This is to respond to Alan and Notorious PhD about Zotero on Chrome. I should preface this by saying I have never used Zotero, so its lack in Chrome isn’t a problem for me. I have another system to accomplish much the same thing that Zotero does, using Sente and Evernote (although I admit that Zotero looks super slick and useful). That said, here’s the latest that I have gathered about Zotero on Chrome and my thoughts about what might happen. Looking over various Google Chrome and Zotero forums, it seems as if there has been many requests for a Zotero extension for Chrome ever since Chrome was announced for PCs, about 1-1/2 years ago. The response from the Zotero team was pretty much a unilateral “No can do,” citing (at that early time), that they did not have access to the extension frame for Chrome, mainly because it didn’t exist at the time. Now Chrome (for PC and Mac) is much more developed and is gaining a wider base (look at me!). Developers do have access to Chrome’s extension framework and have been making some pretty kickass extensions (as well as a lot of stupid useless ones). Technically speaking, Zotero could be ported to Chrome; there is nothing stopping that except the will to do so. It would require a lot of work on the part of the Zotero team and they may simply choose not to do it, even though they have indicated an openness to porting it, in theory. I, however, don’t think they can afford to ignore Chrome (they can go ahead and ignore IE because it sucks and Safari because it has a too-small user base). Take a look at these web browser stats over the past two years and what stands out is that Chrome debuted ahead of Safari, Firefox beats all versions of IE combined by about 10%, and that Firefox seems to have plateaued while Chrome is steadily (and relatively rapidly) increasing its market share:
So, I think that Zotero might put off developing for Chrome, but if these trends continue, they are going to miss the boat with what is shaping up to become the fastest AND most expandable cross-platform browser. There have been plenty head-to-head comparisons published and the basic line is: Chrome is MUCH faster than FF but FF has a rich community of add-on developers. Which brings us back to my friends’ dilemma: Chrome looks great, but Zotero is vital. If that is the case, then my advice would be:
1) Simply use FF just for when you’re being academic and gathering research materials and citations rather than when you are being a normal person blogging, tweeting, facebooking, flickring, and downloading porn (unless FF has an add-on for that).
2) Hang tight and wait until Zotero or someone else comes out with a Chrome extension that does what Zotero does on FF. It will happen, eventually.
3) Copy me and use the PDF/citation functions in the built-in browser in Sente and/or use Evernote (for which there is a Chrome extension). This system will not be the same as Zotero and will likely seem unnecessarily cumbersome by having to use something more than just one browser. On the other hand, Sente and Evernote do other things that Zotero doesn’t. I LOVE Evernote; I’m just starting to use Sente more regularly with the new project and can say that I like it a lot more than Endnote. And don’t forget Dropbox to store, backup, sync, share your files; it is simply magical.
Speaking of Dropbox and sharing, if you want to try the Chrome for Mac Developer Channel version, I can spare you a couple clicks by providing this direct download link from my Dropbox public folder. Install it and browse through the extensions available (not all are for Mac yet). In a later post I’ll recommend a few.
Oh yeah, and take a look at these funky, off-the-wall ads for Chrome. Smart and entertaining.
Oh yeah yeah, and take a look at the now-famous comic book that Scott McCloud did.
