Firefox Sidebar + Google IG = Useful on any platform

Posted on July 15, 2006, 1:39 pm, by EricaJoy, under Google.

Whenever I’m on my Mac or Linux box, I miss the functionality of my Google Desktop Sidebar. I like being able to have a to do list, my Google calendar, and other various useful things right at my fingertips. I got to thinking about the Firefox Sidebar yesterday and how I could use that along with my Personalized Google page to make a sidebar I could use on any OS. Once I did it, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done it sooner. I’m quite sure some enterprising person has already done this and it was posted on Lifehacker ages ago, but once again, its new to me. Anywho, here’s what I did.

1) If you don’t already have it, install Firefox.
2) Using Firefox, browse to http://www.google.com/ig
3) Line up all your Gadgets on the left, putting the ones you’ll use most at the top.
4) Once you’ve got everything arranged, bookmark that page and give it the name Google IG.
5) Open Bookmarks in the toolbar and select Manage Bookmarks.
6) Highlight the Google IG bookmark and click on the Properties button.
7) In the Properties dialog check the box next to “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” then click OK.
8) Double click the Google IG bookmark and it should load in the sidebar.
9) Close the Bookmarks Manager and enjoy. :)

To make your Google IG book more accessible, your can put it in your Bookmarks Toolbar.

Edit: Hey 50th post! Where’s the falling balloons and cupcakes?

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  • helmi

    Cool! nice little tric

  • Kruykaze

    ALSO remember to check “remember last opened site” IMPORTANT!!

  • jillian

    Wow! Brilliant hack! Thank you so much.

  • Hansel

    Nice and easy. Great tip and I am using it now.

  • daedal

    Nice idea. I’ll definitly give this one a shot and see how it works out for me.

  • Hashim

    nice and simple! Good stuff.

    I just subscribed too.

  • PHil

    Cool idea

  • Prashant

    Thanks Erica. I am putting this in my blog.

  • 肥熊李

    cool! Cross the OS barrier ;-)
    我可以完全转移到Linux下工作了,
    看来生活不缺少美和智慧,缺少的是发现美和智慧的眼睛.

  • jason

    Cool!! YES!

    I can see a “To Do” in the screenshot… how can I get one?
    Thanks!

  • Jill

    Great idea!

  • EricaJoy

    Yang – I thought about trying my hand at a Greasemonkey script…maybe one day.

    Rapture – Mobile would be perfect if it displayed all your gadgets without having to click More.

    Jimmy – i kinda like it that way so danke for the compliment. :)

    Nick Schmidt – Point me to where I can download a Mac\Linux version of Google Desktop. ;)

    sam – nicely done!

    PictureRipper\drkN\Pallab De – Rock on with your Opera selves…I likesa my Firefox but woot if you can do this in Opera too.

  • Jake

    Mine is still dividing into three columns. How can I fix that?

  • Frank

    Very nice hack !!!

    Thanks Erica !!!

  • turo

    Awesome!
    I thought you’ve created a new plugin or something like this, but this is much better and simple ^_^ !!

    Thanks!

  • Fordi

    Avoid having to line stuff up:
    http://www.google.com/ig/mobile?output=pda&hl=en
    Will give you a single-column javascriptless optimized version of your page. Sure, it’s less functional, but you can reserve a bookmark to use your fully-functional page anyway. Meanwhile, you have your feeds, weather, email and calendar in one easy to get at place.

  • sebdotv

    Thanks for the trick, I love it!

    Maybe the next step is to use Greasemonkey to change the layout of the Google page so that images and text aren’t cropped.

    I had the same idea, but unfortunately user scripts are not run on sidebar: greasemonkey bug #9651

  • kshery

    To Jason:

    You can get a ToDo by opening your Google Homepage, click on: Add Content, located in the upper right corner. A new tab/window will open. ToDo is located in the Tools section. Have fun looking!

  • john

    thanks erica!!!

  • Karthik

    Nice Idea I ‘ll Check it Out..

  • Ian

    Did this stop working today, or is it just me? As of today, my sidebar content is squeezed over to the left 1/3 of the window.

    I also notice that if you open google.com/ig in the main window, the column now automatically resizes to 1/3 of the window as you change the window size. I’m pretty sure that it used to be a fixed width column.

    Is this feature now broken?

  • queenkv

    Hey Ian,

    I’m having the same problem….is this permanent for google/ig?

    queenkv

  • Sean Wilson

    It’s not just you. My google is also doing the same thing. The sidebar content is squeezed over and I am not sure if it is a Firefox upgrade issue or if Google has changed the way the homepage is displayed

  • Dave

    Same problem for me! :(

  • Anand

    I am also having the problem of squeezed. Is this trick short lived? I wil have to go back to google desktop now for consolidated plugins.

  • EricaJoy

    Heya folks,

    I’m having the same problems. Let me ask around and see what I can find out…I’ll keep you posted.

    -EJ

  • sebdotv

    Hi,

    Thanks for the great tip Erica.
    I made a quick Firefox extension to fix the problem with the squeezed column – which I’m not sure if it was due to a Google change or to Firefox 1.5.0.6.

    Anyway, this extension brings our beloved IG-in-sidebar back and also features an improved layout.

    More information available at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3130/

    sebdotv

  • Aannd

    Great the plugin works like a charm. Thanks Sebdotv!

  • Anand

    Spoke too early, even though the plugin works for squeeze part but on clicking a link it tries to open the page on the sidebar itself :( for example digg. So I am still looking for the plain old setup.

  • Dave

    https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3130/

    Updated! now links work perfectly!!

    Great!

  • http://pixelbits.wordpress.com/ Mona N.

    COMMENT!

  • http://pixelbits.wordpress.com/ Mona N.

    COMMENT!

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