Via Paul Boag

Chrome Shortcuts for Windows

Tab and window shortcuts

Ctrl+N
Opens a new window.

Ctrl+T
Opens a new tab.

Ctrl+Shift+N
Opens a new window in incognito mode.

Press Ctrl+O, then select file.
Opens a file from your computer in Google Chrome.

Press Ctrl and click a link. Or click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the link in a new tab in the background .

Press Ctrl+Shift and click a link. Or press Shift and click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the link in a new tab and switches to the newly opened tab.

Press Shift and click a link.
Opens the link in a new window.

Ctrl+Shift+T
Reopens the last tab you’ve closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you’ve closed.

Drag a link to a tab.
Opens the link in the tab.

Drag a link to a blank area on the tab strip.
Opens the link in a new tab.

Drag a tab out of the tab strip.
Opens the tab in a new window.

Drag a tab out of the tab strip and into an existing window.
Opens the tab in the existing window.

Press Esc while dragging a tab.
Returns the tab to its original position.

Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8
Switches to the tab at the specified position number on the tab strip.

Ctrl+9
Switches to the last tab.

Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown
Switches to the next tab.

Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp
Switches to the previous tab.

Alt+F4
Closes the current window.

Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4
Closes the current tab or pop-up.

Click a tab with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Closes the tab you clicked.

Right-click, or click and hold either the Back or Forward arrow in the browser toolbar.
Displays your browsing history in the tab.

Press Backspace, or Alt and the left arrow together.
Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.

Press Shift+Backspace, or Alt and the right arrow together.
Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.

Press Ctrl and click either the Back arrow, Forward arrow, or Go button in the toolbar. Or click either button with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the button destination in a new tab in the background.

Double-click the blank area on the tab strip.
Maximizes or minimizes the window.

Alt+Home
Opens your homepage in your current window.

Google Chrome feature shortcuts

Alt+F or Alt+E
Opens the wrench menu, which lets you customize and control settings in Google Chrome.

Ctrl+Shift+B
Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.

Ctrl+H
Opens the History page.

Ctrl+J
Opens the Downloads page.

Shift+Esc
Opens the Task Manager.

Shift+Alt+T
Sets focus on the first tool in the browser toolbar. You can then use the following shortcuts to move around in the toolbar:

• Press Tab, Shift+Tab, Home, End, right arrow, and left arrow to move focus to different items in the toolbar.
• Press Space or Enter to activate toolbar buttons, including page actions and browser actions.
• Press Shift+F10 to bring up any associated context menu (e.g. browsing history for the Back button).
• Press Esc to return focus from the toolbar back to the page.

F6 or Shift+F6
Switches focus to the next keyboard-accessible pane, where panes include the main web content, address bar, and bookmarks bar (if visible).

Ctrl+Shift+J
Opens Developer Tools.

Ctrl+Shift+Delete
Opens the Clear Browsing Data dialog.

F1
Opens the Help Center in a new tab (our favorite).

Address bar shortcuts

Use the following shortcuts in the address bar:

Type a search term, then press Enter.
Performs a search using your default search engine.

Type a search engine keyword, press Space, type a search term, and press Enter.
Performs a search using the search engine associated with the keyword.

Begin typing a search engine URL, press Tab when prompted, type a search term, and press Enter.
Performs a search using the search engine associated with the URL.

Ctrl+Enter
Adds www. and .com to your input in the address bar and open the resulting URL.

Type a URL, then press Alt+Enter.
Opens the URL in a new tab.

Ctrl+L or Alt+D
Highlights the URL.

Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E
Places a ‘?’ in the address bar. Type a search term after the question mark to perform a search using your default search engine.

Press Ctrl and the left arrow together.
Moves your cursor to the preceding key term in the address bar

Press Ctrl and the right arrow together.
Moves your cursor to the next key term in the address bar

Ctrl+Backspace
Deletes the key term that precedes your cursor in the address bar

Select an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your keyboard arrows, then press Shift+Delete.
Deletes the entry from your browsing history, if possible.

Click an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the entry in a new tab in the background.

Press Page Up or Page Down when the address bar drop-down menu is visible.
Selects the first or last entry in the drop-down menu.

Webpage shortcuts

Ctrl+P
Prints your current page.

Ctrl+S
Saves your current page.

F5 or Ctrl+R
Reloads your current page.

Esc
Stops the loading of your current page.

Ctrl+F
Opens the find bar.

Ctrl+G or F3
Finds the next match for your input in the find bar.

Ctrl+Shift+G, Shift+F3, or Shift+Enter
Finds the previous match for your input in the find bar.

Click the middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Activates auto-scrolling. As you move your mouse, the page automatically scrolls according to the direction of the mouse.

Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5
Reloads your current page, ignoring cached content.

Press Alt and click a link.
Downloads the target of the link.

Ctrl+U
Opens the source of your current page.

Drag a link to bookmarks bar
Saves the link as a bookmark.

Ctrl+D
Saves your current webpage as a bookmark.

Ctrl+Shift+D
Saves all open pages as bookmarks in a new folder.

F11
Opens your page in full-screen mode. Press F11 again to exit full-screen.

Ctrl and +, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel up.
Enlarges everything on the page.

Ctrl and -, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel down.
Makes everything on the page smaller.

Ctrl+0
Returns everything on the page to normal size.

Space bar
Scrolls down the web page.

Home
Goes to the top of the page.

End
Goes to the bottom of the page.

Press Shift and scroll your mousewheel.
Scrolls horizontally on the page.

Text shortcuts

Ctrl+C
Copies highlighted content to the clipboard.

Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert
Pastes content from the clipboard.

Ctrl+Shift+V
Paste content from the clipboard without formatting.

Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete
Deletes the highlighted content and copies it to the clipboard.

Chrome Shortcuts for the Apple Mac

Tab and window shortcuts

?-N
Opens a new window.

?-T
Opens a new tab.

?-Shift-N
Opens a new window in incognito mode.

Press ?-O, then select file.
Opens a file from your computer in Google Chrome.

Press ? and click a link. Or click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the link in a new tab in the background .

Press ?-Shift and click a link. Or press Shift and click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the link in a new tab and switches to the newly opened tab.

Press Shift and click a link.
Opens the link in a new window.

?-Shift-T
Reopens the last tab you’ve closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you’ve closed.

Drag a tab out of the tab strip.
Opens the tab in a new window.

Drag a tab out of the tab strip and into an existing window.
Opens the tab in the existing window.

Press ?-Option and the right arrow together.
Switches to the next tab.

Press ?-Option and the left arrow together.
Switches to the previous tab.

?-W
Closes the current tab or pop-up.

?-Shift-W
Closes the current window.

Click and hold either the Back or Forward arrow in the browser toolbar.
Displays your browsing history in the tab.

Press Delete or ?-[
Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.

Press Shift-Delete or ?-]
Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.

Press Shift while clicking the + button in the top left corner of the window.
Maximizes the window.

?-M
Minimizes the window.

?-H
Hides Google Chrome.

?-Option-H
Hides all other windows.

?-Q
Closes Google Chrome.

Google Chrome feature shortcuts

?-Shift-B
Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.

?-Option-B
Opens the bookmark manager.

?-,
Opens the Preferences dialog.

?-Y
Opens the History page.

?-Shift-J
Opens the Downloads page.

?-Shift-Delete
Opens the Clear Browsing Data dialog.

Address bar shortcuts

Use the following shortcuts in the address bar:

Type a search term, then press Enter.
Performs a search using your default search engine.

Type a search engine keyword, press Space, type a search term, and press Enter.
Performs a search using the search engine associated with the keyword.

Begin typing a search engine URL, press Tab when prompted, type a search term, and press Enter.
Performs a search using the search engine associated with the URL.

Type a URL, then press ?-Enter.
Opens the URL in a new background tab.

?-L
Highlights the URL.

?-Option-F
Places a ‘?’ in the address bar. Type a search term after the question mark to perform a search using your default search engine.

Press Option and the left arrow together.
Moves your cursor to the preceding key term in the address bar

Press Option and the right arrow together.
Moves your cursor to the next key term in the address bar

Press Shift-Option and the left arrow together.
Highlights the preceding key term in the address bar

Press Shift-Option and the right arrow together.
Highlights the next key term in the address bar

?-Delete
Deletes the key term that precedes your cursor in the address bar

Press Page Up or Page Down in the addess bar menu.
Selects the previous or next entry in the menu.

Webpage shortcuts

?-P
Prints your current page.

?-Shift-P
Opens the Page Setup dialog.

?-S
Saves your current page.

?-Shift-I
Emails your current page.

?-R
Reloads your current page.

?-,
Stops loading of your current page.

?-F
Opens the find bar.

?-G
Finds the next match for your input in the find bar.

?-Shift-G or Shift-Enter
Finds the previous match for your input in the find bar.

?-E
Uses selection for find

?-J
Jumps to selection

?-Option-I
Opens Developer Tools.

?-Option-J
Opens the JavaScript Console.

?-Option-U
Opens the source of your current page.

Press Option and click a link.
Downloads the target of the link.

Drag a link to the bookmarks bar.
Saves the link as a bookmark.

?-D
Saves your current webpage as a bookmark.

?-Shift-D
Saves all open tabs as bookmarks in a new folder.

?-Shift-F
Opens your page in full-screen mode. Press ?-Shift-F again to exit full-screen.

?-+
Enlarges everything on the page.

? and -
Makes everything on the page smaller.

?-0
Returns everything on the page to normal size.

?-Shift-H
Opens your home page in your current tab.

Space bar
Scrolls down the web page.

?-Option-F
Searches the web.

Text shortcuts

?-C
Copies highlighted content to the clipboard.

?-Option-C
Copies the URL of the page you’re viewing to the clipboard.

?-V
Pastes content from the clipboard.

?-Shift-Option-V
Pastes content without source formatting.

?-X or Shift-Delete
Deletes the highlighted content and copies it to the clipboard.

?-Z
Reverts your last action.

?-Shift-Z
Repeats your last action.

?-X
Deletes highlighted content and saves it to your clipboard (cut).

?-A
Selects all the text on your current page.

?-:
Opens the Spelling and Grammar dialog.

?-;
Checks your current page for spelling and grammar

Chrome Shortcuts for Linux

Tab and window shortcuts

Ctrl+N
Opens a new window.

Ctrl+T
Opens a new tab.

Ctrl+Shift+N
Opens a new window in incognito mode.

Press Ctrl+O, then select file.
Opens a file from your computer in Google Chrome.

Press Ctrl and click a link. Or click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the link in a new tab in the background .

Press Ctrl+Shift and click a link. Or press Shift and click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the link in a new tab and switches to the newly opened tab.

Press Shift and click a link.
Opens the link in a new window.

Ctrl+Shift+T
Reopens the last tab you’ve closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you’ve closed.

Drag a link to a tab.
Opens the link in the tab.

Drag a link to a blank area on the tab strip.
Opens the link in a new tab.

Drag a tab out of the tab strip.
Opens the tab in a new window.

Drag a tab out of the tab strip and into an existing window.
Opens the tab in the existing window.

Press Esc while dragging a tab.
Returns the tab to its original position.

Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8
Switches to the tab at the specified position number on the tab strip.

Ctrl+9
Switches to the last tab.

Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown
Switches to the next tab.

Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp
Switches to the previous tab.

Ctrl+Shift+Q
Closes Google Chrome.

Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4
Closes the current tab or pop-up.

Click a tab with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Closes the tab you clicked.

Right-click, or click and hold either the Back or Forward arrow in the browser toolbar.
Displays your browsing history in the tab.

Press Alt and the left arrow together.
Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.

Press Alt and the right arrow together.
Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.

Click either the Back arrow, Forward arrow, or Go button in the toolbar with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the button destination in a new tab in the background.

Double-click the blank area on the tab strip.
Maximizes or minimizes the window.

Google Chrome feature shortcuts

Alt+F
Opens the Tools menu, which lets you customize and control settings in Google Chrome.

Ctrl+Shift+B
Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.

Ctrl+H
Opens the History page.

Ctrl+J
Opens the Downloads page.

Shift+Esc
Opens the Task Manager.

Ctrl+Shift+J
Opens Developer Tools.

Ctrl+Shift+Delete
Opens the Clear Browsing Data dialog.

F1
Opens the Help Center in a new tab (our favorite).

Address bar shortcuts

Use the following shortcuts in the address bar:

Type a search term, then press Enter.
Performs a search using your default search engine.

Type a search engine keyword, press Space, type a search term, and press Enter.
Performs a search using the search engine associated with the keyword.

Begin typing a search engine URL, press Tab when prompted, type a search term, and press Enter.
Performs a search using the search engine associated with the URL.

Ctrl+L
Highlights the URL.

Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E
Places a ‘?’ in the address bar. Type a search term after the question mark to perform a search using your default search engine.

Press Ctrl+Shift and the left arrow together.
Moves your cursor to the preceding key term in the address bar

Press Ctrl+Shift and the right arrow together.
Moves your cursor to the next key term in the address bar

Ctrl+Backspace
Deletes the key term that precedes your cursor in the address bar

Select an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your keyboard arrows, then press Shift+Delete.
Deletes the entry from your browsing history, if possible.

Click an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).
Opens the entry in a new tab in the background.

Press Page Up or Page Down when the address bar drop-down menu is visible.
Selects the first or last entry in the drop-down menu.

Webpage shortcuts

Ctrl+P
Prints your current page.

Ctrl+S
Saves your current page.

Ctrl+R
Reloads your current page.

Esc
Stops the loading of your current page.

Ctrl+F
Opens the find bar.

Ctrl+G or Enter
Finds the next match for your input in the find bar.

Ctrl+Shift+G or Shift+Enter
Finds the previous match for your input in the find bar.

Press Alt and click a link.
Downloads the target of the link.

Ctrl+U
Opens the source of your current page.

Drag a link to bookmarks bar
Saves the link as a bookmark.

Ctrl+D
Saves your current webpage as a bookmark.

Ctrl+Shift+D
Saves all open pages as bookmarks in a new folder.

F11
Opens your page in full-screen mode. Press F11 again to exit full-screen.

Ctrl and +, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel up.
Enlarges everything on the page.

Ctrl and -, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel down.
Makes everything on the page smaller.

Ctrl+0
Returns everything on the page to normal size.

Space bar
Scrolls down the web page.

Home
Goes to the top of the page.

End
Goes to the bottom of the page.

Text shortcuts

Ctrl+C
Copies highlighted content to the clipboard.

Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert
Pastes content from the clipboard.

Ctrl+Shift+V
Paste content from the clipboard without formatting.

Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete
Deletes the highlighted content and copies it to the clipboard.

Flickr Credit: SunnyMarry

Google is a very powerful search engine, however many of us only perform very basic searches. In the post, I discuss my favourite advanced searches that can be performed. This list was compiled from various sources on the web including various Google ‘cheat sheets’.

The Cache Command

Google takes a snapshot of each page it searches and caches (stores) that page as a back up. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a web page is a good match for your search query.The cache command shows the cached snapshot of any page on the web. For example: Cache of http://www.thewebpitch.com. Google typically caches the first 101K of a page and not the images. Its a great way to discover how a web page looked before it was updated.

The Filetype Command

Google indexes more than just web pages, the filetype command is a great one to use if you need to identify a particular file type as part of your search. For example, here’s a search for PDFs that contain the word iPad.  The command works equally well for PPTX, DOCX etc.

The Site Command

The site command restricts a Google key word search to a single site. For example, if I wanted to see all references to ‘Microsoft’ in my blog, I would type:  site:www.thewebpitch.com Microsoft

This is a very handy command, especially if you looking for certain keyword on a web site that has no search capability. The site command can either include or remove the ‘www’ in a web domain, removing the www will show all the sub domains from the domain which Google has found.

The Link Command

Google’s link command lists pages which “link back” to the specified website. These links are also known as "inbound Links" or "IBLs". For example, here’s a link search for www.thewebpitch.com

In general terms, a site with more link backs is more of an authority than a site with fewer link backs. However, not all link backs are of equal ranking!

The Related Command

The related command allows you to find pages which discuss a similar topic to a website that you have already found. For example, here’s a  related:www.thewebpitch.com search.

The Info Command

This command shows some  limited information about a particular page that Google has in its index. Typically, the command shows the page snippet and title as well as links to the cache or related pages. For example, here’s an info search for www.thewebpitch.com

The Define Command

 
The define  command displays Google’s glossary of definitions for a particular searched term, for example: define: Semantic Web results in definitions for ‘semantic web’ in a bullet point format with a link to the authoritative URL.

The Allintitle Command
 

This command restricts a Google search so that all the listed keywords must appear in a page’s title tag. For example: allintitle: apple iPad shows a good example of this. 

The NCR Command

This command is particularly useful if you are abroad, and Google redirects your search page to the local country you are in. If you type /ncr after google address, no redirection is made.  For example:

http://www.google.com/ncr = google.com
http://www.google.co.uk/ncr = google.co.uk

This should equally work for other countries.

Other useful search commands include:
 
The Allinurl Command
Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the page results. For example, here is a simple search for pages with 720p and video in their URLs.

The Allintext Command
Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the body text  For example here is a simple search for pages with 720p and video in their body text.

Christina Laun at the Virtual Hosting Blog comes up with 50 ways to get the most out of Google Calendar. Some are quite interesting:

Much like Gmail, Google Reader and Google’s other products, Google Calendar is fast becoming the application of choice for users all over the world. With great functionality and integration with Google’s other products it’s no wonder its popularity is growing. But chances are good that you’re not maxing out all the features of Google Calendar that you could be. Here are a few ways you can try to add to your Google Calendar experience.

Basic Tips

You might already be using Google Calendar, but are you using it to the fullest? Here are a few tips to make the most of the basic features.

1. Make use of the “other calendars” feature. Have a favorite team that you don’t want to miss a game for? Love astronomy and want to keep track of the phases of the moon? You can add both to your Google Calendar. Click the plus sign next to other calendars. From there you can add reminders on your calendar for everything from holidays to your favorite TV show schedules.
2. Change your view. You aren’t stuck with just the standard view in Google Calendar. Change yours to reflect the format that works best for you. Just go to the Settings page under the General tab and you can change your tabs along the top of the calendar to the time frame that best suits you. You can also change the day your week begins, your date and time format, whether or not to show weekends, and more.
3. Make the most of quick adds. One of the greatest features of Google Calendar is the quick add feature. Simply hit “Q” on your keyboard or click on the “Quick Add” link in the upper right side of your calendar. You don’t even have to type them in formally, plain english works just fine so long as you include the important details. If you don’t specify a time, GCal will schedule your task or event for the current or next day. Additionally, you can invite others by adding an email to the quick add box and even specify that an event should repeat all from a simple entry box.
4. Set up email event reminders. Never forget an important meeting or to pick up your dry cleaning again. With Google Calendar you can have your events emailed, texted, pop-up, or sent as SMS to you directly. Just set up reminders under Settings-Notifications.
5. Add events from Gmail. One of the features of Gmail is that it includes some basic language processing that can recognize event-related information. If it finds some, it will give you an option to add it to your calendar. Simply click on the link and you can edit the event and send it right to your calendar.
6. View the weather. You can see if your weekly events will sync up with the weather or if you’ll need to bring an extra umbrella by integrating the weather report right into your calendar. Go to Settings and General, enter your location and whether you want degrees in Celsius or Fahrenheit, and you’ll have the weather right at your fingertips.
7. Set up repeating events. Most people have at least a few regularly occurring events on their schedules. There’s no need to type them in again and again on your calendar. Use the “repeats” pull-down to select the days your event repeats weekly, monthly, or yearly.
8. Share calendars. You can create and share calendars with others using Google Calendar. Share your kickball team’s schedule, coworkers’ vacations or anything else you want by creating a new calendar and simply clicking on the “share this calendar” link.
9. Share space. Having trouble managing that conference room between different departments or among coworkers? You can use GCal to help you. Use the auto accept invitations that don’t conflict feature. It will accept any invitations to a conference room that don’t conflict with others.
10. Invite your friends. Looking for an alternative to Evite? Give GCal a try instead when you’re arranging your next get together. Though not as colorful or festive, you can send and manage event invitations through your calendar and your friends can even comment and discuss the events just like in Evite.

Scripts

Scripts make it easy for users to customize their Google Calendar experience. Try these to personalize yours and make it easier to use at the same time.

1. Display current time line. This simple Greasemonkey script creates a floating red line that displays just where you are during each day so you can keep up to the minute on what appointments are coming up.
2. Calendar feed for Gmail: Make it easy to see your calendar right from your email with this script. You’ll get a list of upcoming tasks right in your Gmail so you can email about new events easily.
3. Colorize Saturday and Sunday: Make it easy to differentiate your weekends from your weekdays with this simple script. It will cause Saturday and Sunday to appear a different color on your calendar, preventing any scheduling mishaps.
4. Extra Tabs: If you’re a lover of tabs and want a few more than Google Calendar comes standard with, then install this script. If you know a bit about scripting you can even further customize it to your needs.
5. Forecast: Bring your calendar with you anywhere on the web. This script allows you to see the next seven events on your calendar from anywhere just by clicking on a conveniently located forecast button.
6. Facebook Integration: If you’re a fan of the social networking program Facebook you’ll love this script. It allows you to easily transfer your Facebook events to your Google Calendar so you’ll never miss a get together.
7. Compact Header: Clear up your screen space by eliminating the extra stuff that goes at the top of your calendar. This script removes the header from Google Calendar, making it more streamlined and easier to use.
8. Google Calendar Skin: Air: Change the look of your GCal, Gmail, or Google Reader with this light, airy skin.
9. Google Calendar Skin: Slate: Want to make your GCal less cheery and bright? Try out this rainy day-inspired skin.
10. Google Calendar Optimized: Change the look of your GCal with this script. It will eliminate icons, change padding, and font sizes to make your calendar even easier to use.
11. Textwrap Events: Sometimes long event names can be difficult to read on Google Calendar. Fix that problem with this script that wraps text around, making it easier to read.
12. Wheel View: This script allows you to scroll through your appointments and calendars using just the wheel on your mouse.
13. GCalSecure: Keep your personal appointments private by making sure that your GCal is being used over a secure connection with this script.
14. ToDo List: Add a simple to do list to your Google Calendar using this script. You’ll be able to check off those appointments and tasks as the day goes by, giving you a sense of order and accomplishment.
15. Better GCal: This script combines several helpful scripts including skins, collapsed headers, secure connections, text wrap and more.

Extensions and Add-ons

Whether you need to integrate your calendar with your blog or your browser, these extensions can help you make the most of your experience.

1. GCal Quick Add Extension: Take your quick add function up a notch with this Firefox add on. It allows you to add tasks and events from anywhere, even when you don’t have Google Calendar open.
2. Remember the Milk: To do list enthusiasts will enjoy integrating their task lists with their calendar with this simple way to integrate the two. You’ll be able to check off any event or task in your calendar to help you keep track of what you’re getting done.
3. Firefox Full Cal: Small screens can make reading the fine print on your calendar difficult. Expand the screen real estate of your calendar with Full Cal, which eliminates the list of calendars, the mini calendar, the search box, and other stuff that takes up calendar space.
4. GCal Widget for TypePad: This easy to use widget makes it simple to share your schedule with your blog readers. You can let your loyal readers when you’ll be on vacation or won’t be able to respond to emails.
5. Google Calendar Widget for WordPress: Don’t use TypePad? This calendar widget is designed for WordPress instead. Put a small or large calendar on your blog to share upcoming events with friends and readers.
6. Google Calendar Notifier: If you have a Firefox notifier for your Gmail why not have one for your GCal as well? You’ll be able to see your daily appointments as well as those that are upcoming.
7. iGoogle Calendar Gadget: If your iGoogle page isn’t already customized enough this gadget will allow you to add your calendar into the mix, allowing you to see upcoming events every time to execute a search or open your browser.
8. Google Calendar Desktop Gadget: Vista users will appreciate this sidebar gadget. You’ll be able to get your Google Calendar right on your desktop so you can access it anytime.
9. Twittercal: Twitter isn’t just great for quick updates to your blog, you can use it to add events to your Google Calendar as well. Just send a message to the GCal bot and it will update your calendar.
10. Rainlendar: This Windows and Linux app allows you to run your Google Calendar right from your desktop, so appointments are always right at your fingertips.

Hacks and Tricks

Use these tricks and tips to make your Google Calendar better when you’re at home or when you’re away.

1. Have your schedule sent to you. Google Calendar makes it easy to get your daily agenda sent straight to you. If you’ve got GCal set up to use with your phone, getting your schedule is easy. Simply text “day” to the short code 48368.
2. Access your calendar remotely. Even when you’re on the road and can’t hook up your laptop you can still get your schedule sent to you. Text “next” to 48368 to get your next day’s schedule sent right to your phone.
3. Access your calendar from your IM client. No matter what IM client you use you can have events sent right to you with IMified. Sign up for an account and add Google Calendar with the add services link. After that you can simply text “M” to IMified using your buddy list, and a small menu containing your calendar will pop up allowing you to see and change appointments without opening any additional programs.
4. Use keyboard shortcuts. Google Calendar is chock full of keyboard shortcuts that can speed up your appointment making. You can check out a complete list of the shortcuts here.
5. Use keyword access on Firefox. You can make accessing Google Calendar in Firefox as simple as pressing a key. Bookmark GCal and add a short simple keyword that you can type in and bring it up quickly and easily.
6. Make Google Calendar your desktop background. This guide from Lifehacker will tell you how you can make Google Calendar your desktop background in Windows XP. It’s a great digital alternative to the giant paper desktop calendars.
7. Google Calendar Mobile: This program from Google makes it easy to access Google Calendar right from your phone. Just go to calendar.google.com on your phone and you’ll get a phone sized version of GCal.

Calendar Syncs

Many people can’t just get down to one calendar. Here are some programs to make using multiple calendars easy.

1. GCalDaemon iCalendar Sync: Mac users will be happy to sync up their iCalendars with this easy-to-use program.
2. SyncMyCal for Outlook: Outlook is one of the most popular calendar programs and you can easily sync up your appointments in Outlook with your Google Calendar using this simple program.
3. Calgoo: This multi-platform program will make it simple to sync up your Google Calendar, iCal or Outlook, making it easy to use all three without missing a beat.
4. Google Calendar Quick Import: This script allows users to quickly import appointments from iCal right into Google Calendar.
5. Goosync: This program will enable you to sync up your Google Calendar with your mobile phone or PDA quickly and easily.
6. GData Provider: With this program, you’ll be able to access and change Google Calendar from Thunderbird or Sunbird.
7. Remote Calendars: This add on for Outlook 2003 allows users two-way sync with multiple calendar programs including Google Calendar.
8. Google Sync for Blackberry: Don’t miss out on your Google Calendar while you’re using your Blackberry. Use this program from Google to easily sync up the two.

Hat tip to Brady

This is huge!  One API to rule them all?  Finally, a common standard for developers to write social utility apps. 2008 IS going to be the year of the social network app.

Google has announced OpenSocial, a new open API for social networks. The new standard will allow developers to create Facebook-like apps on any social network site that implements it with the same calls.

The open API will have three parts

• People
• Storage
• Activity stream

All of these calls will have a GData counterpart and they will use HTML and Javascript only. On Thursday the following links should go live:

• http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial — the documentation for OpenSocial
• http://sandbox.orkut.com – a sandbox for testing apps

Google’s launch partners are hi5, iLike, Slide, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning and SixApart (the largest). Check out Techmeme, Techcrunch, and the New York Times for more coverage.

Google will be holding the first of their developer CampFires at the GooglePlex this Friday to explain OpenSocial. A CampFire is Google’s new method of disseminating information to developers. These events will be invite-only and will include about thirty developers. Video of the event will be available in the days following.

Google’s OpenSocial API will gain traction with a lot of social networks, but I doubt that we will see Facebook or MySpace supporting it. Both are large enough to require their own API.