FoxGlove: Google Apps Portal

I find myself increasingly using a separate Firefox window for my email, online office suite, and RSS reader to separate them from my browsing experience and to increase my productivity. Heck, I even installed Mozilla Prism so that my Google Apps would run in a separate application.

And this is why I so totally love FoxGlove. FoxGlove is a customized Firefox Portable installation to tightly integrate with Google Apps. As you can see, FoxGlove is complete not only with add-ons that will enhance and integrate Google Apps in Firefox, but it also has a Chrome-like theme, custom homepages (that auto-load in tabs), and web site favicons.

FoxGlove can be run alongside your current Firefox installation. FoxGlove it will not even harm your Firefox in any way, because it is a portable application and has a separate configuration from your favorite browser. For the curious, here are the add-ons that FireGlove has installed:

Anyway, to use FoxGlove, here are the things you need to do:

• Download FoxGlove from here.
• Extract the ZIP file
• A FoxGlove shortcut and a folder will be extracted
• Double click the shortcut to launch
• Sign in to your Google Account to use the apps (Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs)

If you’re looking to make your Firefox run like FoxGlove, Alex, the developer, has suggested the following add-ons:

• Better Gmail 2
• Better GReader
• Better Gcal
• Better YouTube
• Customize Google
• Google Notebook
• Google Toolbar

And as to why Alex decided to make FoxGlove, this is what he has to say:

I found myself running Firefox in two windows: One with Gmail, Google Reader and other webapps, and the other for my casual web wanderings. I read about Chrome’s feature that lets you can set up a standalone launcher for any webapp, but I wanted all my apps together in tabs, and I wanted access to all the customization and extensibility of Firefox, but without overhauling my current setup… So, I decided to build a second Firefox install specifically around using Google Apps, one that I could run side-by-side with my regular Firefox browser.

So if you’re willing to give it a try, download FoxGlove here (warning: it’s a HUGE file) and tell me what you think of it.