"Top FIVE" Google Based FireFox Extensions

There are multiple Top 10, Top 20, Top ‘so many’ lists of add-ons for our friendly giant browser Firefox. We decided to do what many of these add-ons itself do as a sole function: sort and filter information. Thus this is a list of 5 extensions for Firefox, released over the past months, but strictly only for Google and Gmail. Next we will do another subsection of FireFox add-ons, possibly Download enhancing ones; but for now check these basic bread and butter Google/Gmail enhancers.

Google Indic Transliteration 1.0.5

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Probably the most important add-on for us Indian users, this little gem allows us to type in Indian scripts, much more easily then actually installing separate language packs. Thus we have access to languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam etc. It works in Text Boxes and Gmail, Zoho Mail etc.

Offline Access to Gmail

The folks at Gmail Labs have been busy and they're now dishing out offline access to Gmail.

On enabling offline access, Gmail will load in your browser even if you don't have an internet connection. You can read messages, star, label and archive them, compose new mail and messages ready to be sent will wait in your Outbox until you're online again.

It's built on the Gears platform, which has already been used to offline-enable Google Docs, Google Reader, and other third-party web applications.

To get started with offline Gmail -

- Sign in to Gmail and click 'Settings'.

- Click the 'Labs' tab and select 'Enable' next to 'Offline Gmail'.

- Click 'Save Changes.'

- In the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username, there will be a new 'Offline' link. Click this link to start the offline synchronization process.

Standard Edition users can follow these instructions immediately, while Premier and Education Edition users will first need their domain admins to enable Gmail Labs from the Google Apps admin control panel.

GOOGLE - The harmful search engine for earth!!!

Environmental experts warned that browsing a website like Google could cause as much damage to the environment by generating more carbon dioxide as the aviation industry.
Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate the same amount of harmful carbon dioxide as boiling an electric kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research quoted Sunday.If you do a Google search once, it generates about seven grams of carbon dioxide -- about one half of boiling a kettle of water for tea, which produces about 15 grams.
Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross, a physicist from Harvard University, has calculated how much a single visit to a website produces CO2. It produces about 0.02 grams of CO2 for every second they are viewed. If the site has more multimedia features, then it will produce even more CO2 amounts close to 0.20 grams. "A Google search has a definite environmental impact," says Alex Wissner-Gross, whose research is due out soon.
The newspaper said "Google" is "secretive" about its energy consumption and carbon footprint, and refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres.
"However, with 200 million internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern," the newspaper said.A recent report by information technology analysts Gartner said the global IT industry generates as much greenhouse gas - which contribute to global warming - as the airlines industry.
The Google system, which sends search queries to several competing servers that may be thousands of miles apart, "minimizes delays but raises energy consumption".Wissner-Gross has submitted his research for publication by the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and has set up a website www.co2stats.com (Click here to visit...)
"Google is very efficient but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy," the physicist said.

But Google said, "We are among the most efficient of all internet search providers."

But just think, had there been no search engine like Google, then more CO2 would have been produced cause people then had to guess website address and waste more time and what Dr. Alex calculated: 0.02 grams of CO2 for every second they are viewed. If the site has more multimedia features, then it will produce even more CO2 amounts close to 0.20 grams... I think CO2 emission would be much more greater in absense of Google like search engines.

Google introduces SMS Text Messaging for Chat

GOOD NEWS FOR Gmail Users!!!!!!Gmail users can now use text messaging for chat by just clicking on "Settings" in their Gmail accounts and then going to the "Labs" tab and just scrolling down until they see the brand new feature called "Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat" and selecting "Enable" and "Save Changes". Although this facility is now limited to cell phones in the US, gmail users can send texts to their friends with US phone numbers from anywhere in the world. The receiver of the SMS though, may be charged by their mobile carrier. Users can just type a phone number into the search box in the chat window on the left, then tpye the message in the box provided and then click "Send SMS". The receiver of the SMS can respond to it and the response will come back in IM form.