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http://giveupandusemultiplebrowsers.com/ http://giveupandusemultiplebrowsers.com/ I found this back in 2009, maybe 2010, when I was still "on the inside" and s

http://giveupandusemultiplebrowsers.com/ http://giveupandusemultiplebrowsers.com/ I found this back in 2009, maybe 2010, when I was still "on the inside" and shared it around internally. Some people got a real kick out of it. Now consider this: every single employee has a corp account, and I would think nearly every employee has a personal account, too. That means problems stemming from being in the right account have probably popped up in every single person's face for years now. It didn't help when they changed from having the u@h up to just a name. Great. I know my name. I need to know which account I'm in. Sorry.

onemorepassword 14y ago
This is pretty much what I do to circumvent the utter mess Google makes of it's logins. It's also a matter of privacy. It has happened to me more than once that I did something like watching YouTube videos in the privacy of my own home, only to find out I was still logged into my company Google Apps account, which of course records my history.
Groxx 14y ago
Chrome makes it quite a bit easier with multiple user accounts - go to settings, scroll down, and add a user. You can run multiple at the same time (each gets its own window, can spawn new ones, etc), and they all have separate settings, extensions, etc. Very highly recommended if you're a Chrome user. If you're on Firefox... seems like they only really care if you use their Profile Manager, which is a horrible alternative, but it does work reliably across all versions as long as you never ever ever launch the browser directly. Or if you don't mind rewinding time a bit, and using OSX, http://www.stainlessapp.com/ http://www.stainlessapp.com/ (assuming it still works) has a brilliant idea: bookmarks can be associated with sessions. Have one for each account, run them all side-by-side in tabs, and it works great. I wish every browser would do this.
modeless 14y ago
That site is a little outdated because Chrome now natively supports multiple user profiles. Each profile gets its own icon and there's a user profile switcher next to your tabs. It's by far the best solution to the multiple accounts issue.
- criley 14y ago
  Too bad not every Google Apps for Business setup works with Chrome Sync (or most Google software). My company uses Google Apps for Business, but that basically means web services, because no actual software works. GChat, Chrome, etc all fail to recognize the account. Yep just tried again: Invalid user name and password. Exact same entry as when logging into email except Chrome fails where gmail.com works. It simply will not accept the name/password of my Google Apps account on any Google software. What a bummer, was hoping this was a fix for having multiple accounts.
  - raldi 14y ago
    You might want to reach out to the person who admins your Google Apps domain, and see if they've explicitly disabled Chrome signin across all organizational accounts. And if so, whether it was on purpose. To do so, have them visit: www.google.com/a/cpanel/<your domain>/CPanelHome?pli=1#Organization/subtab=services ...and Ctrl-F "Google Chrome Sync"
    - GauntletWizard 14y ago
      It's also worth noting that "Google Talk" is a dependency for Chrome Sync; If they disabled talk years back, then Chrome Sync will also have been disabled.
    - philsnow 14y ago
      Ugh if that's the case, then egg on Google's face for showing the user "Invalid user name and password" rather than saying (before even attempting to log in) "your domain administrator has disabled this feature".
  - tiziano88 14y ago
    are you using your full user@domain.com username to login?
    - paddy_m 14y ago
      I use it some of the time, other times google balks at that type of login.
fudged71 14y ago
What a sad state of affairs that this is the most reliable solution to something as ubiquitous as logins.
- packetslave 14y ago
  How many other sites let you be logged into multiple accounts concurrently in the same browser session? Does Facebook? Microsoft? Amazon? (I genuinely haven't tried it). That said, there's a lot that could be done to make multiple accounts easier to use. Personally, I use multiple Chrome profiles with one account per, just to minimize the "surprise" (and to keep, e.g., my corp account separate from my personal ones).
martinced 14y ago
I do just that... But I'm on Linux so I can use two (or three) instances of the same browser, from different user accounts. Linux makes it very easy to display apps from another user (which you authorize) on your graphical session. AFAICT this is just plain hell to do on OS X and on Windows (but blablabla X Window System is outdated, OS X rendering rocks, gnagnagna etc. Meanwhile I'm trivially surfing using different user accounts and this provides both conveniency and added security [any browser exploit now need also a local root exploit to be able to access sensitive data in the "real" user accounts]). My professional email is using a SSH tunnel / transparent Squid proxy : anyone doing a reverse shall find my company through the IP (on purpose). I'm launching Chrome from my "professional" user account using the proxy setting (from the command line). Then I've got another Chrome for my personal stuff. And a throwaway VM with yet another Chrome.
- loudmax 14y ago
  I do the same on my Linux desktops. Not just chrome, but work and non-work data in general. I kind of assume Mac and Windows users have some reasonably easy way of doing the same thing. As a Linux user, it's trivial, but it's easy to lose sight of what's "trivial" for people who don't program or work in IT for a living.

onemorepassword 14y ago

This is pretty much what I do to circumvent the utter mess Google makes of it's logins. It's also a matter of privacy. It has happened to me more than once that I did something like watching YouTube videos in the privacy of my own home, only to find out I was still logged into my company Google Apps account, which of course records my history.

Groxx 14y ago

Chrome makes it quite a bit easier with multiple user accounts - go to settings, scroll down, and add a user. You can run multiple at the same time (each gets its own window, can spawn new ones, etc), and they all have separate settings, extensions, etc. Very highly recommended if you're a Chrome user. If you're on Firefox... seems like they only really care if you use their Profile Manager, which is a horrible alternative, but it does work reliably across all versions as long as you never ever ever launch the browser directly. Or if you don't mind rewinding time a bit, and using OSX, http://www.stainlessapp.com/ http://www.stainlessapp.com/ (assuming it still works) has a brilliant idea: bookmarks can be associated with sessions. Have one for each account, run them all side-by-side in tabs, and it works great. I wish every browser would do this.

modeless 14y ago

That site is a little outdated because Chrome now natively supports multiple user profiles. Each profile gets its own icon and there's a user profile switcher next to your tabs. It's by far the best solution to the multiple accounts issue.

criley 14y ago
Too bad not every Google Apps for Business setup works with Chrome Sync (or most Google software). My company uses Google Apps for Business, but that basically means web services, because no actual software works. GChat, Chrome, etc all fail to recognize the account. Yep just tried again: Invalid user name and password. Exact same entry as when logging into email except Chrome fails where gmail.com works. It simply will not accept the name/password of my Google Apps account on any Google software. What a bummer, was hoping this was a fix for having multiple accounts.
- raldi 14y ago
  You might want to reach out to the person who admins your Google Apps domain, and see if they've explicitly disabled Chrome signin across all organizational accounts. And if so, whether it was on purpose. To do so, have them visit: www.google.com/a/cpanel/<your domain>/CPanelHome?pli=1#Organization/subtab=services ...and Ctrl-F "Google Chrome Sync"
  - GauntletWizard 14y ago
    It's also worth noting that "Google Talk" is a dependency for Chrome Sync; If they disabled talk years back, then Chrome Sync will also have been disabled.
  - philsnow 14y ago
    Ugh if that's the case, then egg on Google's face for showing the user "Invalid user name and password" rather than saying (before even attempting to log in) "your domain administrator has disabled this feature".
- tiziano88 14y ago
  are you using your full user@domain.com username to login?
  - paddy_m 14y ago
    I use it some of the time, other times google balks at that type of login.

fudged71 14y ago

What a sad state of affairs that this is the most reliable solution to something as ubiquitous as logins.

packetslave 14y ago
How many other sites let you be logged into multiple accounts concurrently in the same browser session? Does Facebook? Microsoft? Amazon? (I genuinely haven't tried it). That said, there's a lot that could be done to make multiple accounts easier to use. Personally, I use multiple Chrome profiles with one account per, just to minimize the "surprise" (and to keep, e.g., my corp account separate from my personal ones).

martinced 14y ago

I do just that... But I'm on Linux so I can use two (or three) instances of the same browser, from different user accounts. Linux makes it very easy to display apps from another user (which you authorize) on your graphical session. AFAICT this is just plain hell to do on OS X and on Windows (but blablabla X Window System is outdated, OS X rendering rocks, gnagnagna etc. Meanwhile I'm trivially surfing using different user accounts and this provides both conveniency and added security [any browser exploit now need also a local root exploit to be able to access sensitive data in the "real" user accounts]). My professional email is using a SSH tunnel / transparent Squid proxy : anyone doing a reverse shall find my company through the IP (on purpose). I'm launching Chrome from my "professional" user account using the proxy setting (from the command line). Then I've got another Chrome for my personal stuff. And a throwaway VM with yet another Chrome.

loudmax 14y ago
I do the same on my Linux desktops. Not just chrome, but work and non-work data in general. I kind of assume Mac and Windows users have some reasonably easy way of doing the same thing. As a Linux user, it's trivial, but it's easy to lose sight of what's "trivial" for people who don't program or work in IT for a living.