How Chrome users can scrub Yahoo logo off Flickr

Those of you who hate the recent arrival of Yahoo's logo on Flickr now have an easy way to erase it--and get a number of useful features--as long as you're using an edgy version of Chrome.

Fittr Flickr lets you click 'EXIF' to expand a box below the image to show photo details.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Chrome extensions let people customize the browser's behavior, and the Fittr Flickr extension from Gmail programmer Dan Pupius whips Yahoo's photo-sharing site into shape. Some people use extensions for using Delicious bookmarks, banishing ads, and filling out forms, but this is my favorite Chrome extension so far. You can also download Fittr from Download.com.

The Yahoo logo is ugly but not too bothersome in my eyes. Instead, what I like best about Fittr Flickr is its keyboard navigation options. Once the extension is installed, you can type "?" to see the options, but the two I now use a lot are "." and "," to navigate forward and backward through a person's photostream. Typing "s" will star a photo as a favorite, and in a nice Google touch harkening to the vi text editor, "/" will put your cursor in the search field.

To use Chrome extensions, though, you must be using the developer preview version of the browser, since extensions are something of a work in progress. (Click to download for Windows or Mac OS X.) I've had to restart Chrome sometimes to enable the last two extensions I tried out.

Another nice feature for pixel-peepers such as myself is the addition of an EXIF button below the photo that reveals camera, lens, and exposure details without navigating away from the photo. Nearby are direct links to the small, medium, and large version of the photos.

There are some other nice tidbits, too, involving viewing photos against a black background, comments, and other matters.

Yahoo has to make Flickr appeal to a large swath of people, most of whom probably don't care about these options. But for me, they unlock some of Flickr's potential.

Firefox users who want similar technology can try Dustin Diaz's Quickr Flickr script, which requires the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox to be installed before the script can be added. Greasemonkey fans also can use a number of scripts that will un-Yahoo the logo.

[Guillaumeb]

Well that's d be pretty dumb to do that . it's not like Yahoo! killed Flickr when they bought it...

[AC2010]

I wonder how Google would feel if somebody from Yahoo wrote a plug-in that removed the Google logo from their search results.

[t8]

Did just that.
http://www.stunningsearch.com/

[honorable1]

Sounds like a great case against Foolgle for Unfair competition. Yahoo has the 'exclusive' right to control how their website is presented to the user. Nevermind that the user can adjust the fonts etc. The sum totality of the website 'presentation' is being subverted by Foolgle. I hope Yahoo sues the he11 out of them.

[WelshMullet]

It can't be unfair competition, you can do it to practically any site using a greasemonkey script.

[exactlyy]

thats just weird.. i mean 3 topics in a week about chrome and by the same writer.. and the most populer topic among them had 10 comments.. 2 of them talked about the charm of chrome.. 7 said chrome sucked and one post by the writer of the topic ..so if people dont actually read or care about chrome, why you keep writing about the same topic over and over ? i mean there are many things around that you can talk about for instance the pre-release of firefox 3.6 b1.
now back to topic..
if google team can make extensions to hack flicker wouldnt it be much better for them to make somthing like ABP or No Script ? do they have nothing better to do ?? i mean for them as for us..time =money , why w'd anyone waste his time..coding/installing such an "extension" . and after all the writer makes it looks like a stargate project .

[Shankland]

I cover Chrome a lot because it's fast moving and interesting and from a major Web-savvy company. How many other browsers are getting O3D and Native Client and Gears built in or are a foundation for the equivalent of Chrome OS? Google isn't just playing catch-up, it's pushing the envelope. I thought Greasemonkey is interesting, but using it is a two-step process: install Greasemonkey extension, then install the script you want. With Chrome extensions, that's one step, which I think will mean some extension innovation, too.

Re AdBlock plus, my feeling is that Google is more interested in letting others flesh out the extension world. I think the Gmail programmer who build Fittr Flickr did it on his own time, not as part of any official Google priority. I can imagine Google would be sensitive about something that erased a primary competitor's brand.

I get a lot of feedback about Chrome, and I think people do care. There aren't as many users, but there's more than market share and comment totals that determine what I choose to write about. I considered writing the Firefox 3.6b1 news today, but since it's only on an FTP site for testing and possible changes before the real version is issued next week, I left it at a tweet. There's plenty going on in the browser world--I quite enjoy it overall.

[cdwilliams1]

Well said, was feeling the same way myself. Must be a seriously slow news day or something! As far as getting O3D and gears and all that.... I'm not all that excited about it. Sure I guess it's cool a browser can now do what other rich-client apps have been able to do for years, or even other browsers can do via plug-in. I think it's fairly lame though. This whole "cloud" and browser business is a big yawn. Oooohh Oooh I can edit a spreadsheet ON THE WEB ZOMG! Sure it's neat but you can run a web server on a Commodore 64 too. The "neat" factor is there but really what's the point? There are other tools that are more mature, do it faster, and do it better. Just because it's now "Web 2.0 enabled" doesn't mean it's groundbreaking. It just means your marketing team like buzzwords and wants to sell the PHB's something they already own.

[db2not]

RIGHT ON BROTHER (I presume:)) As far as Mr Shankland (or whatever his real name is [ tongue-tightly-in-cheek] ) if something isn't from google it isn't very useful... long live www.colabopad.com, Yes I did get your response.

[t8]

I care about Chrome.

It is where much innovation for the web client is taking place right now.

[exactlyy]

@ Shankland .
1st off , i'd like to apologize if i sounded arrogant , guess its cuz i slept only 2 hours in the last days..this can turn any human being into a monster :) .
All i wanted to say is that i have a big respect for cnet and all its writers..and specially you .. i just couldnt understand all the hype about chrome.. and if you scroll only the 1st pageof Deep Tech section you''l find the following topics ..

October 8, 2009 10:45 AM PDT
Web of Trust extension comes to Chrome
October 8, 2009 7:49 PM PDT
WebGL slips into Chrome, too, for 3D Web
October 14, 2009 10:19 AM PDT
Chrome Mac beta nearer; Win 7 features recede
October 15, 2009 5:00 AM PDT
How Chrome users can scrub Yahoo logo off Flickr

so thats 4 topics about Chrome in 7 days only ..and i agree the ones about WebGL and the Mec versions are great ..cuz thats News and thats what people want to know.. but the extensions of WebTrust and hacking yahoo icon ?? i dont think so
and my point is Chrome..got only 3% of the market share..and i belive less than 1.5% of this site visitors actually using chrome.. "that w'd be a great article if you tell us how many visitor you got for the last 30 days and what browsers were used and the percent of each browser " , all i am saying is be fair to the ones who like to read your articles but may have no interest in google's Chrome .
Sorry again and best regards .

[nichts925]

Since when does something have to be popular in the tech world to gain news coverage? Chrome may not be the most popular browser, but it is arguably the most innovative and it's growth has been pretty remarkable for only being out for a year. It's something worth writing news articles about.

[dpower123]

It just shows me that this recession wasn't deep enough if people have time to worry about the Yahoo logo on Flickr. Grow up.

[Charismatic_tunes]

What a dumb stuff.

[chobblr]

why is everyone one moaning about the Yahoo logo being scrub, its no biggie the extension is good and its nice to see cnet take interest in a new browser just because the browser market shares are low dont mean that a site shouldn't take notice of something good it offers .

the whole point of extensions is to make things easer or better

[mikexeter]

What is this all about how strange a subject to be discussing. Flickr is down.

[queticomn]

@exactlyy ^5 Bro

And where are the IDEAS coming from for chrome extension's? Add-on's that have already been built for FireFox! that's where!

And umm, GE wizz, google has such a small market share in the browser area yet receives so much coverage, What is C-Net a walking billboard for google? I'm mean common, if C-Net want's to talk web savvy and technology then why not more articles on Linux, and HAIKU, small market share, but Very Savvy. Heck C-Net even tries to rate cars now *haha* they better. I thought that was "car-craft's job?

HAIKU-OS Alpha1 boots in 8 seconds on my desktop. I thought that was impressive. The extension above, just a grease monkey rip.

[queticomn]

@exactlyy

I get my biggest, widest, baddest, tallest tech savey news from Slashdot, just scroogle search them.
and for car info scroogle CarCraft.