Perform a search for “Download Themes” and you’ll find a host of offerings for personalizing your digital experiences.

Sites like Customize.org offers a central destination for Themes, Skins, Wallpapers and Icons. Zedge.net offers themes for your mobile phone. You’ll find options for Windows 7 themes, XP themes and WordPress themes. What’s conspicuous by its absence is the option to find browser theme downloads. Especially with the meteoric rise of the Google Chrome browser and its emphasis on enhancements via its Chrome Webstore.

That’s why a few months back, Brand Thunder updated its browser theme gallery.

We wanted to create the leading destination to download themes for Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer. If you haven’t been, please give it a visit. You’ll find official themes from some of the world’s most recognized sports teams, artists, entertainers and more. Plus, an eclectic mix you get when you open up to user generated content.

Here are a few of the highlights you’ll discover.

Chrome Themes

The fastest growing browser also offers some of the hottest themes to download. There are all free, and be sure to search for Brand Thunder so you can much of what themes for Chrome you can download.

Kelly Clarkson Chrome Theme

The first Idol who has really lived up to the word, image and expectations. Now see what Kelly Clarkson brings to a Chrome browser theme.

Kelly Clarkson Chrome Theme

St. Patrick’s Day Chrome Theme

You may decide to bring some of the luck of the Irish to your Internet with this St. Patrick’s Day theme.

St. Patrick's Day Chrome Theme

Phoenix Suns Chrome Theme

If sports are more your game, you can choose from a range of professional sports teams to college athletics. Brand Thunder builds the official themes for NBA, NFL, MLS teams and many more.

NBA Phoenix Suns Chrome Theme

Firefox Themes

Firefox is where Brand Thunder got its start building browser themes and where you’ll find some of the themes that really show off the interaction of our interactive browser themes.

Weather Theme

The only browser theme that changes with the weather. Powered by WeatherBug, this theme changes based on your current local weather conditions, offers a 3-day forecast in the theme and much more.

Weather Firefox 9 Theme

Bob Marley Theme

The global appeal and timeless message of Bob Marley is represented in this browser theme. It offers a theme switcher so you can easily cycle through the different looks whenever you want a change of look.

Bob Marley Firefox Theme

Neon Lights Theme

The Neon Lights theme offers a colorful but simple theme with a subtle glowing to the lights that make this a continually popular theme to download.

Neon Lights Firefox Theme

Internet Explorer Themes

Internet Explorer remains the world’s most popular browser, but was left without much of the add-on sizzle Chrome and Firefox offered – until Brand Thunder gave it some browser theme attention. Now many of our themes have IE skins as well.

Euro Football Theme

The world’s football theme is a great way to enhance IE.

Euro Football IE Theme

Chivas USA Theme

Even if you like your football with helmets and pads, you can still get Major League Soccer themes through Brand Thunder’s Gallery.

MLS Chivas USA IE Theme

University of Kentucky Theme

You’ll also find themes you can download for many of the elite teams in NCAA Men’s Basketball. These themes are from the school’s athletics departments, so if your a fan of NCAA Women’s Basketball or other sports – you’re covered.

Kentucky IE Theme

UGC Themes

And since we offer a tool to build your own themes, we also give you a chance to share your themes with the world.

Kuomintang Theme

Taiwanese political parties have found their voice with browser themes.

Kuomintang Theme

Hello Kitty Bubbles

The Hello Kitty contingency will find much to like in the User-Submitted theme section.

Hello Kitty Theme

Age II Conquerors

Gamers and game community members are also taking their clans, fighting units and parties into browser themes.

Age of Empires II Conqueroros Theme

There’s much to enjoy when you download themes so get started now!

Related articles

• Brand Thunder Acquires BrowserNation Clients, Expands Global Reach of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer Themes (brandthunder.com)
• New Theme Gallery Features User Submitted Themes (brandthunder.com)

Image via CrunchBase

BrowserNation Browser Themes Come to Brand Thunder

You may have read earlier in the week how Brand Thunder and BrowserNation were coming together to bring the full host of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer browser themes to more professional teams, artists, entertainers and more.

We’re thrilled and can’t wait to get all the themes built and delivered to our new clients and their fans. The news of the event went out across the Twittersphere based on coverage from CNET and tech blogs, including:

• Columbus Business Journals
• DMXZone
• CyberSharQ
• FiveFreeApps

It’s not everyday we have such exciting news to share, so forgive us our moment to enjoy it.

BrowserNation has a beautiful product for the Firefox browser. The look and feel of these themes will change to fit Brand Thunder’s layout for Firefox. While the Firefox fan base will have an adjustment to a slightly new design, the upside is Chrome and IE users will also get to enjoy the theme experience.

More Official Sports Themes

Brand Thunder’s rich history of sports browser themes will be complemented with a host of themes across professional sports and from around the globe. BrowserNation clients that will be getting the full Chrome, Firefox and IE skin experience include the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, football clubs from Barclays Premier League Football like Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC, Tottenham Hotspur, plus other club teams like the Wycombe Wanderers, Moscow Spartak FC and Paris Saint-Germain.

Minor league sports team will be getting major league theme treatment. Indianapolis Indians, Toledo Mudhens, Toledo Walleye and Durham Bulls are some of the fans that will enjoy the new themes.

Sports fans will also have a choice of rugby teams from Bath, London, Munster and Saracens, ICC Cricket World Cup, Indy Car racing, the Red Bull Racing team, sailing and more.

More Official Music Themes

The range of music browser themes available are ramping up quickly. Brand Thunder recently released themes for artists like Kelly Clarkson, Greyson Chance, Mindless Behavior and more. Now, fans of many other genres will have a theme they can love.

BrowserNation clients include Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Radio, a host of Latin artists including Enrique Iglesias, Selena Gomez, Shakira, Nelly Furtado, Chayanne, Diego Torres, Juanes and Marc Anthony.

Fans of a more global music scene may find upcoming themes for India’s legendary singers Mohd Rafi and Asha Bhosle more to their liking. Or the indie fans of Cheryl Cole, The Saturdays, The Wanted, DeadMau5, Danger Mouse and Everything Everything will find their own theme choices.

What’s the Theme of Your Internet?

There’s never been a better time to find the official browser themes for your favorite teams, sports or music. You can enjoy these immersive experience if you’re on Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer.

And with all this choice, if you still can’t find something you like… build your own browser theme.

Related articles

• Brand Thunder Acquires BrowserNation Clients, Expands Global Reach of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer Themes (brandthunder.com)
• Browser theme creator Brand Thunder acquires rival (news.cnet.com)

If you’re going to be celebrating the Chinese New Year, Tet, Losar or any other lunar calendar celebration that I’m not aware of – you need to check out Brand Thunder’s dragon browser themes. It’s the Year of the Dragon and we have the browser skin for you.

3D Dragon Browser Theme

3D Dragon Browser Theme It started as a joke to release a 3D browser theme, but it has it’s fans. Sorry, we don’t have the red and blue glasses that really make this theme pop. You’ll enjoy it regardless with the classic style Chinese dragon. A great way to start off a very auspicious year.

Dragon Browser Theme

Dragon Browser Theme You may decide that a more fantasy-oriented dragon is more to your liking. This theme may have you thinking more about World of Warcraft than the Three Gorges, but like either of those destinations you’ll be transported to another place and time.

Blue Dragon Browser Theme

Blue Dragon Browser Theme is a browser theme created by one of the folks in the Brand Thunder community using BT:Engage, Brand Thunder’s browser theme creator. It’s a ethereal image of a Chinese dragon. More understated on the dragon front, but more forward on the design front.

Celebrate the Year of the Dragon

We hope you find something to like, or if you don’t, head over and create your own at BT:Engage. It’s as easy as dragging and dropping your own images into the theme creator. And it’ll be a fun way to kick off this New Year of the Dragon!

Sorry, Chrome users. These themes are for Firefox and Internet Explorer only. We’re upset about it too and are working hard to bring all our great themes to Chrome.

Please read both of them. We can really use your help with the first point. The second point is a much more subjective one. I won’t say which way to throw your support, but it’s an issue worth your time to have an informed opinion.

Share Your Blackout Details

As a small company, we test for as many scenarios as we can. There’s no way to prep for what we saw yesterday, and no way for us to understand it’s full impact. That’s why I’m asking for your help. I’ll outline some of the “known” issues or expected ones from a downed server, but if you want to share your experiences – especially if they’re not listed below – please email me directly at kevin – at – brandthunder – dot – com (substitute ” – at – ” with @ and ” – dot – ” with .). You can also make a comment in the Brand Thunder support forum.

Some things we know about:

• Toolbar buttons missing from themes – Many of the buttons are images that are pulled from our server. With the server down, the buttons won’t load. This is different from the theme image, which always has a locally saved version.
• Internet Explorer down in some instances – There was an early identification of a bug in an update that just released that required a server check. Oversight on our part that we quickly rolled back, but there may have been some instances where this was noticed.
• Installs not completing - Some of our themes are fully hosted on other sites. Examples include the Chrome Webstore and Addons.Mozilla.org. I know on Chrome, themes went through the install process fine, but the theme never loaded because of the blackout. If it’s not working now, I’d suggest uninstalling the first attempt then reinstalling. It should pull it up fine.
• Sidebar content missing – This may have been an artifact of the reconfiguration. I saw the outage today and is now working in some themes I’ve checked.

If there are other oddities, or issues you’ve identified, please share.

SOPA – The Long-Term Blackout

Good intentions don’t always make good policy. I’ll admit I’m not versed enough to talk to all aspects of the Stop Online Piracy Act, but for a company that has created an engine allowing anyone to instantly build a Firefox and Internet Explorer browser theme, and publish it to Brand Thunder’s browser theme gallery – it scares the heck out of me.

Despite the legal protections we put in place, like the user agreement stating a user has ownership of all images used in their theme, I’m sure there’s exposure somewhere. Just like with freedom of expression, there are those that will say things you don’t like. With a tool that allows you to express yourself via a browser theme and then share it out, expressions that approach the line of appropriate use will undoubtedly occur. Artistic license, satire or parody, we simply could not afford the legal costs of defending a series of challenges that can come our way.

Whether we willingly or accidentally participated in the SOPA blackout, we all got a taste of what may happen if it comes to reality.

What’s different from year’s past is it’s no longer acceptable to have that blue E pull up a boring gray browser. Internet Explorer skins for your browser give you the ability to personalize your Internet experience and enjoy a little style when you’re online. Whether you enjoy professional sports, the hottest music artists, your college alma mater, the latest in news or just nice elements of style – the following is a sampling of some of the IE Skins you will find in Brand Thunder’s Theme Gallery.

Alabama Crimson Tide 2012 BCS National Champions Skin

Regardless of what you think of the BCS Bowl Championship Series, you can appreciate a classic theme from a storied college team that has returned to top form. When you surf the Net, you should also Roll Tide with an IE Skin.

Jacob Latimore Skin

No need to wait for his next appearance on 106 & Park, with Sony Music’s Jacob Latimore browser theme – he’s with you whenever you’re on the Internet. We asked Jacob for his thoughts on browser skins. No surprise that he “Like ‘Em All.”

NFL San Francisco 49ers Skin

The 2011 49ers team is full of surprises with first-year coach, Jim Harbaugh, and their first playoff appearance since 2002 – and their first official browser skin. Get your IE browser on the 49er bandwagon this NFL Playoff season.

NHL Western Central St. Louis Blues Skin

We’ve got a long way to go in the NHL season, but the Blues at the top the standings of their division. And they can sit on top of your IE browser when you get this theme.

Huffington Post Skin

With the election year finally upon us, we know the news and political spin is going to be flying fast. There’s no better place to keep up with the latest and to engage in the discussion than on The Huffington Post. If you’ve got skin in the political game, get this Internet Explorer skin.

Blue Nebula

The ever productive MaDonnas Personas will astonish you with her productivity and her consistently outstanding portfolio of work. Here’s a space inspired skin that will make your Internet Explorer look out of this world.

Dragon

Arya Mathur used Brand Thunder’s BT:Engage to create this astral vision of a Dragon, and then kindly published it to the Brand Thunder Gallery to share with everyone.

And remember, if you don’t find what you want in the Gallery, you can always design and build your own browser skin with Brand Thunder’s BT:Engage. You can choose images from the catalog of images or upload, then drag and drop your own into the browser design. It’s 100%  free to build, share and download your own browser skin.

Related articles

• Internet Explorer 8 Themes (brandthunder.com)

The first desktop wallpaper, as used on the Xerox Star in 1975. -Image via Wikipedia

Community toolbars have been around for years helping online publishers build engagement with their fans and online community. The power of this tool has helped build Conduit, the leader in this space, into what some say is a billion dollar company. Engagement is a powerful tool.

For many years more, desktop wallpapers were the path to customization and personalization for the personal computer – from family photos to wonderful waterfalls – we’ve either seen or tried them. They are easy to install and change. There is no way to interact with the wallpaper, they exist simply for the visual enhancement they offer. The only real downside? Wallpapers spend the majority of time covered by the applications running on the computer. You get to enjoy that beautiful graphic when you start up and shut down your computer – hello and goodbye.

So, what’s it like to take two great ideas and merge them into one. It’s like asking the question, can you get two great tastes to taste great together?

Your Web Site on a Custom Community Toolbar

Conduit Platform gives all web publishers, regardless of size, the ability to create and publish a branded, customized Community Toolbar. Anything you can put on a website can also be deployed on a Community Toolbar including: applications, content, gadgets, feeds, social media tools, personal account data, games, services, links, and more.

With over 230 million publishers taking advantage of the Conduit platform, there’s no shortage of people that see the value of extending their web presence to the platform with the most Internet engagement – the Internet browser. There’s great upside to putting your content in the browser and creating a persistent presence whenever a user is online.

While toolbars are still core to their offering, Conduit has extended their approach of simplifying the build process of technical marketing tools and branching into the very hot category of mobile and browser apps.

Your Favorite Image on Your Computer

Your computer monitor is an elaborate picture frame. Picking the image is probably the hardest part of deciding how to customize your computer desktop. On my computer, I can literally right click on any image and “Set as Desktop Background.” It can be a bit overwhelming if you think about it. Every image you encounter is an option for you.

That’s where sites like Desktop Nexus come in. Between the site and their very active communities, they curate the visual selection for you. Landing on the web site gives you an immediate view into “Recently Popular Wallpapers – By Member Votes” so you can grasp what people like. They also offer Galleries, tags, sorting, creators and just about any other navigation method you may prefer. Really well done. And they’re well on their way to meeting their goal of the household brand-name to answer the endless demand for computer wallpapers.

Desktop Nexus provides a medium for members to share their desktop creations with the world. For designers, it’s a great showcase for their work and opportunity build their following. You’ll even find some designers using a site like this to cross-promote their work on other services. Like this 2012 Seasons wallpaper with links to browser theme options.

Toolbar + Wallpaper = Browser Theme

Whether you’re looking for the latest Chrome browser theme from Kelly Clarkson, the Firefox theme for BCS National Champion contender Alabama Crimson Tide, or an Internet Explorer theme featuring a favorite coupon and deals site like Presto Savings – Brand Thunder has been the place for online marketers to turn. What each one of these offers is a combination of community toolbar and desktop wallpaper.

While a browser theme can’t match the visual real estate of the desktop wallpaper, it is assured exposure whenever consumers are online – often hours a day. So no matter how many hours someone is spending on Facebook, they can be spending every minute of it in an experience you designed.

As for toolbars, there’s little in terms of functionality advantages that one product has over the other. Community toolbars and interactive browser themes each have the highly desired presence when someone is online, and enjoy the benefit of a persistent communication channel to the end user – and hence the ability to engage those users.

Following the lead Conduit established for its toolbars, Brand Thunder launched BT:Engage and put the power of creating interactive browser themes into the hands of any online publisher. Now any web site, online community or individual can build their own custom browser theme by simply uploading any images they want into BT:Engage and then dragging and dropping them into the theme. It’s just as simple to add buttons and content feeds.

When you combine the two great ideas of community toolbars and desktop wallpapers – you get interactive browser themes, the Reese’s cup of the Internet.

Related articles

• Conduit Community Toolbar vs. Browser Theme (brandthunder.com)
• Using Browser Themes to Create Free Desktop Backgrounds (brandthunder.com)
• Theme Spotlight: Digital Blasphemy Wallpapers & Background Themes (brandthunder.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Wow! What a competition for Best Holiday Browser Theme of 2011. While all five finalists had merit and style, two quickly emerged as contenders for first place: Christmas Ornament and Perfect Christmas Eve. Voting was fast and furious at the end, with the lead changing several times. As in any competition, however, there can only be one winner and for this year, it turned out to be…

 And the Winner is…

Christmas Ornament(:

The winner of Apple’s iPad 2 and first prize in Brand Thunder’s Best Holiday Browser Theme of 2011 is Christmas Ornament(:  In the end, user’s seemed to favor the abstract and contemporary feel captured in this holiday browser theme.

The Runner’s Up are…

Perfect Christmas Eve

Despite the idyllic snowy winter’s night, as we discovered in the movie “Elf,” Christmas spirit is running a little low for Santa. Hopefully, this doesn’t affect what appears under our Christmas tree in a couple days.

Xanapus` Lair Christmas Theme

Holiday Snow

A Year to Celebrate

Thanks to all who participated in the holiday theme contest. It was a ton of fun for us and we hope you enjoyed it as well. And while these themes are great and can bring you months of joy to your daily Internet use, don’t forget to visit the Brand Thunder Theme Gallery the next time you want a fresh look for your browser. There’s a world-class selection of Chrome themes, Firefox themes and Internet Explorer themes with new ones being added all the time.

The judges have cast their ballots and here are the top five from the Best Holiday Browser Theme Contest. Each is a winner in its own right, but now it’s up to you, the browser-theme community, to choose the ultimate winner. Over the next week, we’re gathering your votes to determine first prize.

Each of these browser themes were built using BT:Engage, the first do-it-yourself browser theme creator. You can drag & drop images, toolbar buttons and more into the browser theme using a gallery of images or any images you upload yourself. Click Finish and you instantly create a browser theme for both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. You can share with family and friends, or post immediately to Brand Thunder’s Browser Theme Gallery. So, after enjoying one of these winning themes for the holiday season, come back to Brand Thunder and try one of our themes for Chrome, Firefox or IE.

Vote Daily

Every day vote for your favorite holiday browser theme. The theme with the most votes on Friday, December 23 (voting closes Dec. 22), is declared the Best Holiday Browser Theme of 2011 and its creator wins an iPad 2. All other finalists take home a $25 Amazon gift card.

1. Xanapus` Lair Christmas Theme

An edgier look at the holiday season, Xanapus` Lair offers a contemporary look at Christmas in this holiday browser theme.

2. Perfect Christmas Eve

Perfect Christmas Eve captures an idyllic view of the night flight of Santa and his reindeer in this browser theme.

3. Christmas Ornament(:

A hint of abstract art embodies the holiday browser theme of Christmas Ornament(:

4. A Year to Celebrate

An exquisite view of the holidays and this season of celebration in A Year to Celebrate browser theme.

5. Holiday Snow

Whether you want a White Christmas or just to Let is Snow, Holiday Snow browser theme delivers.

Most Votes Wins First Prize

View This Poll

This is an added bonus to the redesigned browser theme gallery for anyone seeking Chrome themes, Firefox themes and IE themes.

Theme Gallery

Brand Thunder browser themes were usually found on the websites of their clients. With the increase in demand for browser themes driven by the customization available in Chrome and Firefox, Brand Thunder is giving users a destination site to find the best themes for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

And why not? What we’ve seen over the years is users move across themes sometimes based on mood, other times by season, sometimes just for a change. Personalization is so easy with Brand Thunder. Whether you want a theme from the Buffalo Bills, Greyson Chance or something for the latest holiday, you’ll find something to enjoy. And once you’ve installed more than one theme, you can cycle through the convenient theme selector to choose the theme you want at that precise moment.

User Generated Themes

When Brand Thunder released BT:Engage, we offered a Share page giving the URL and quick access to sharing across Facebook, Twitter and more. Well, we’ve finally remedied one of the omissions – BT:Engage users can now publish their themes to the Brand Thunder Gallery.

It’s a simple as clicking the Publish to Gallery button. Once you do, it’s immediately pushed to the Gallery. Unless you publish to the gallery, the themes are kept private and only viewable by users with whom you share the URL for the download page.

Free Publicity

Who doesn’t like a little free publicity? With placement on our Gallery, it’s additional exposure for the theme and the designer behind them. We’re also using the Gallery homepage to feature some of the best themes we find. It’s our way of showcasing the amazing browser themes being generated from the community of Brand Thunder clients, designers and users.

Explore the Brand Thunder Gallery yourself to see the full range of styles your browser can enjoy. If you don’t see what you want, create your own at BT:Engage.

COLUMBUS (March 23, 2010) — Brand Thunder LLC (http://www.brandthunder.com), the browser customization specialists, announced today the launch of its Weather theme for the Firefox Browser. The Weather theme is an advance in browser theme capabilities featuring a background that dynamically changes based on the user’s current weather conditions. The Weather theme also features the full range of weather information from WeatherBug, the leading provider of consumer and professional weather services and operator of the largest weather observing network. The theme can be downloaded for free at http://brandthunder.com/weather.

To experience this break-through browser theme, an end-user downloads an easy-to-install browser add-on. The add-on enhances the functionality of their Firefox browser to include the dynamic theme plus forecasts, temperature, maps and more. It also includes a multimedia sidebar enabling users the ability to monitor live weather conditions while they surf the web.

“We continue to push the boundary of what can be delivered within the browser experience,” says founder Patrick Murphy. “Brand Thunder’s goals are to make the browser more personal, fun and functional. WeatherBug has extensive hooks into their content and a supportive team that enabled us to create a showcase of what a browser theme can be.”

“Brand Thunder has taken toolbars to the next level, utilizing the entire browser chrome to display valuable dynamic content” said Alan George, Director of Business Development for WeatherBug. “We are excited about the development of WeatherBug “Boom!” offered through Brand Thunder. It makes WeatherBug information even more accessible and very interactive for users.”

Brand Thunder’s interactive themes provide an extreme makeover of the Internet browser. They are free, lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality. Users can switch real-time between any installed Brand Thunder themes.

About Brand Thunder:
Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates extreme makeovers for the Internet browser. Brands enjoy a persistent connection to their Internet consumer driving more website visits and increased revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the drab Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site. The interactive browser themes feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, and can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include Bing, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL and Universal Music. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Contact:
Patrick Murphy, CEO
Brand Thunder, LLC
614-408-8202

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