Just in case you don’t like the Google Groups interface and want to customize it, there’s a new light gray theme you can try. Just click the settings button, click “Themes” and select the “soft gray” theme. This only works in the new Google Groups interface.

A similar theme is also available for Gmail and it will be interesting to see if Google Groups will add support for the other Gmail themes. Maybe apps like Google+, Google Docs, Google Reader and even services like Google Search will support Gmail’s color themes.

{ Thanks , Herin. }

Google Operating System

There are many chrome themes inspired by and dedicated to the singing sensation Lady Gaga. So, what is the difference in our Lady Gaga Themes Collection? These themes which we have listed are the themes which one would not be able to find in the Chrome Web Store or the Chrome Themes Gallery. These Gaga [...]

Google Chrome Browser – Plugins and Themes

StumbleUpon is sure to have some pretty disappointed users come the end of next month thanks to its decision to shut down some features of the service. The company says it’s shutting down groups, photo and HTML blogging, and the ability to select themes, all of which are going away as of Oct. 24. StumbleUpon says the decision is about being honest about what it’s good at (social discovery and recommendations) and away from what it’s not (trying to be Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or MySpace).

So what’s going to change exactly? The ability of StumbleUpon users to customize reviews of the stuff they find on the site. That means no adding HTML or photos to them anymore. StumbleUpon will still let users write reviews and comment, but they’ll be plain text only from now on. Previous reviews that have been customized in any way will live on, but they’ll be converted to plain text reviews, according to the site’s FAQ. Users also will no longer have the ability to add themes or a background image to their profiles on the site. Soon they’ll all look the same: white background with black lettering only.

Some of these are features that are widely used (photo blogging) while others are less popular (groups, themes) among the site’s 15 million users. Over the years, the service added those features before there was Tumblr or Twitter, or a large chunk of the world was on Facebook. Now StumbleUpon says it realizes its team doesn’t have the time or resources to devote to features that they willingly admit other services do a lot better.

“Other platforms frankly do a really good job of [customization and self-expression] and that’s what they’re all about. While certain [StumbleUpon users] may not want to go, other services do offer a better experience of that,” said Marc Leibowitz, Stumble Upon’s vice president of marketing and business development, in an interview Thursday. Essentially, they want their users to come for the social discovery, and go elsewhere for other stuff. Leibowitz said that they know based on how people share StumbleUpon URLs that many of their users are already using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and others for blogging anyway.

Attempting to put the changes in perspective, he noted how different the social web is today versus when his service got its start:

It’s amazing how StumbleUpon started in a day and age when the searching we take advantage of now didn’t exist. Google was just getting started. There are things and microblogging services that hadn’t even been conceptualized when StumbleUpon was already a few years old. The things we built out of necessity because they didn’t exist elsewhere are no longer warranted.

As reasonable as it sounds, it can’t come as very welcome news for users who’ve spent tons of time customizing their StumbleUpon review sites with HTML, or those that are just used to using StumbleUpon a certain way. But the company says it’s “exploring possible export options” for those who want to save their PhotoBlog before it disappears from StumbleUpon’s servers next month.

“We’re talking about a small, albeit passionate, group of users that were using these bells and whistles…it was costing us time to maintain these things that would be better applied to improving the discovery experience,” Leibowitz said. “We regret doing anything that disappoints our users, but this is being done to simplify the service and make it easier to use for a broader audience.”

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr user Frank Gruber

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Google Chrome Browser – Plugins and Themes

It has been a long time since we posted a themes collection here, so thought to share some of the best Android inspired themes available for Google Chrome. With the emergence of Android OS based smart-phones, its fan-base has been growing at a rapid rate. Android chrome theme requests have always been pretty high among [...]

Google Chrome Browser – Plugins and Themes

A member over on the Xda-Developers forum has figured out a way to get access to the registry of any HTC device running Windows Phone 7. The method allows the user to write their own registry values over the top of some preconfigured ones, such as accent colors.

We’ve written…

Neowin.net

There are many Gmail themes to choose from, but few of them are actually usable. Gmail added 5 new themes: Basic Black, Basic White, Tree Tops, Marker and Android.

Even if you’re not an Android fan or you don’t have an Android phone, you should really try the Android theme. It’s simple, stylish and you can still read your messages.

If you’re looking for a minimalist theme, Basic White is a good alternative to Minimalist, an already existing theme. It looks a little bit unfinished, but Google says it’s the Gmail interface stripped “to the bare bones”.

What’s your favorite Gmail theme?

Google Operating System

When Google rolled out Gmail themes two years ago, users were ecstatic. Not only did they offer users the ability to express themselves on what’s arguably a person’s most visited site each day, it also allowed them to create their own themes, should they so choose.

Yesterday, Google decided to add…

Neowin.net

We at ChromePlugins.org always try to get things which are not easily known about the Google Chrome browser. As you might be aware that there are quite a few themes available which can be dowloaded from the Official Google Chrome Themes Gallery, but there are also a lot more themes (and better looking themes) outside [...]

Google Chrome Browser – Plugins and Themes