In Firefox you've always been able to assign a keyword to any bookmark, which would take you to that particular site if you type the keyword in the address bar and press Enter. That's nice and all, but once you get a large number of shortcuts it can be tough to remember them all.
I'm always on the lookout for a good Firefox extension, and I got an email the other day about one I've really fallen in love with. It's called KwiClick, and it does exactly what I look for in an extension... it stays out of my way until I need it, and when I do use it I get the results I want.
When Opera introduced Speed Dial into their browser I didn't realize quite how big of a hit it would become. Now most browsers are shipping with some sort of iteration of this feature that is capable of showing thumbnail previews for the sites you frequently visit. It's basically a visual way to view your favorite sites.
Our homegrown CyberSearch Firefox extension has hit a big milestone last week as it passed the 50,000 download mark! I never expected the extension to be that well received, but I'm happy to see that so many users are finding it to be useful.
The last time we did a report on the operating system and browser stats was back in January 2009. In January Chrome was starting to take off as it passed 1% market share, and both Windows and Internet Explorer suffered some big blows as their competition scooped up some of their precious users.
I still feel like I'm in search of the perfect page that is displayed when I open up a new tab in my browser. I used to be one of those people who always used a blank page for performance reasons, but when I started using Opera more I really started to like having the Speed Dial sites at my fingertip.
I've seen extensions before that let you designate specific directories on your computer for files to be saved based upon the extension of file. The thing that I normally hate about this is that it's tough to say where I want the ZIP files I download to be stored.
It's not often that I come across a bookmarklet that I'll use everyday, but in the last few days PageZipper has become an unbelievable tool in my daily arsenal.
A few years ago we wrote about a handy bookmarklet that would make Firefox remember passwords on some sites that ordinarily wouldn't, like Yahoo! or Paypal. Some people on the article were reporting that this no longer works in Firefox 3, but one anonymous commenter referenced a rather clever workaround.
Over in our forum someone was wondering if there was a way to prevent Firefox from prompting you about updates to extensions you have installed. Th problem for some users is that Firefox will not continue to load if it is in the process of prompting you for updates. For example, let's say you have Firefox automatically start when your computers boots up.
It's definitely hard to believe, but after 6-months of being released the CyberSearch extension has been downloaded over 25,000 times from Mozilla's add-ons site. The stats page for our add-on appears to be a bit screwed up since it's only reporting that we have 3 active users, but the average number of you actively using CyberSearch is around 4,000... which is probably a bit more accurate.
There has been more talk about web browsers in the last few weeks than any time I can remember in the past. Google Chrome came out of the Beta phase, Opera unveiled the first Alpha release of version 10, Internet Explorer 8 is suspected to have a 3rd Beta coming in the next month, and Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 was just unveiled.
Last week Cody sent me in a tip for an experimental Firefox extension that I just had to try out. It's called TooManyTabs, and it essentially adds another tab bar to your Firefox window where you can temporarily store some of your existing tabs. To do this all you have to do is hover over a tab, and you'll see the tab's icon turn into an up arrow (as seen in the screenshot above).
Mozilla is on the verge of releasing Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, and it's quite possible that in the next month or two the final version will be pushed out the door. A major new release like this means that some of your favorite extensions might not be working, and Mozilla doesn't want that to happen.
Having toolbars in a browser can be both frustrating and convenient. On one hand they can often cram a lot of useful functionality into a small area, but on the other hand they eat up precious space that could be used for viewing websites. After all, we know what your browser can look like when you've installed a few too many toolbars.
Mozilla has decided that in Firefox 3.1 they want users to have a fresh new way to switch between tabs in a browser window. That's why they've come up with a system that resembles Apple's Cover Flow for moving from one tab to another. What if you want a bit more eye candy though?
Back in May 2008 Yahoo! acquired a search add-on called Inquisitor that brought "find as you type" search results to Safari. Since then there hasn't been much news about what's going on behind the scenes, but there didn't seem to be much development... at least not on the Safari front. They've apparently been working on a version of the add-on that also works in Firefox.
Mozilla released Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 the other day, and users playing with version 3.1 for the first time will be able to enjoy some of the enhancements it brings to the table. Things like advanced address bar filtering, better tab switching, and drastically improved JavaScript performance are the main highlights for this release.
Calling all Firefox users! If you're a Firefox user, we are wondering if you stick with the default theme or if you venture out and find a custom theme. There are hundreds of themes out there that appeal to users for various reasons whether it be the colors or something else.
It's taken a few months, but I'm happy to announce that anyone can install our homegrown CyberSearch extension for Firefox without needing a Mozilla account. Just yesterday our extension got pushed out of the sandbox, and a big thanks goes out to all of the CyberSearch users who took the time to leave a review.
