Use Google as a Proxy Server to Bypass Paywalls, Download Files

If you have trouble accessing a web page either because the website is blocked at your workplace, or because that page happens to be behind a paywall, there are a couple of undocumented Google proxy servers that may help you read that page.

When you access any page via one of these Google proxies, the content of that page gets downloaded on Google servers and then served to you. The lesser-known gmodules.comproxy, discussed later, will even allow you to download documents, videos and other web files that are otherwise blocked.

1. Google Translate as a Proxy

To use Google Translate as a proxy, set the destination language as the actual language of the page and the source language as anything but the destination language.

For instance, if you are to access a page written in English, set the destination language (tl) in the translate URL as “en” and the source language (sl) as “ja” for Japanese. (example)

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://example.com/

Google Translate Proxy (bookmarklet)

Advantage: This is the most popular Google proxy and the download web pages looks exactly like the original provided the domains serving the images and CSS aren’t blocked at your place.

2. Google Mobilizer as a Proxy

Next in the list is Google’s Mobilizer service. Google has discontinued the main mobilizer service on google.com (secure) but you can still access it through any country-specific Google domain like google.co.in or google.ie. The URL would be:

http://www.google.ie/gwt/x?u=http://example.com/ (example)

Google Mobilizer Proxy (bookmarklet)

Advantage: The presentation (CSS) isn’t retained but this mode is perfect for reading text-heavy pages and do have the option of disabling inline images for faster loading.

3. Google Modules as a Proxy

The gmodules.com domain is part of the Google personalized homepage service and is primarily used for hosting gadgets that are available for the Google homepage.

http://www.gmodules.com/ig/proxy?url=http://example.com/ (example)

Google Modules Proxy (bookmarklet)

Advantage: This is the only Google proxy that will let you download files (like PDFs, .MP4 videos, etc) in addition to viewing regular web pages.

Chrome for Android gets much-sought built-in translation

On-the-fly translation of Web pages is a fixture in Chrome for PCs, but now it's in the Android version, too. Also arriving: SPDY-augmented data compression.

When Chrome for Android encounters a Web page in a different language, it will offer to translate it.

(Credit: Google)

Google, always trying to break down language barriers as part of its mission to make the world's information accessible, has added on-the-fly, automatic Web page translation to its Chrome browser for Android devices.

Chrome 28 for Android, released Wednesday, has the translation feature built in, said Chrome team member Jason Kersey in a blog post. The feature has been built into Chrome for personal computers for years.

• An optimized user interface for right-to-left (RTL) languages including Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew.Also new in Chrome 28 for Android, according to Kersey and another Chrome team member, Dan Alcantara:

• Full-screen support on tablets, which lets Web apps -- in particular games and video -- take over the entire screen.

• Support for Google's experimental data compression service that lets fast Google servers read a Web page, optimize it for mobile devices, then transmit it faster to a mobile device using Google's SPDY network technology. The service only works with unencrypted Web pages.

Google's server-assisted browsing only works for unencrypted Web pages. Encrypted ones use a direct channel to the secure Web page.

(Credit: Google)