extension made me use FF quite often even though I was (and still am) an Opera follower. Moreover, it made IE users take a look at FF, willy-nilly. "You wanna see that great video I made last holiday, with us on it - well, the only reliable way to send it over is Allpeers. Allpeers is an extension for FF, so get FF". Pure viral marketing, isn't it! And mind you, those were users who wouldn't otherwise care to switch to something better than IE.

It's a great chance for Opera to make more people see and pay attention to its advantages, don't you think? After all Microsoft has a large market share for IE because it's bundled with Windows; why not use the same tactic and bundle a file transfer application into Opera? In the first case you have a crappy product bundled with an awful operating system, in the second case you'd have a terrific application bundled with an excellent browser.

Well, just steal idea from FF fans: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/2825 [Making Firefox cybercafe-friendly] :)

What about the possibility to make Wakoopa a software update scanner, as well? There are not many programs for this purpose and few of them are work well. Wakoopa may become the long waited solution.