extension

Scarabee Software's Siren is easy-to-use but powerful file-renaming freeware. It quickly renames, moves, or copies selected files using expressions you create. Suppose you want to rename all the images in a folder sequentially. Instead of manually renaming each in sequence, Siren can do the whole batch at once. It displays image previews and tags to help you be sure you've got the right files.

Siren is portable freeware that runs as soon as you click the program file without having to be installed or registered in Windows. When we first opened the program, a "first contact" … Read more

Google's RSS Subscription Extension for Chrome automatically scans pages for RSS feeds and lets you subscribe to them with a single click on the RSS icon in the Omnibar. You must be signed in to Google to use it. It works with Chrome in Incognito mode, too, and supports multiple feeds per page. RSS Subscription Extension is freeware.

As with other Chrome extensions, you might miss RSS Subscription Extension's installation if you blink or look away, and (unlike some other Web browsers) you don't need to restart Chrome to activate it. We opened the Extensions Manager page … Read more

Facebook is a place for sharing (and sometimes oversharing) information between friends and family. As of the last few months, more and more "social reader" apps have been making their way to your Facebook timeline. You'll see that a friend watched a video on something like SocialCam, and when you go to click the video, you're asked to grant the service access to your Facebook.

Instead of authorizing a bunch of social-reader apps to post on your Facebook wall or gain access to your information, you should try Unsocialize. With this Web browser add-on you can … Read more

Most Web sites changes frequently, and it's sometimes useful to know what these changes consist of. SiteDelta is an extension for Firefox that can identify changes made to a Web page since your last visit and even tell you what the previous version of the page said.

Like most Firefox extensions, SiteDelta requires a browser restart to finish installation. Once installed, the extension appeared as a delta symbol (a triangle) in Firefox's status bar. Click the icon and the extension will scan the page; come back later, click it again, and SiteDelta will highlight all changes that have … Read more

Instagram, the popular mobile social network for sharing photos, can be fun and addictive. However, unlike Facebook or Twitter, Instagram doesn't have an official desktop presence to go along with its mobile app. If you're already on your computer, picking up your Android or iOS device just to check your Instagram feed is less than ideal.

Nicole Cozma recently went over using Extagram, a Web site that allows you to browse Instagram on the Web. Another desktop solution is a Chrome extension that allows you to check your feed directly from the Chrome browser. Here's how to … Read more

I read once that Jonathan Franzen writes his novels using an old laptop because it does not have a wireless antenna. He also took the extra precaution of gluing an Ethernet jack into the Ethernet port and then clipping the cable so that there was no way -- wired or wirelessly -- he could access the Internet while writing.

Knowing Franzen needed to take such measures to stay focused made me feel a little better about myself and my time-wasting ways on the Internet. If you need some assistance staying on point (and off Facebook) during the workday, WasteNoTime could … Read more

Many of the files I receive attached to Gmail messages end up in my Google Drive account. Previously this required downloading or viewing the file, saving it to a drive of the PC I'm using, signing into and opening Google Drive (formerly Google Docs), and uploading the file.

That's a lot of mileage for a file to travel just to get from one Google service to another.

Last month, Jason Cipriani of CNET's Blog Network described a technique developed by Amit Agarwal that automatically adds Gmail attachments to Google Drive.

As Jason explains, the process entails copying … Read more

I've been on a screenshot bent lately, and here is a screenshot tip that will appeal to both Mac and PC users. If you take a lot of screenshots of Web pages, check out Awesome Screenshot, a handy little Chrome extension that's easy to use, with just the right amount of features.

When it installs, it adds a small button to the Chrome toolbar. Click on the button, which looks like a camera lens, to see the three capture options: Capture Visible Part of Page, Capture Selected Area, and Capture Entire Page.

When you capture a screenshot, Awesome … Read more

I figured that by now most people would have grown accustomed to Facebook's Timeline interface, but my post from a couple months ago about a Chrome extension that hides Timeline remains one of my most-clicked-on stories. Given the apparent interest in this topic, I searched for a Firefox add-on that did that same thing. Lo and behold, I found the very same extension.

Install the TimeLineRemove extension for Firefox by clicking the link and then clicking Allow. Then on the next window, click the Install Now button.

The add-on is enabled by default. Head to Facebook or refresh the … Read more