Stylebot.Me Makes It Personal – When It Comes To CSS
When it comes to web browsers it all boils down to how they adapt to us and how fast we get used to them. In the world where Internet Explorer is going to be extinct and replaced with Spartan, where Mozilla Firefox went form hipster to mainstream to “what the hell?”, Google Chrome is slowly but surely taking its place under the sun. It became a mean and lean (not so) little machine with sleek style and now it will become even more personalised with a little help of Stylebot.me.
We Never Go Out Of Style
So what Stylebot is exactly? Stylebot is a Chrome extension that allows you to quickly create and save persistent custom CSS for sites. Erm, what is CSS you ask? Well if you are just a leisure internet user we don’t blame you for not knowing. Short for Cascading Style Sheets, it is a style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language. While most often used to change the style of web pages and user interfaces, along with HTML and JavaScript, CSS is a cornerstone technology used by most websites to create visually engaging webpages.
So, if you are a design enthusiast, you’ve already let out an audible fangirl/fanboy noise. For those who are still a bit confused after the short CSS lesson, in short Stylebot will get you a completely customized design for any page of your choosing. Now does that sound cool or what? Changes you make can be saved for later use and because we are talking about Chrome here, that can be synced across multiple devices. It can be simple change like making the font bigger or (re)moving images and ads.
From User to Expert
Stylebot was created as a Google Summer of Code project, with hopes to finally unlock the power of the C in CSS, by giving the end user final control on how web content is displayed. Ankit Ahuja, who worked on Stylebot, wanted to allow users unfamiliar with CSS to be able to use this extension with ease. On the other hand there is a separate mode in which more advanced users can write their own CSS and Ankit tried to make sure the Stylebot code is useful for other developers. So this extension is literally for anyone, no matter how advanced their knowledge in CSS is.
This can be very useful when it comes to unsightly, but widely used sites like Reddit or Craigslist. If the personals sections (or any other) of these sites scare you, you can easily hide them and avoid even the slightest possibility to click on them and scar yourself for life. But you are not alone. Stylebot Social is a place to share your custom CSS. You can browse other people’s creations and save your favorites. If you’ve already installed Stylebot, you can directly install the styles. If not, you can still view the custom CSS and apply it using userscripts.
Perhaps you want to shake up the Facebook design and make it pink, or you want to help your grandma with the font size for her favourite news outlet. It doesn’t matter, Stylebot.me has you covered in all areas of CSS redesign. The best part is that you can use it even if you are a total beginner, but you won’t get bored if you are an advanced user. Verstaile and useful, who could ask for more?
