Background

Have you heard about Google’s latest service – Google Cloud Print?

It’s a cool service which allows you to print stuff from your home printer using any other computer in the world or even (and especially) mobile devices.

The service is still in beta, so right now you can only print through mobile devices with HTML5 compliant browsers which can access Google’s Gmail and Docs mobile version.
They claim that their next step is embedding this functionality in Chrome OS notebooks.

It kind of looks like they skipped over Google Chrome’s version.
That’s why I developed an extension for Google Chrome through which you may print using the Google Cloud Print service to any of your connected printers.

I encountered quite a few technical challenges while developing this extension. But I’ve overcome all of then and I’m proud to present the final outcome.
Everyone is welcome to download and study the extension’s source code.

Download

You may download the extension here: (A 5 star rating will be greatly appreciated :)
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ffaifmgpcdjedlffbhenaloimajbdkfg

What does the extension do?

The extension gives you the ability to print any doc/pdf/txt file, Gmail attachment, email or Google Docs document using Google Cloud Print™.

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of the extension in action:

Some more screenshots people took I found on Flicker:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nda/5411410871/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nda/5411411069/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nda/5411410263/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nda/5411410395/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nda/5411410871/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nda/5412023376/

Instructions

Print a pdf/doc/txt/jpg/jpeg file

Navigate your way to the desired file and click the extension’s icon.

The icon will appear on the left side of the address bar only when the current tab’s URL ends with .pdf, .doc or .txt.

Print a Gmail attachment or email

Look for the “Print using Google Cloud Print” links (you can see where they are located in the screenshots).

Print a Google Docs document

Open a document and click File > Print using Google Cloud Print.

Demo Video

Here is a demo video of the extension in action (thanks to Digital Inspiration):

Changelog

Version 0.31 (5/3/1011)

Version 0.3 (15/2/1011)

Version 0.22 (10/2/1011)

Version 0.21 (9/2/1011)

Version 0.2 (7/2/1011)

Press

This extension has been broadly reviewed by bloggers and news sites:

Feedback

Please leave any feedback / suggestions you might have at the extension’s feedback forum (no registration needed):
http://printusinggooglecloudprint.uservoice.com

or in the comments section below, or by contacting me.

Learn more

About Google Cloud Print™:
http://www.google.com/support/cloudprint/
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/p/cloudprint.html
http://code.google.com/apis/cloudprint/docs/overview.html

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You can extract and view any Google Chrome extension’s full source code following the following easy steps.

Every Google Chrome extension is basically a CRX file. When you click the “Install” button on the Google Chrome extension gallery you are basically clicking a link of the extension’s CRX file.

The first step is downloading the extension’s CRX file. Instead of clicking it’s link, which will lead to that extension being installed on your browser, right-click the link and choose “Save link as…”.

Now that you have the CRX file on your computer, rename it’s extension from CRX to ZIP. Turns out that every CRX file is a renamed ZIP archive of the extension.

All there is left to do is extract the ZIP archive to the desired destination. The full code of the Chrome extension is there.

Have fun exploring other peoples code!

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dot comHave a look at your browser’s address bar – your sight is just fine. You actually are on orenyomtov.com as opposed to this morning, when this website lived under the .info TLD.

It has been quite a long time since I made the decision to move to the new domain. But there were two drawbacks which delayed the domain transfer. The first one is lack of time, and the second one is… Well, my laziness.

Anyways, I thought I would share some of the steps I took in order to move the website to the new domain. I was lucky enough that I didn’t have to change hosts. Doing that may have required some additional steps.

  1. I bought the new domain and linked it to my hosting.
  2. I downloaded the latest WordPress installation and uploaded it into the new domain by FTP (Looking for an FTP client?).
  3. I copied the wp-content folder. And in my case, the “downloads” folder which is the folder I chose to store the uploads in (Default is wp-content/uploads).
  4. I also copied the wp-config.php file and the .htaccess file.
  5. I used the Search and Replace WordPress plugin to replace “orenyomtov.info” with “orenyomtov.com” in the database.
  6. I notified Google of the domain change in Google Webmaster Tools.
  7. I exported a new sitemap using the Google XML Sitemap Generator plugin and submitted it to Google Webmaster Tools.
  8. I opened a new Google Analytics account and deployed the new tracking code in the theme I copied in step 3.
  9. I edited the old .htaccess file to contain only:
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule (.*) http://orenyomtov.com/$1 [R=301,L]
  10. I updated my FeedBurner account and all other similar services.
  11. I updated my website to the new URL in all of my favorite social platforms (@orenyomtov) and forums.
  12. Twit twit.
  13. And then I began writing this post.

The move didn’t take as long as I expected it to take. Even though it does seem a little complicated after writing it all down.

I hope that your move will be as smooth as mine. Good luck, Oren.

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Google Text Size Change - Before and after
Are you asking yourself “Did Google just change their front search page?”, The answer is yes.
Now officially announced in their blog, The size of the buttons, text, logo and text box has increased at google.com or at any other local google home page.

This change is not browser specific and it has been verified that the change includes but not limited to: Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.
Google says at their blog post that this change was made in order to emphasize their goal as a search engine and to show that their focus is always on search.

When I first saw the change I was convinced that me screwing around with Google Chrome’s preferences or something simillar has caused the text to be bigger until I saw Google’s post at their blog. Then I realized that It does not only happen in my computer, it happens everywhere.
Anyway, now that we are aware of actual reason, I wish you all Happy Googleing!

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I just wanted to let you all know that Gmail is no longer in beta mode.
You can see for yourself when you enter Gmail and get the following logo:
Gmail logo not beta

It took Google five (!) years to go from Gmail beta to an official release. I don’t think that any major updates have been added to Gmail’s interface recently except for the drag n’ drop interface.

Anyways, I think Gmail is awesome and if you don’t use it then you have no idea what I’m talking about.

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24.05.2009

WordPress at Google
WordPress is a great search engine optimized system even right out of the box but there is a lot more to do if you want to improve it.
If you have a blog or a website, you probably want people to come and read what you have there and this is where the SEO comes into place.
About eighty percent of a website’s traffic (traffic = visitors) comes from search engines like Google. If you want to increase the traffic coming from search engines you need to rank higher in the results, in order to do so you need to search engine optimize your website.

The most important things you need to do with your WordPress website are:

Remember, at the end of the day, your website is not for Google’s crawlers. It’s for humans, average users like you and me. So you need to keep the balance between what’s good for search engine optimizing, and what’s good for your readers.

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