Archive for July, 2011

Using Fluid to Solve Your Multiple Google Login Problem

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

As a standard practice, I set up a Google Apps for my small business clients.  Between these and the Apps accounts for my various sites, I have so many Google logins that I’ve lost count.  It’s well into the dozens, which, I’m sure, is hardly a record for your typical indie web developer.

Until recently, this has become only a minor inconvenience when, say, juggling logins for testing Google Checkout (which I’m kicking to the curb…more posts on that later).  Now with the advent of Google+ supporting only Gmail accounts, the problem has boiled over for me.

The good news is that there is a solution for that: the paid version of Fluid. Let’s call it “Fluid Pro,” although that is not it’s official designation.

If you don’t know, Fluid is a little app that leverages WebKit and functions identically to Safari.  Although, it creates a little self-contained app complete with its own icon.  However, the free version of Fluid shares its cookies with Safari, so it didn’t solve the multiple-login problem.

I was poking around the preferences and found this little item:

Fluid’s Security Preferences Pane

The “Separate from Safari” option is grayed out in the free version of Fluid but is unlocked in the paid-for version.

What this means is that for only $4.99 USD, you can create a separate Fluid applet for each of your Google logins and services.  No more account switching, no more Google+ dead-end “Oops… you need a Google profile to use this feature” message, no more headaches.

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