Fluid – Create SSB’s with ease

Are you the type of person that usually has way too many tabs open in their browser or someone who wants an easy way to access specific websites from the Dock? If yes, then you should check out SSB’s, or Site Specific Browsers. Fluid is an application that allows you to easily create and customize SSB’s, and save them as Applications in your Dock, or even your Menu bar.

Fluid’s easy to use and simple interface couldn’t be any more self explanatory, simply pick the URL of your website, name it, and select whether to use a custom icon or the website’s favicon (Tip: I recommend using your own icon, as the favicon can sometimes be pixelated).

Once your application is saved, you can drag it onto your Dock, and use it as frequently as you wish. And because the SSB’s are native Cocoa applications based on Safari’s WebKit rendering engine, you’ll know that its fast, and offers seamless integration into the Mac OS.

I use Fluid to make SSB’s for sites that I visit most frequently, such as eBay, BBC iPlayer, and even one for MobileMe (Shown below). There’s also extensive options to change everything from Appearance, Security settings and Plug-ins, all accessible from the Preferences window.

One of the major advantages of Fluid is the ability to run scripts, specifically those downloaded from UserSripts.org – there’s loads of tips and tutorials on what ones to choose to make Fluid that little bit better. Another little feature worth a mention is the ability to display badge notifications on the dock, however, this doesn’t work for every website, but does work for  Google Mail and Google Reader.

The best part of Fluid? It’s free, and there’s a huge user community behind it, developing scripts and making icons to make your Fluid experience that bit better. Fluid is only available for Mac OSX Leopard (10.5.x) and can be downloaded from the Fluid Website.