Kevin Dwinnell - VP, Product & Marketing Kevin has over 15 years of experience in the online industry with AOL, CompuServe and Netscape. His experience in business, product and promotion management also includes positions at Hanna-Barbera, Liebert and Turner Broadcasting. Kevin received his B.S. in Marketing from George Mason University and his M.B.A. from The Ohio State University.
We just keep giving it away. Brand Thunder’s free themes are just the beginning. If you’re an active part of our community, you’re automatically entered to win in our new “It’s Official” giveaway.
Monthly Giveaways
Brand Thunder is offering at least one giveaway a month for the next 12 months. Why the uncertainty? Well, we never know what’s going to land in our offices from our partners. Winners may receive an officially signed CD from a famous recording artist (how cool is that?). Or, you may find you’re the winner of a jersey from a professional sports star (sorry, you’re responsible for washing it). Past winners of Brand Thunder giveaways have walked away with official Apple iPads, Google Nexus 7 tablets and Amazon gift cards.
Now it’s your chance to win – just for being an active member of our community.
If you installed an extension that you didn’t get from Google’s Chrome Web Store, it’s getting turned off when Google releases Chrome 25. Unlike most software that prompts you for an update, Google updates silently – so one day your browser will stop working the way you expect it.
Here’s what you need to know to protect your browser experience and the extensions you’ve come to depend on – after the Chrome 25 install.
Caution Ahead!
The only warning you’ll get is this small window (shown in Image 1 below) popping up after Chrome updates itself.
Don’t miss this warning or you’ll miss the easiest chance to make your browser right.
When you the window appears, click the Extension Settings button to open a tab with all your extensions. If you miss this opportunity, we’ll give you a Plan B farther down in this post.
Google Chrome is updating its product again, silently. but it’s making a lot of noise in the browser community.
Here are the steps you need to take to protect your favorite browser theme. And if you want a reminder about this when Chrome 25 launches, tell us how to reach you on this page: http://brandthunder.com/chrome25/
Step 1
When you see this screen shown in Image 1 suddenly appear in your browser one day, take action! Click the Extension Settings immediately.
Step 2
On the Extension Settings tab, look for the name of your browser theme. You need to check the Enable box to continue to enjoy the full theme experience.
Image 2: Enable Your Theme (apologies to Mets & Sox fans for the sample image)
Two members of the Brand Thunder community are enjoying their Nexus 7 from Google this holiday season. It was easy to win. (ALERT: Make sure you read to the end of the post to see what’s in store for you to win next year!)
Our 2012 Browser Theme Contest concludes with the winner of Most Popular Theme and Pop Couture came out on top. Fashion is a cutthroat and competitive industry, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the inspired Pop Couture theme pulled a victory from competition with deep roots in the digital community.
We knew the choice of “Best Design” for our Pop Culture browser theme contest was going to be a hard one. It’s a topic that opened itself up to a wide range of interpretation and entries – from starlets to Star Wars, teen idols to American Idols. How do you find the best design from a field of spectacular themes and a panel of judges. It wasn’t easy.
The thing we never counted on was the ease of choice over who would receive first prize. When the list of qualifiers for “best design” were lined up, they were all from a single designer – MaDonna. She put out an amazing array of browser themes with the following just a sampling, but all selected as contenders for best design. Loosely categorized into Entertainment, Games and Music – look at these visually stunning themes as your entree to the winning design.
The finalists of Brand Thunder’s Pop Culture Theme Contest have emerged. After many hours of debate and many libations… I mean, much deliberation we finally got some responses that were vaguely intelligible and could use.
Below you’ll find the three semi-finalist themes that our mystery judges decided on as worthy contenders for the Most Popular Theme category. To help choose the ultimate winner, go to our poll on Facebook and cast your ballot! You’ve been hearing this a lot lately, but your vote counts – so do your civic duty now. You have until Thursday, November 8, to vote for your favorite of the three themes below.
The winner of the Judges choice and Best Design will be announced on Monday, November 5. We probably could have had that announcement today, but our friends from the TV industry said it was good for the ratings if we had a cliff hanger and got people to tune in next week. 4AM at Denny’s is no place to discuss the differences between the Internet and broadcast television – so Monday it is.
Google Chrome 21 broke the installation process for developers like Brand Thunder who host their own downloads. While we were working toward a fix for their August 15 release date – they pushed early resulting in downloads not working as of now.
Update: Installer for Windows Available
If you’re on a Windows PC, you’ll download a .EXE file. Save that file to your computer and double click to start the installation of your theme.
Mac & Linux Users:
Providing an installer actually increases the amount of work you. Because of that, please follow the instructions we originally posted below:
The manual steps you need to take are the type of experience we strive to provide our users. Until Google allows for a different option, the video is a good summary but text instructions also follow. This 50 second video from the fine people at Blogsolute offers a nice visual of what will be described below.
The debate continues over whether it’s better to have a closed system for distributing apps or a more open one. You see it a lot in comparing Apple’s App Store to Google’s Android Marketplace. Apple reviews and approves every app before launch. You’re ensured a certain level of product quality, integrity and safety because of that pre-approval. Android – buyer beware. It’s easy for anyone to upload an app, and while it’s a waste of time when you download a poorly designed and functioning app, it’s harmful when that app carries malicious code with it.
The battle is also fought in the browser space. Firefox has a “sandbox” that all extensions must enter to be reviewed by one of the Mozilla community volunteers before it’s ultimately released into the public. The Google Chrome Web Store is like the Android Marketplace in that anything and everything loaded is immediately available for public consumption.
You may have seen the frightening warnings that Google Chrome will pop when installing a theme. “WARNING! This extension will follow you home from work!” Eek!
OK, it’s not that bad, but it can feel like it. To be fair, Google is just trying to warn you of what could happen, not what will happen. It’s kind of like your mom following you around and telling you not to get run over every time you cross the street. I appreciate the consideration, but…
Kevin Dwinnell - VP, Product & Marketing
We just keep giving it away. Brand Thunder’s free themes are just the beginning. If you’re an active part of our community, you’re automatically entered to win in our new “It’s Official” giveaway.
If you installed an extension that you didn’t get from Google’s Chrome Web Store, it’s getting turned off when Google releases Chrome 25. Unlike most software that prompts you for an update, Google updates silently – so one day your browser will stop working the way you expect it.
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