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AdBlock vs. Adblock Plus: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 18, 2018

AdBlock vs Adblock Plus

It’s no secret that ad blocking extensions like AdBlock, Adblock Plus, and AdBlock Pro are becoming increasingly popular today with over 200 million active users and it’s costing publishers billions of dollars.

In fact, as I write this blog post, both AdBlock and Adblock Plus have over 50 million users. I was actually not using an adblocker until few months ago as I rarely click ads. So, I argued with myself why should I install an adblocker when it doesn’t make any difference.

However, I tried AdBlock few months back — when YouTube ads became increasingly annoying — and immediately realized that it’s a must-have for me. The only thing is… it’s NOT the extension’s ad blocking capability that I find interesting. But it’s something else — which I will explain below.

Adblock & Adblock Plus: A Brief History

As you probably know, the two most popular ad blockers for Google Chrome are AdBlock and Adblock Plus. What’s the difference? Well, it sounds similar but they are two different extensions developed independently.

Apparently, AdBlock was inspired by Adblock Plus itself when it was just a Firefox only add-on. Now ‘AdBlock Plus’ is also available for Google Chrome, Android, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc. and ‘AdBlock’ is available for Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, and iOS.

Adblock Plus is the most popular Firefox add-on with over 21 million users (it’s got the first-mover advantage on Mozilla Firefox) and AdBlock is the most popular Chrome extension (it’s got the first-mover advantage on Google Chrome).

By the way, both AdBlock and Adblock Plus claims that it’s the most popular ad blocker and both have over 40 million users. However, AdBlock has almost 2x more ratings than Adblock Plus on Chrome Web Store, so I guess it’s safe to assume that it’s the most popular ad blocker on Google Chrome. [Read more…] about AdBlock vs. Adblock Plus: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

How To Create Custom Search Engines In Google Chrome To Boost Productivity

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 15, 2018

Google Chrome’s Omnibox (or the address bar) is not something new to you and me.It allows us to navigate to a webpage or search the web from the address bar. And yeah, it even acts as a search engine to browse your own search and Chrome browsing history.

But did you know that it’s much more than just an address bar? That it can easily boost your productivity by helping you create and add your own custom search engines?

If you’re a Web 2.0 fanatic then I’m pretty sure that you often use the search engines by the popular (and biggest) web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. But the problem is, every time you want to use its search feature, you have to actually visit those websites and then use its search function.

Of course, Google Chrome automatically adds all those custom search engines when you visit those websites (even if you don’t want to). That is, when you visit Amazon.com and uses its search engine, Chrome automatically adds a custom Amazon search to its list of search engines.

Like this:

Google Chrome Custom Search Engines (Auto Generated)

It’s a nice feature, right? Well, not necessarily. The problem arises when you need tailored search results and a custom shortcut key (or known as the keyword in Google Chrome’s custom search engines).

3 Best Of The Best Remote Desktop Access Software That Are Free

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 14, 2018

The Best Remote Desktop Access Software

There was a time when I (and probably you) struggled with Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop software on a Windows PC to remotely access someone else’s computer. It was a terrible experience and never worked for me as it involved quite a few network settings and protocols — which I still don’t understand much.

And there were few free and premium remote desktop connection managers like LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc. at that time. But I was least interested in trying those remote desktop connection managers as it was of no use to me.

Then, with the advent of the smartphone era, I tried remote desktop apps for mobile like Splashtop, PocketCloud, LogMeIn, Join.me, and TeamViewer, etc. and almost all of them failed to impress me. It was simply not the kind of productivity apps that I wanted or even care about.

My impression completely changed when Microsoft and Google introduced their own Remote Desktop apps for web and mobile a few years back. The good thing is… both works perfect and is free without any restriction.

So here is a quick review (plus comparison) of the 3 (and only 3) best remote desktop access software that are free.

1. Chrome Remote Desktop

Chrome Remote Desktop is a Google Chrome app that lets you access all your computer(s) from another computer or from your mobile device(s). It can be used for a variety of purposes like to access your own computer from a remote location or to provide (or get) remote support or to securely access your files or software applications on your computer from a mobile device, and so on.

What I really like about Chrome Remote Desktop is that it’s linked to your Google account. So there’s no such thing as an extra user id or special codes to access your computer from another device of yours. And the installation and setup is pretty simple. All you need to do is install the Chrome Remote Desktop app on all your devices (computers, tablets, mobiles) and you’re good to go. [Read more…] about 3 Best Of The Best Remote Desktop Access Software That Are Free

Over 71 Microsoft Products, Services, & Apps You Probably Don’t Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 14, 2018

Microsoft Products

I have always wanted to list all the Microsoft products and services (just like I did Google’s). But Microsoft’s products are really diverse in nature and a good percentage of them are actually targeting companies and business users. Therefore I found it difficult to list all the products in an organized way.

Microsoft’s products were mostly desktop applications until a few years ago. Now things have changed substantially and Microsoft has been launching a lot of standalone web and mobile apps for individual consumers. This is why I (finally!) decided to list all the Microsoft products and services.

Don’t Miss: Over 201 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

A List Of (Almost) All Microsoft Products, Services, Tools, & Apps

Over 1 billion Windows users. Over 500 million Windows 10 users. Over 1.2 billion Microsoft Office users. Over 400 million Outlook.com users. Over 3 billion Skype minutes a day. Over 669,000 Windows Store apps. That’s the stats of Microsoft.

Credit: Microsoft by the Numbers
[Read more…] about Over 71 Microsoft Products, Services, & Apps You Probably Don’t Know

Over 31 Facebook Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 14, 2018

Let me be honest. I didn’t even have a vague plan of writing this very blog post. The actual idea was to list all the products, services, and apps by Facebook — just like I did Over 201 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know.

And I even started writing this blog post with the title “Over 51 Facebook Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know” only to realize later that they don’t even have 21 standalone products (including web and mobile apps). :D

Nevertheless, I’m listing all the products and services and apps offered by Facebook. And you will see that Facebook’s dominance comes from just three ~~products~~ apps. Facebook. WhatsApp. Instagram.

As you probably know, Facebook is the single largest social network out there and is also the second most popular website on the web according to Alexa Top 500 Global Websites (the first being Google + YouTube).

Facebook is not the first social network and yet it’s dominating the web 2.0. Just like Google did. Google wasn’t the first search engine out there but it managed to change the way we used the web. Google changed the way we gathered information, and it changed the way we spend our time online.

Facebook did the same. It changed the social networking scene forever and at the same time it crushed several other social networking websites (MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, to name a few) and several mobile apps.

So today, I’m listing all the products and services and apps by Facebook. And I will be updating this article as they launch more products or make more acquisitions.

Don’t Miss: Over 61 Amazon Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

Over 61 Amazon Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 14, 2018

First Published: September 26, 2016; Last Updated: Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

Amazon is the largest retailer on the web. I’m not an Amazon fanatic but I like to shop online (or on Amazon). And I believe Amazon will become a lot more bigger than what it is today.

For me Amazon was all about online shopping and shopping only until a few years go, and then I came to know about its dominance in the cloud computing space.

That’s how I became curious and made a plan to list all its products and services and app (or this very blog post).

So today, I’m listing all the products and services and apps by Amazon. And I will be updating this article as they launch more products and services.

Don’t Miss: Over 201 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

How To Change Chrome Bookmark Favicons In Less Than 5 Minutes

by MAHESH MOHAN on March 12, 2018

Google Chrome

If you’re a power Google Chrome user then you probably know that we CAN’T change the favicons of Chrome bookmarks. But it’s possible in Internet Explorer and it’s super easy. Since Internet Explorer stores all the bookmarks in your PC’s Favorites folder (C:\Users\<Your User Name>\Favorites), you can change its favicon by using the “Change Icon…” option of each bookmark’s Properties (Right-click Bookmark > Properties > Change Icon…).