This past weekend I rediscovered Fluid.  Fluid is a Site-Specific Browser for Mac.  It packages up a WebKit browser that is specific to one website (or sites – the list is configurable).  I spent up and purchased a proper license.  This unlocks the following (very useful) features:

• Create Fluid Apps with Separate Cookie Storage. (Preferences → Security → Cookie Storage)
• Pin Fluid Apps to the Mac OS X Status Bar. (Fluid App Menu → Pin to Status Bar…)
• Use Userscripts or Userstyles in your Fluid Apps. (Window → Userscripts)
• Use Lion Full Screen mode in your Fluid Apps. (View → Enter Full Screen)

Why now?

My friend Paul Everitt mentioned in passing a few weeks ago.  I had been an early user and then at some OSX upgrade it failed to make the cut to be reinstalled onto the new machine/OS.

A bit of background…  For various reasons I have a number of Google accounts..  personal, a few for work, and a few for community causes in which I’m involved.  Interacting with multiple Google accounts during the course of a day is extremely difficult.  This is particularly true (and painful) when sharing files with Google Drive.  You need to know to WHICH persona/credentials your colleague shared a particular document.  Words can’t describe how annoying that is… was..Until I re-discovered Fluid.

I now have a Fluid browser for each account.  Below is a screenshot from the SSB I have for my rob AT zebrareach.com account.

My Webkit-based SSB for by Zebrareach account

Notes:

• Separate cookie storage means this browser stays clean and authenticated (with my Zebrareach credentials) with Google
• Two handy bookmarks give me quick access to Gmail and Google Drive

Now, if I need to check something under my zebrareach.com identity (Talk, Hangout, Gmail, Drive) no problem.  Oh, switch to my reachtapp.com credentials – just launch that SSB.  Love it.