Webware

The browser wars are heating up again. Microsoft's touting the improved performance and security of Internet Explorer 8, dozens of new Firefox extensions are released every day, and, according to Apple, Safari 4 will be even faster than its speedy predecessor. Meanwhile, Opera just keeps chugging along at version 9.64, with version 10 beta 3 now available.

Just a few weeks ago, Google announced its plans to create an operating system based on Chrome. Considering that the browser itself is barely a year old, such plans may be premature. Then again, maybe not. But for right now, I'll keep looking for ways to make the Chrome browser more useful.

Last June, I described ways to change Chrome's default settings. Here's a look at ways to revamp the browser's interface and access some of its useful hidden features.

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On Wednesday Google released two small but important updates to the mobile version of Gmail. New to the service are keyboard shortcuts and address auto-completion; two time-saving features that desktop Gmail users have been enjoying for years.

The keyboard shortcuts (obviously) do not work on the iPhone. For now, Google is limiting them to Android phones with a physical keyboard. These are exactly the same as on the desktop version, so you don't need to re-learn anything.

(Credit: CNET)

The auto-completion, on the other hand, is available to everyone and is quite a time saver. It begins pulling up names from your contacts as soon as you type just one letter.

Auto-completion only works in the "to" field when typing a new e-mail though, and does not work on Gmail's search like you're able to do on the desktop variant by using the Gmail labs add-on. Hopefully that feature will trickle down to this mobile version, since it's immensely helpful when trying to add search operators, or sort out messages from specific contacts.

One thing to note is that these new features are only available in the English version of Gmail mobile. Google has not said if, or when, they will make their way to other localizations of the service.

Why pay list price? Especially now, when you're probably watching every penny? One of the best ways to get a deal on anything is to use a coupon. But instead of searching around the house for scissors and chopping up circulars, check out these 18 online services that give you what you need to save you cash on your next purchase.

Adpera It might not provide coupons in the conventional sense, but Adpera finds the best e-mail ads from retailers and displays them on the site. From designer sportswear to shoes and housewares, Adpera's selection is incredible. And searching for and finding deals is made simple with the help of a prominent search box at the top of the page. Adpera is basically one big spam folder. But instead of annoying you, it actually saves you some cash.

CoolSavings If you're looking for a full-featured site that includes both printable and online coupons from retailers on a wide range of disciplines, CoolSavings is for you. The site offers coupons for companies that you might have never heard of, and some that that are probably right down the street. The sheer quantity of coupons on CoolSavings is amazing. Unfortunately, though, CoolSavings' collection of free coupons isn't that helpful. In order to access the more sought-after deals, you'll need to sign up for the site. Once you do, you'll be happy: from personal finance to groceries, there are coupons for everything on CoolSavings.

Coupious is unique and worth using.

(Credit: Coupious)

Coupious Coupious is one of the coolest services in this roundup. A mobile app, it can be installed on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android-based phone. With the help of those devices' location services, it actively searches for businesses around your location and finds coupons while you're on the go. I've tried it on numerous occasions and have been amazed at its speed and relevance. Once you're ready to use one of the coupons it finds, you need only to click "Use now" and you're all set. And it's free.

CouponAlbum CouponAlbum is huge. That's the best way to describe it. Unlike some services that specialize in a particular area, CouponAlbum wants to be your one-stop shop for everything that's on sale right now. Whether it's software, toys, sporting goods, or food, the site has it all. And since it's updated weekly, you'll never run out of deals.

CouponCabin When I'm looking to save a few bucks, one of my first destinations is always CouponCabin. Unlike other sites that throw any company's deal at you, CouponCabin sticks to major stores like Target, Walmart, GameStop, and a few others. All the coupons are up-to-date and new deals are placed on the site every week. And since you can search by company or category, you probably won't miss a single deal at the places you frequent.

CouponGood If you're an online shopper, CouponGood is a good first place to check before you decide to buy something. The site provides coupons for online companies exclusively. With the help of a simple design, it makes it easy to find any deal you're looking for. Simply input the URL of a company that you're considering buying from and the site will see if it has any active coupons available. Based on my testing, every site I searched for had at least one active coupon, ranging from free shipping to 20 percent discounts. And since the site's free, you'll only need to click a link or input a code at checkout to activate it.

CouponMom CouponMom is targeted at, you guessed it, mothers, but I'm not sure it's even worth trying out. The site requires you to sign up and promises big deals, but when I used it, I quickly realized it couldn't compete on any level with Coupons.com. It's an alternative if for some reason you don't like Coupons.com.

Coupons.com is a fine coupon service.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

Coupons.com When you're getting ready to go to the local supermarket or grocery, go to Coupons.com before you leave. The site offers a variety of printable coupons on goods ranging from food to cleaning supplies and they're available for use anywhere the products are sold. I use Coupons.com each week and I save myself at least $10 in grocery costs during that time. It's an extremely useful site that's designed well and makes it easy to find coupons. It's a must-see.

What's even better than getting grocery store coupons online? Getting them from your cell phone. AOL has released a version of its online coupons service, Shortcuts.com, that's now optimized for viewing from the mobile phone.

Cellfire and Shortcuts.com want your Ralph's Club Card number.

(Credit: CNET)

Coupons for popular cereal and a jumbo pack of Pull-Ups Training Pants greet you when you navigate to Shortcuts.com from the mobile browser. After you've registered your savings club card with Shortcuts.com, you'll be able to add vouchers like these directly to your account, and redeem them in-store without a paper receipt.

The new mobile focus on Shortcuts.com's service puts some heat on Cellfire (coverage), a native coupons application built for a variety of mobile phones. While Cellfire branches out beyond grocery stores to get you coupons to local and national chain restaurants and other retail shops, Cellfire is also gunning for the supermarket tie-in. On Ralph's supermarket Web site, for instance, Cellfire and Shortcuts.com are neck-and-neck for advertising space.

The competition between mobile coupon purveyors is, of course, wonderful for the consumer, who could link their savings card with both services and possibly double the number of coupons to whittle down a bill. That is, so long as the savings arrive for grocery items you'd actually use, and for stores that are already on your warpath. Shortcuts.com has some coupons I would want to use, but none of its 14 partner markets is within a 60 mile radius of where I shop for food. Here's hoping that the undisclosed grocery store AOL says it will partner with this spring is the one situated just down the street.

[Via Geek.com]

If you're a keyboard shortcut junkie in Google Reader, Gmail and Google Docs you might have noticed Google.com, the mother of all Google services, is a bit lacking in the keyboard shortcuts department. There is currently an official Google-sanctioned experimental keyboard shortcuts program you can opt into, although there's the slight chance that the company may one day kill it off. That and it won't remember to give you the shortcut keys the next time you search if you're not signed in to your Google account.

If both of these things are holding you back from keyboard shortcut dominance, worth downloading is Janakan Arulkumarasan's Google Keyboard Shortcuts extension for Firefox. When installed you can simply use your arrow keys to sift through the results, which get highlighted in a lovely pallid yellow. There are two ways to open up the result links: you can either hit enter, which opens the link in a new window, or enter plus control which opens it up in a new tab. The extension trumps Google's own keyboard shortcuts program in this regard.

As with many of the other neat extensions we've blogged about recently, Google Keyboard Shortcuts is experimental, which means you have to be registered with Mozilla's add-ons site to download it.

Once installed the Google Keyboard Shortcuts extension lets you browse through search results using your arrow keys.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

This morning, SMS reminder service Kwiry is adding a new tool to its repertoire called shortcuts. It goes beyond the original implementation of adding keywords and photos to look up later, and turns it into a tool that links up with various Web services you might be using.

The first implementation of that is with Netflix. If you're a subscriber of the DVD-by-mail service, you're now able to simply send an SMS to the service with "Netflix" and the movie title and it will automatically be added to your queue. This is one of those things that's just genius--if you overhear someone talking about a movie you can simply send a quick text message and have it show up on your doorstep. There's no need to log in to Netflix from your phone (which only works on a few handsets) or scribble it down somewhere for later.

Amazon.com users also have their own shortcut that's not nearly as sexy as the one for Netflix, but still useful. Texting "Amazon" with a product name will add it to your wish list. Like the Netflix implementation, this has been set up to let you track it down later just like you would a search query, but with the eventual intent to buy. As part of a promotion, the company will be buying a Kwiry'd item someone's put on their wish list each week for the next few months.

Besides Netflix and Amazon, Kwiry has also added some GTD tasking utilities, including support for writing a to-do list and adding events to your Web calendar using the same shortcode. It will convert things like days of the week into the proper date and time in whatever calendaring tool you're using. Likewise, the to-do list you put together can be edited and rearranged back in Kwiry. I think these two items are going to be used less than the Netflix and Amazon look-up, but it's a sign of other things to come from this search look-up tool.

As I've said before, I think Kwiry is a fun little tool if you don't have the time to fire up your phone's Web browser, or if you're one of the millions of folks with an older handset. The only crux here is that SMS fees continue to go up, and using this a few times a day can really add up unless you've got a good texting plan from your carrier.

Kwiry users can now add Netflix movies to their queue and items from Amazon onto their Amazon wish lists with shortcode messages.

(Credit: Kwiry)

Yahoo recently launched an interesting tool for Wordpress bloggers: Yahoo Shortcuts. It's important, not so much for what it does but for the trend it indicates.

Yahoo Shortcuts will watch as you write, and tell you when it finds potential links.

But first, here is what it does: It's a plugin that people running Wordpress blogs can install for free. When it's installed on a Wordpress server, it monitors what the blog's author is writing, and lets the writer know that it has related links it can automatically insert. Locations get links to maps, products get links to prices, public companies get links to stock prices, and so on. For each potential link Yahoo finds, authors can determine if they want it, and if they do, if the link should be a pop-up box on mouse hover, or a picture-like "badge" that's embedded in the post like a picture. It's reminiscent of those annoying automatic Intellitxt advertising links you see on some sites, except it's not advertising per se, and it's not nearly as annoying.

The system also recommends Flickr images based on key words in the blog post, which makes it a really great tool if you want to add decent art to any post. The images all carry the photographer's credit and link to his or her Flickr archive.

Posts written with shortcuts can get Flickr photos (upper left) as well as pop-up Yahoo results, like maps.

My first take on Shortcuts is that it is very good utility--for Yahoo. All the links, with the exception of the Flickr photos, are branded by Yahoo and link to Yahoo services. That's not such a horrid thing, since the information in the pop-ups can be useful and since the author has approval rights on all links. But if you use this utility it does kind of make you Yahoo's play toy.

But like I said, from a Yahoo strategy perspective, it's smart. It puts Yahoo services and the brand in front of people who aren't actually engaged with Yahoo at all. This service is a great example of what publishers can do to fight back against the fragmentation of traffic on the Web. If users are going every which where to get information, the big publishers, like Yahoo will do well to follow them, by offering services that attach to the long tail of content.