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:
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.




