[ikhare]

Chrome has a concept of multiple users in it's preferences. When you turn it on then you can pick an icon per account and it shows up on the top right of the browser window. To switch to a different user click on that and switch to a different user. Each user can sign into a different google account.

Each user has it's own cookies, chrome extensions etc. Keeps work and personal accounts very separate.

[euank]

Firefox has an even more powerful version of this.

If you start firefox with the "-P" flag you can choose to create a new profile. You can also pass it an argument (e.g. firefox -P default) to choose one.

In this case, the profiles are completely disparate; there is zero overlap. In this case, you simply have to login to one google account per window and paste into the correct window (still not ideal).

To run multiple profiles at once, launch all profiles after the first one with "firefox --no-remote -P <profile-name>". Clicking links will open them with the firefox that was launched without "--no-remote".

[delroth]

How is it more powerful? This is exactly the same thing, but apparently with a worse UI (the multiple profile thing in Chrome is exposed through the UI).

[euank]

The firefox instances have completely different processes, settings, etc. Everything. Chrome, unless I'm mistaken, does not go that far.

For example, one of my main uses of multiple-profiles is that I have a different profile for every proxy I use. I can launch a firefox profile that's proxied side-by-side with my usual firefox (aside, the firefox proxy settings are exposed via the UI, unlike chrome).

Chrome, I'd have to run "google-chrome-stable --proxy-server=$proxy" and then, again unless I'm mistaken, all accounts will use that proxy server. That, by itself, is a deal breaker.

I'm not familiar enough with chrome's settings and so on to say what does and doesn't leak; I could be completely wrong on all of this, but I suspect I'm correct.

Edit: On looking more, Chrome's does look more complete than I thought. The proxy bit still is a dealbreaker for me (well, and I'm adverse to logging into a google account), but I retract much of what I said.

[barrkel]

Have you tried FoxyProxy Firefox extension?

[euank]

I haven't used it in a long time, but I did use it at one point.

It's just not as good security and privacy-wise. Using proxies on/off on one profile, as it encourages, results in any tracking cookies seeing both IPs having the same tracking data, and thus your proxy has lost some of its privacy.

I also run entirely different extensions when I'm going for privacy vs fun browsing vs banking etc etc.

If you just want proxies to get around some region restriction and don't really care about the privacy or security aspects, then FoxyProxy might be fine.

[Spittie]

For people afraid of the CLI, there are some nice addons to manage multiple profiles directly from the interface. A very nice one is "Profilist" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profilist/)

[wslh]

I wrote a Firefox extension on 2007 that allowed you to use different accounts at the same time in different tabs (no windows!). The video showing it continues to be available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBkB-Yp-zM

Sadly it was very difficult to maintain.

[babarock]

I started using this a few months ago. It definitely helps a lot, but it can still break the workflow.

Using OSX, when I click on a link inside Mail, it opens it in Chrome using the last used user. It's annoying when it's the wrong user. You still need to switch users and reopen the link in Chrome.

[bowlofpetunias]

This is why I use different browsers for different accounts (Chrome, Safari and Firefox are generally all fine for regular web use) and Choosy (http://www.choosyosx.com/) to prompt me which browser to open the link in.

It also allows for binding certain URLs to specific browsers.

[CPAhem]

I have the same problem, as I have a personal and a work Google account. Chrome can sometimes ask you if you want to switch accounts, but in the end, I use Firefox for personal stuff and Chrome for my work.

BrowserChooser http://browserchooser.codeplex.com/ is a nice tool (like Choosyosx) to help select what URL to open in which browser.

To sync to Google Drive, I use Syncdocs http://syncdocs.com which is an enhanced Google Drive sync app that enables syncing multiple accounts at the same time.

I think Google wants each user to only have one account, which makes it better for them tracking ads.

[jstandard]

How has your experience been with Syncdocs?

I'd recently looked into ways to cure the pain of multiple google drive accounts running on the desktop app. People spoke highly of CloudFuze and InSync, but their support forums were filled with really awful error reports about random file deletions or endless file replication.

These services sound like a syncing layer on top of a syncing layer, which seems prone to errors.

[Flenser]

You could use chrome for all of them and specify the profile in the command line arguments

[mattmanser]

I have used this now for years.

It's a fucking godsend, every computer I have has 3 different Chrome accounts on it, all short cuts on my tool bar.

On windows at least it is trivial, extremely trivial, to switch between them. You will generally be in one of the modes, for me these are "their company", "my company", "personal".

Whichever one you used last will be the one that receives the "open internet" command. So if you are in "their work" mode, reading your emails in their email client it will open the google doc in the right context.

For you your workflow is somehow broken, for me that's exactly what I want. If I'm in "their work" mode, I want all browsers to open in that context. I'm not expecting them to be psychic. That means 95% of the time it just works because you are already in the right context. The other 5% you get used to very quickly. If I open up my personal email account, I want any next links clicked to be opened in that context.

Added bonus, it's great for every SASS not just just google accounts.

[extension]

Would be cool if it could detect which users had access to the document and switch to the most recently used of those to open the link. Not sure if that can be done securely though.

[gumby]

> "Keeps work and personal accounts very separate."

Does it? I don't know either way, but if I were google I would link the two accounts (just takes one more cookie at most!) so that if me@work-acct searches for a car, then me@home-acct can be served a car ad....

[frankosaurus]

Yeah, chrome profiles is the answer. I typically have two chrome windows open, one with my work account and one for personal. Each is linked to the corresponding Google account. This gives the advantage of chrome sync (bookmark sync, etc.)

That said, the OP had 4 google accounts, so I can see how this could get messy.

[aschampion]

The last (and only) time I used this it ended up adding all my development-focused extensions to my SO's Chrome profile, then when she removed them made a mess of my Chrome configuration on other systems, so YMMV.

[andrewmcg]

Here's some more info about Chrome profiles for whoever is interested (http://www.googlegooru.com/how-to-create-google-chrome-profi...). Like most others have said, I have three Chrome profiles on every computer that I use. It's perfect for maintaining your workflow across multiple devices, as you can open up the same tabs at home that you had open at work.

[coryking]

It is also great for web development. Have one user profile that has all the password managers, adblocks, etc not installed.