GripIE is a plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that integrates itself nicely in the Internet Explorer toolbar. It is assisting the user in downloading multiple media files at once from the active website. Supported are image, video and audio formats that are either embedded in or linked from the website.

A click on the GripIE icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar opens the plugin. I had the difficulty that the popup blocker blocked the plugin at first and that I had to allow it on a per site basis to use it. The popup blocker can be bypassed by clicking on the GripIE icon while pressing the CTRL key.

Once loaded it presents a color coded list of files that it detected. Images are light blue while movies are dark blue for instance. Each of the available media files can be filtered so that only the interesting files are displayed in the list sorted by server. Each file can be selected individually in the interface but it is also possible to check a server directly which will download all files from that server.

continue reading "GripIE Mass Downloader Plugin for Internet Explorer"

Cookies, or more precisely HTTP cookies, are small text files that are stored on a users computer when he visits a website that is making use of them. They can store session information, shopping cart contents, website preferences, can be used for authentication and for tracking the user.

The first applications are beneficial and most of the time necessary to use all of the functions of a website. Blocking cookies on a website that is storing session information in them will have the result that the user is asked for authentication whenever he loads a new page on the server.

Tracking cookies on the other hand do not benefit the user at all unless you would say that targeted advertisement is beneficial. It does not really make sense to enable cookies for all websites, especially those that use them to track the user. It’s more of a privacy issue but one that many users take serious.

continue reading "Why you should restrict Cookie Access"

It can come quite handy sometimes to access the bookmarks as fast as possible to be able to visit a website without delay. A fast and convenient way is to add an icon to the system tray that provides access to all of the bookmarks. One software that provides that functionality is Links 2 Tray which sits in the tray quietly until the icon is left-clicked.

The bookmarks are then displayed in the usual order including submenus. A left-click on a bookmark opens that bookmark. The real beauty of Links 2 Tray is that it provides access to bookmarks of all three major browsers. The configuration provides settings for Internet Explorer’s Favorites, Firefox’s Bookmarks.html file and Opera.

Firefox changed the way bookmarks are handled with Firefox 3 which means that the user should export the bookmarks into html format once in a while to be able to use them in Links 2 Tray.

continue reading "Access Bookmarks from the System Tray"

We already witnessed the release of the new Opera 9.5 client and will see the release of Firefox 3 on Tuesday and Internet Explorer 8 later this year. The interesting aspect is in my opinion if any of the clients manages to grab market share from the others. Will Opera finally gain the recognition that it deserves or will it remain an insider tip supported by a loyal group of fans ?

What about Firefox 3 ? Will it continue to drive market shares away from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or will the expansion stop eventually ? And then we have the Internet Explorer 8 which has such a huge market share mainly because it’s bundled with the operating system. Will Internet Explorer 8 be able to stop the fall ?

Here is what I think will happen. Opera will not gain a huge market share and remain a niche browser. It’s a wonderful browser but it is somehow not accepted by the mass market. Firefox will gain some momentum and market shares from Microsoft but it won’t be able to drive Internet Explorer from its throne yet.

continue reading "Which will it be ? Opera ? Firefox ? IE ?"

Collaboration is one of the big buzz words these days on the Internet. In its most basic form its users that create content together which would include most of the so called social news websites like Digg, but also social bookmarking websites like Delicious. More advanced forms are Wikipedia were authors are working together to create and edit articles.

Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon with Microsoft SearchTogether, a plugin for Internet Explorer that provides a feature to combine search results. This is very handy for any groups of people who have the same or a similar goal, be it students who do their research together, a company project team doing research for it or a family that is searching for information about their next vacation.

SearchTogether is strongly tied to the Windows Live service which is being used to log in and invite other possible participants. One user has to create a session which is the basic description for every research project and invite the other participants. That team leader is the only person who can add other members to the group.

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