Firefox

Ever since I recently switched to Firefox over the past summer (of ‘07), my web browsing experience has been so much better. I think the most breaking point of Firefox vs. IE is the extensions available for Firefox. Anyone can develop an extension and it is a lot easier to integrate them into Firefox.

Anyways, this is my propaganda page for Firefox and includes many of the extensions/other tips I use that I highly recommend using!

Tips

Using folders in your bookmark bar.

Enjoy using the bookmark bar at the top for quick access links? Have you already found out how much limited space there is? I highly recommend that you break down links into categories and make folders for those categories. Then place similar links into each folder. And don’t forget the less letters you use in each folder name, the more folders you can have! Plus if you use Google Browser Sync, then you have your bookmarks synced between all your machines.

Here is an example of my bookmark bar:

Firefox Bookmarks

Creating quick keyword search terms

Want to do a Google search from your address bar without actually using the search toolbar OR going directly to Google? Then this tip is for you! I.e. I type ‘g mandaria.net’ and I get all Google search results for ‘mandaria.net’

How to use this feature:

  1. Go to www.google.com
  2. Right click on the field where you type in your search
  3. Click on “Add a Keyword for this Search”
  4. Give it a name. It doesn’t really matter what.
  5. Give it a keyword. For instance, I use g for Google, yt for Youtube, w for Wikipedia, etc.
  6. Press OK.
  7. Now whenever you want to do a Google search, just type ‘[keyword] [search string]‘ into your address bar!

Open any bookmark in the sidebar.

  1. Right click on the bookmark in question
  2. Go to properties
  3. Check the box that says “Load this bookmark in the sidebar”

Load your Google Calendar Agenda in your sidebar.

I can’t really explain this one any better than LifeHacker. Note: if you use Google Browser Sync, then you’ll have to do this for each desktop and save the file in the same location.

Extensions

Adblock Plus – Hate ads? Then remove them! ALL of them!

Customize Google – Adds some extra features to different Google things (search, gmail, etc.). Removes ads, adds links to other search engines (i.e. perform the same search on Yahoo), etc.

Download Statusbar – Do you hate the download window? It was one of the more annoying features of Firefox that I didn’t like (or even when IE opens up individual download windows). This extension condenses your download list to a statusbar on the bottom of your screen and can be setup to only appear when you are downloading/have recently downloaded something. Once you open the downloaded file, it disappears.

FEBE – I really use this extension to move profiles from one machine to another. It backs up everything, including extensions/themes/all settings. Copy the file over to another machine and then easily restore it on the second machine to have all your settings duplicated there.

Gmail Manager – Best gmail app ever!!! If you aleady have gmail notifier or gtalk, it probably isn’t necessary, as it simply notifies you when you have new gmail. It also is a one-click access to your gmail account (it already logs you in).

Google Browser Sync – Lets you sync cookies, passwords, bookmarks, history and tabs between more than one machine.

IE Tab – Sometimes you come across a website that it is completely necessary to run IE to view (Windows Update, Microsoft Exchange: OWA, etc.). This extension lets you view any website with the IE engine running inside of Firefox. You can also setup filters such that it automatically switches to IE for certain sites.

PDF Download – This one isn’t really necessary, but I sometimes have issues with Adobe Reader and Foxit having control over my PDFs. This plugin will let you explicitly open a PDF with a certain program, download it, or view it as an HTML. Still pretty useful in general.

ScribeFire – If you are a blogger, then you must have this extension! It lets you write to your blog INSIDE of Firefox! You just click the orange icon in the bottom right, it pulls up a half-screen toolbar that lets you quickly write/edit/etc. to your blog. I cannot live without this!

Session Manager – Lets you save/restore browsing sessions. Good way to load up all your favorite sites into tabs in one click.

(Facebook Toolbar) - I’m still experimenting with this one. I might just keep only a few buttons of it and integrate it into my bookmark toolbar. It does, however, provide a really nice search/sidebar feature. Also gives near-live time notificaitons.  See below

Boost for Facebook – Same as the Facebook Toolbar but BETTER!  Has a number of nifty features, such as: updating status from toolbar, auto refresh homepage WITH auto-poke all, rollover pictures for bigger sizes and a new FRESH way to view pictures, HIDE ADS, alter facebook colors to either pre-defined school colors, or those of your own choice, download full facebook albums, etc.  I think I might keep this toolbar.  It also fixes the number one problem I had with Facebook Toolbar: auto-logging in!

Themes

NASA Night Launch – Do you like dark themes? Then this is a great theme extension for you! Supports a lot of extensions. I have yet to run into a single extension that this theme does not cover well. Combine it with Windows XP Zune theme or Vista’s black theme (I don’t know its name?).