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.
Good post. Thanks for the info. As so often seems the case, I haven’t been using Zotero to its full potential yet, so cobbling together something like you recommend for Chrome browsing seems reasonable. Besides, I have been toying with trying out Evernote lately. This will add one more to the various kinds of software I’ve been trying lately, online and off (Scrivener is the one I’m liking the most so far), but that’s actually a good thing.
Indded, thanks (and thanks for the Scrivener mention, Alan — I’d forgotten about that one). I don’t have the spare time for cobbling right now, but G’s post has an important corollary: there are a good number of dedicated Zotero users out there, so anyone who develops a similar app for Chrome is going to *have* to make it easy to import data from one database to the other. So no worries about my Zotero data becoming obsolete.
My old Filemaker Pro database, on the other hand…
Thanks for a very informative comment. I learned about Zotero & Chrome, but also about several programs I didn’t know existed, each of which sounds interesting.
Your willingness to share your knowledge is indeed appreciated.
Joe
“missing the boat”? there is no compelling reason to address, and no simple technical solution for, your perceived problem. did you even search the zotero forums for an official response to this suggestion? just open 2 browsers, and get on with your life, with all your personal crap on chrome–if you absolutely must read tmz.com at lightning speed. i’d prefer to keep my academic research out of google’s greedy clutches, anyway.
Yes, I did search the Zotero forums and the Chrome forums (did you even bother to look at those?). Of course, use two browsers if you want Zotero and Chrome. Chrome is, IMHO, superior to Firefox, which is showing its age. I’ve never used Zotero, so it’s not an issue for me. I have other ways to organize academic stuff. Funny that you should dis Google–you mean you NEVER have googled for any of your academic stuff? I can hardly believe that. Traces of your research are all over Google’s servers and in their “greedy clutches.” How naive can you be….?
I would be the first one to jump to Chrome the day Zotero is useable there. Till then I will keep my FF. There is no doubt chrome is a better browser than FF. But Zotero is too good and that gives the FF edge over Chrome as far as my use is concerned.
yes, rmjohn, that’s pretty much the bottom line: if you are deeply invested in Zotero, then you stick with FF (at least for now). If, like me, you’ve never used Zotero before, then Chrome is the way to go.
Just wanted to show you guys this:
http://www.zotero.org/blog/standalone-zotero/
there is hope :-)
I hope they can make the standalone version. Lack of Chrome support is why I stopped using Zotero and went with Mendeley instead. I would be tempted to come back though.
Thanks for this post. My sense is that apps like Zotero need to be browser- and device-agnostic; that is, the application should work through web standards like html5, jquery, etc. Users should be able to use whatever browser or device they like to access, modify, and add to their research databases.