I make use of core add-ons that are installed all the time and temporary add-ons that I only install when I need them. Two examples for temporary add-ons are the excellent web development add-on Firebug and the multi-site video downloader Video Download Helper.

I also have to say that I’m running the latest version of Firefox 3.6 and not the latest stable version of Firefox 3.5x. Many of the add-ons had to be forced to be compatible with the Nightly Tester Tools add-on. They do work perfectly though afterwards.

• App Tabs – I reviewed the add-on yesterday and really like it. Tabs can be pinned and minimized on the left side of the Firefox tabbar. This is great for websites and services that are open all the time.
• Bug489729 – This prevents Firefox from opening a new window if a tab gets dragged accidentally in the web browser. Some users do not have a problem with this at all while others have to cope with this behavior regularly.
• Greasemonkey – Userscripts can be very useful in many occasions. There are some great ones out there that really improve the web surfing experience.
• Last Pass – I switched to Last Pass after using the build in Firefox password manager for a long time. Last Pass offers a lot of additional features including a secure password generator, form profile manager to automatically fill web forms, automatically log into websites, web access to all passwords.
• Multi Links – If you regularly work on websites where lots of links are posted that you all need or want to open then Multi Links is for you. You can draw a rectangle around an area on the website. Every link in that rectangle will be opened once the user lets go of the right mouse button. Excellent for forums, link lists or blog posts.
• Nightly Tester Tools – Most add-ons have not been updated by their developers yet to be compatible with the Firefox 3.6x branch. This tool makes them compatible with this version. It will be uninstalled once all developers have updated their add-ons.
• No Redirect – If you hate being redirected by your ISP to a search page whenever you mistype an url then this is for your.
• NoScript – One of the two Firefox add-ons that I consider most important (the other is Last Pass). No Script will block all scripts from being executed on a website on the first visit. This increases the security of the web browser and computer system as most exploits and attacks make use of scripts to do so.
• SeoQuake – Useful for webmasters. SeoQuake can display various SEO related information about websites including their Pagerank, links, Alexa rank and more.
• Tiny Menu – I like the Firefox header to be as small as possible so that the actual website makes use of most of the screen estate in the web browser. Tiny Men compresses the menu into one menu entry which can then be merged with the address bar so that only one bar is shown at the top of the web browser.
• Operetta Theme – I ran the default Firefox theme for most of the time. But then I discovered the Operetta theme which brings the design of Opera 10 to Firefox. It looks fabulous but only works with Firefox 3.6x versions.

And that’s it. Not a lot of add-ons if you consider that some Ghacks readers use 70+ add-ons.

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Firefox by default will not prioritize any of the links. The Firefox developer’s now thought that it might make sense to prioritize certain tabs in Firefox. Why would that make sense? The active tab for example is the tab that the user is currently looking at. Should not that active tab load faster than tabs that are not in the focus of the user?

That’s basically what the experimental Firefox add-on mozNetworkPrioritizer tries to accomplish. It prioritizes tabs based on their status based on the following order:

• Selected Tab in a Focused Window
• Background Tab in a Focused Window & Selected Tab in a Background Window
• Background Tab in a Background Window
• Any Tab in a Minimized Window

The add-on will speed up the loading of websites from top to bottom. The developer of the extension shared his experience at his website.

Initial results showed some improvement when loading large groups of tabs. It was most noticeable when loading many tabs from the same site (e.g. the default BBC livemarks). It was somewhat noticeable during a typical (for me) session restore. There was no difference during normal browsing

The Firefox add-on is available at the Mozilla website if you want to give it a try.

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It is possible to combine filters as well using the checkboxes. Videos are displayed with their name, size, source and several thumbnail screenshots which usually gives a good indication of the video’s contents. Video search results can be sorted in several ways including relevance, popularity, duration or date they have been added.

It is furthermore possible to save a video search and to embed it in a website. Videosurf comes with two Firefox add-ons that make it more comfortable to search for videos. Videos at a Glance will display visual video thumbnails while the Videosurf Search Plugin adds the video search engine to the list of Firefox search engines.

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The shortcut [CTRL F] allows them to search in the active tab but that’s about it. The following article contains three interesting and hopefully useful Firefox tips that improve the local search in the Firefox web browser. Two of the tips are add-ons for the web browser while the last is a setting that provides smoother access to the local search options.

Tip 1: Getting rid of [CTRL F]

The first tip is a basic tip but nonetheless helpful for users who search on pages regularly. Firefox offers an option to start the search on the page immediately without having to press CTRL F first.

Users who want to change to the faster way of searching on a page can do so by opening the Firefox options, switching to the advanced tab in the options and checking the Search for test when I start typing box. It is from then on possible to perform a search on the same page by simply typing the search term.

Tip 2: Search in all open tabs

The Find in tabs add-on provides another interesting search option. It allows Firefox users to search in all open tabs instead of just the active tab. This can be pretty useful for users who do research and have multiple tabs open on the same subject.

Find In Tabs

Tip 3 Smart Find Add-on

The Smart Find add-on adds another interesting option to the Firefox search option. It can find words related to the search phrase which is extremely helpful if words (either the search phrase or the phrase on the website) has been misspelled.

Smart Find

Do you know other tips or Firefox add-ons that improve the local search in the web browser? Let us know in the comments.

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That’s exactly what the experimental Firefox add-on Hide Tabbar is doing. Hide Tabbar works by configuring a keyboard shortcut to hide and display the tabbar in the web browser. The default combination has been set to CTRL F11 which is not that comfortable as it can only be accessed with both hands.

The keyboard shortcut can be changed easily in the options of the add-on so that only one hand is needed to hide and display the tabbar in Firefox. Hide Tabbar offers an auto-hide function as well which will automatically hide the Firefox tabbar after a certain time. The tabbar will be displayed again if the user hovers the mouse cursor over the area were it was initially displayed.

Hide Tabbar is an experimental add-on for the Firefox web browser that is compatible with all versions of Firefox.

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The development team seems to have increased the size of the fonts quite a bit which makes everything more readable on the website. Probably the most important aspect of the update is the introduction of collections. Collections are basically lists of Firefox add-ons that can be created by Firefox users.

A lot of collections are already available like the Web Developer’s Toolbox, Traveler’s Pack or Family Organizer. Each collection includes a number of add-ons which can be installed at once. This can be very helpful in certain situations like configuring a new computer system for relatives, friends or colleagues. It has to be noted that the add-ons that are stored in collections will come with the default options enabled. This is different from programs like Febe which can not only backup the extensions but also the preferences of these extensions.

Every user may create a custom collection that is then listed on the Mozilla website along with all the other collections that are available. This can be an interesting tool for website owners to offer an extension collection to their website’s visitors. The add-on collector extension has been created to make the collection creation easier.

I have created the Ghacks.net collection which basically consists of a few add-ons that I use on a day to day basis. I’m open to suggestions on additional extension that should be added to the collection. It is possible to add users to the collection to make it a group project.

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The add-on MU Bundle for the web browser Firefox gets rid of the time limit at the Megaupload website. It will also initiate the download of the file automatically without user input. The process in its entirety looks like the following: The user opens a page on the Megaupload website that will initiate a file download. A captcha is displayed which has to be completed to process. Everything after this step becomes automatic thanks to the Firefox add-on.

The time limit will be skipped instantly. The next page contains download links for regular and premium users. The add-on will automatically initiate a non premium download of the file at the file hoster’s website. This will spawn a download window which can be used to save the file on the local computer system.

The add-on for the web browser Firefox is currently rated as experimental which means that an account at the official Mozilla website is required to download and install it.

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Once addons were popular I tried a few and I loved them, so I packed my Firefox chock full of them, which gave me load of functionality, but resulted in slower loading times, more frequent crashes and general slowness and clutery.

Since then I have decided that the minimalistic approach is best. I can visit Twittwer’s home page if I want to add a tweet, I can visit Gmail to see if I have unread messages, right now I only have the most essential stuff on. I feel more productive this way actually since I can focus much more on the page I am viewing (working on), as opposed to the eye candy/masses of functionality at my fingertips. Are you the person who enjoys a minimalistic Firefox, or someone who needs to have all the latest addons right now? Let us know!

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The following list contains the most important Firefox download extensions. The concentration on the most important (and not an overinflated list) makes it easier for anyone to handpick the best download extensions from the list.

The list is divided into the categories files, images, movies and misc. Each category lists a handful of extensions linking directly to their download page at the Mozilla website.

Files

Down Them All – Firefox Download Manager.

Fire FTP – ftp client for the Firefox web browser.

Flash Got – Download Manager integration in Firefox.

Get Filesize – Retrieves the file size of a selected file.

Save File To – Makes it possible to save files into custom folders without having to open the file browser.

Spiderzilla – A website mirroring software based on the excellent HTTrack.

Images

Image Grabber – Download images that are protected by a transparent spacer image.

Save Image In Folder – Save images in personalized folders.

Save Images – Saves the images from the current tab to a specified location.

Movies

MP4 Youtube Downloader – Downloads Youtube videos as mp4 videos.

Flash Video Resource Downloader – Compatible to most flash video websites.

Video Download Helper – Excellent video downloader that is compatible with hundreds of video portals on the Internet.

Misc

Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer – Helps you organize/manage/store your files on Amazon S3

Clean And Close – Replaces the clean up button in the Firefox Download Manager with a clean and close button.

Download Rapidshare @ Office – The add-on converts all Rapidshare download urls to IP and uses the IP to download them.

Download Sort – The extension saves downloads automatically into different folders.

Download Status – Displays detailed download information like the average download speed, the time remaining and the number of files.

Download Statusbar – Displays downloads in a status bar instead of the default download manager window.

Link Alert – Changes the mouse cursor according to the file type.

MD5 Hasher – Calculates hashes of files that have been downloaded to the local computer.

Open Download – Allows to download and open any file from the Internet in the default application for that file type.

RDown – Rapidshare Downloader – Rapidshare Download helper.

Snap Links – Use the right mouse button to mark multiple links at once.

Did we miss any noteworthy extension? Let us know in the comments.

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The following list will contain Firefox add-ons that protect the user from various threats on the Internet. They have been divided into the categories Browsing, Cache, Cookies, Identity & Privacy, Passwords and Misc. Each link will lead to the Mozilla homepage that contains additional information and download possibilities.

All but one add-on should be compatible with the latest version of Firefox 3. Some of them are experimental add-ons that require an account at the Mozilla website before they can be downloaded and installed.

Browsing:

Blocksite – A customizable blacklist that blocks access to specific sites. It will also disable all hyperlinks pointing to those websites.

Bookmark Permissions – Stores five permissions (like enabled Javascript or Plugins) for every bookmark.

Customize Google – Customizes Google by adding and removing information automatically.

FlashBlock – Blocks all Macromedia Flash content from being loaded.

FoxFilter – Filters websites based on keywords. Ideal for parents who want to have more control over what websites are viewed by their children.

Ghostery – Displays information about tracking scripts on websites.

IDND – Informs the user if the domain name is an International domain name.

NoScript – Disables scripts automatically on the Internet with the option to enable them individually.

PhishTank – Adds extra phishing protection to Firefox.

Public Fox – Lock down add-ons, browser settings and downloads.

Redirect Remover – Removes redirects from links and images.

Secure Login – A one click login button that is similar to Opera’s Wand functionality.

Show IP – Displays the IP of the current website in the browser.

Cache:

Cache Status – Cache Management from the Firefox status bar.

Passive Cache – Access the contents of a site without visiting it directly.

Safe Cache (FF2) – Segments the Firefox cache based on the source of the documents which defends against techniques to determine if a user visited another domain.

Cookies:

Add n Edit Cookies – Makes it possible to edit cookies.

Better Privacy – Adds Flash Cookie handling to Firefox.

Cookie Monster – Provides cookie management capabilities to allow and disallow cookies to be set on specific websites.

Cookie Swap – Use multiple cookies on one website.

CS Lite – Manage cookie permissions.

Identity and Privacy:

Adblock Plus – blocks advertisement on the Internet.

FoxyProxy – An advanced proxy management tool for the Firefox browser.

Goolash – The extension makes sure that a user is always logged out of Google accounts during Google search.

History Block – Can block sites from appearing in the browser’s history.

MailCatch – A Firefox add-on to make use of a disposable email service that can be used to create emails to use on the Internet.

No Referer – Can block the referrer when accessing specific sites.

Private Browsing – Hides surfing trails.

Quick Proxy – Switch proxies on and off with one click.

Random User Agent – Replaces the default Firefox user agent with a random one.

RefSpoof – Allows to change the referrer on the fly.

Spam Advert – Another temporary email service that can be used in Firefox.

Stealther – Privacy browsing for Firefox versions that do not provide that feature.

Temporary Inbox – Another temporary email service that can be used to create disposable emails on the fly.

Torbutton – Adds a button to Firefox to enable or disable the anonymity software Tor.

Track me not – Protects the user against search data profiling.

Trashmail – Another one click temporary email creation service.

Passwords:

Last Pass – A secure password manager and form filler.

Mass Password Reset – Makes it easier to reset multiple passwords at once.

Secure Password – Secure password generation with the click of a button.

Show Passwords – Displays the passwords in web forms without asterisks.

Misc Extensions:

Controle de Scripts – Advanced settings for Javascript behavior in Firefox.

Febe – Firefox Environment Backup Extension can backup various Firefox modules such as extensions, options or themes.

Javascript Deobfuscator – Will inform the user about Javascript that gets loaded and executed on a website.

Javascript Options – A lite version of NoScript.

JS View – View the source code of Javascript files.

Long URL Please – Replaces short urls with their real destinations.

Quick Java – Quickly turn on or off Java with the click of a button.

Malware Search – Has been designed for HiJack This users who need to search for entries on the Internet.

Panic Button – Will perform an action like hiding all windows when pressed.

Remember Mismatched Domains – Adds a “Don’t warn me again about this certificate for this domain” checkbox to the Domain Mismatch and Expired Certificate warning windows.

US Homeland Security Level – Displays the current US Homeland Security Threat Level in the web browser.

View Dependencies – Will display a list of all objects that have been loaded on the current website.

Yes Script – Can block specific scripts on a website. Basically the opposite of how NoScript handles it.

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The Firefox Extension Guru posted a walkthrough on how to remove the Microsoft .Net Framework Assistant. It basically comes down to the following steps (it might be a good idea to backup all data before proceeding).

• Make sure Firefox is closed.
• Go to C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Windows Presentation Foundation\DotNetAssistantExtension in Windows Explorer and delete everything in that folder but keep the folder name.
• Start Firefox. The add-on should not be in the list anymore.
• Type about:config in the Firefox address bar.
• Filter for the entry general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet
• Right-click that entry and select Reset

The process is apparently a bit more complicated for Firefox 3.1 beta versions as the Microsoft .Net Framework Assistant is not yet compatible with that version of Firefox and thus not completely installed.

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Google Mail is without doubt one of the most popular online email services. What makes it so interesting is not only the functionality that it provides out of the box but also its extensibility. The following article contains all the tools and tips needed to make you a Gmail pro. It contains the best Firefox extensions, Greasemonkey scripts, desktop tools as well as how tos and other tips that will increase the functionality of Gmail immensely.

Firefox add-ons:

Better Gmail – Compilation of some of the best Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail compiled as a Firefox add-on.

Cookie Swap – Manage multiple Gmail accounts at once with this Firefox add-on.

DragDropUpload – Drop files into attachment boxes easily.

Email This – Emails the current title, highlighted text and link of the active page using email applications like Gmail.

Email Yourself – Use this Firefox add-on to email information about the current webpage to yourself.

GContactSync – Synchronizes the contacts between Gmail and Thundebird.

Gmail Ad Blocker – Removes the ads that are shown in the Gmail interface to make more room for your messages.

Gmail Agenda – Integrates Google Calendar into Gmail.

Gmail Checker – Checks for new emails automatically in Firefox.

Gmail Contact Book – Easily pick contacts when writing mails in Gmail.

Gmail Manager – Manage multiple Gmail accounts and display new mail notifications.

Gmail Notifier – Will monitor a single or multiple Gmail accounts from within Firefox. Displays information such as unread email messages in the status bar.

Gmail Redesigned – A complete new CSS stylesheet for Gmail that changes the look and feel of the website.

Gmail S/Mime – Makes it possible to send and receive signed and encrypted emails in Gmail.

Gmail Signatures – Automatically inserts HTML signatures in Gmail messages based on the address the emails get send from.

Gmail Skins – Change the color of the skin of the Gmail website.

GTD Inbox – Increase the productivity and manageability of Gmail with this Getting Things Done add-on.

Integrated Gmail – Makes it possible to display other Google services like Google Calendar or Reader directly in Gmail.

Bookmarklets:

gCompose – Will display the new mail dialog when pressing the bookmarklet’s button.

Gmail Search Bookmarks – Save searches with this bookmarklet.

Gmail This – Button to email the current page using Gmail.

Multiple Gmail Signatures – Create and use multiple signatures in Gmail.

Greasemonkey:

Always Show CC Field – Will always display the CC and BCC fields in Gmail.

Attachment Reminder – reminds you of an attachment based on words used in the email.

Gmail + Reader Integrator – Integrates Gmail and Google Reader.

Gmail Attachment Icons – Adds bigger and better attachment icons to Gmail

Gmail Emoticons – Adds emoticons to Gmail.

Gmail Filter Assistant – Ads an advanced filter management module to Gmail.

Gmail Macros – Adds extra keyboard shortcuts and macros.

Gmail Persistent Search – Save and access previous searches in Gmail.

Gmail Preview Bubbles – Preview a message without opening it.

Gmail Right-Click – Adds a right-click menu to Gmail to navigate the website faster and more comfortably.

Gmail Spam Count Hide – Hides the spam count in Gmail.

Gmail Super Clean – Provides a cleaner interface for Gmail.

Gmail To – Forces all mailto links to use Gmail.

Gmail Unread Message Count In Favicon – Display the unread message count of your Gmail account in the Gmail favicon.

Google Account Multi-Login – log into multiple accounts at the same time.

One Click Conversations For Gmail – Access conversations with one click.

Desktop Applications:

Blogsigs – For Webmasters: Add the title of your latest blog post in your email signature.

Gdisk (MAC) – Turns the Gmail account into a portable hard drive on the computer.

Gmail Assistant – A notifier for multiple Gmail accounts with many options.

Gmail Backup – Explains how to backup all mails of a Gmail account locally.

Gmail FS (Linux) – Add Gmail as a hard drive in the Linux operating system.

Gmail Mobile – Mobile application for Gmail.

Gmail Todo – Quickly Add ToDo’s to the Gmail account.

GMDesk – Run Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Maps as standalone applications.

Google Email Uploader – Upload emails to Gmail.

Google Mailbox Loader – Import mailboxes into Gmail.

GPhotospace – Use Gmail as a online storage space for your photos.

GSN SMS Notifier – Send SMS when new mail arrives.

GTray – Display notifications of new email messages in the system tray.

KCheckGmail (Linux) – System Tray application for Linux KDE.

Mailstore Home – Backup Your email using this email backup software.

You’ve got Gmail (Trillian) – Adds new mail notifications to Trillian.

Tips:

11 Power Tips For Gmail – A collection of 11 tips for Google Mail.

Add Gmail Tasks To Your Firefox Sidebar – Explains how to add Gmail tasks to the Firefox Sidebar.

Edit Gmail Contacts From Chat List – It is far easier and faster to edit the Gmail contacts from the chat list.

Force Gmail to Always use Secure Connection – Forces Gmail to always use a https connection.

How To Read Mail Without Touching Your Mouse – It is possible to use Gmail without using the mouse at all.

Mark All Unread Mail As Read – Explains how to mark all unread mail in Gmail as read.

Ten Gmail Labs Features You Should Enable – A list of ten experimental features that can be activated in Gmail.

Top 10 Gmail Tips And Hacks – Ten excellent Gmail tips.

Watch Videos right in Gmail Chat – Watch videos that have been posted in Gmail chat in the same window.

What To Do If You Cannot Access Your Gmail Account – A collection of tips that explain what a user can do if he cannot access Gmail anymore.

How To:

Access Gmail From Thunderbird – How to configure Thunderbird to work with Gmail

Access Your Gmail Inbox With Python – How to access the inbox with a python script.

Analyze Mail Usage With Mail Trends – How to analyze mail usage over time.

Archive Mail On The iPhone – Explains how to backup mails on the iPhone.

Attach and Send Any File Type with Gmail – How to send blocked file types with Gmail.

Backup Gmail In Linux – A four step guide on how to backup Gmail in Linux.

Build Advanced Gmail Filters – How to create and use advanced Gmail filters.

Compose Gmail Messages With Launchy – Using the launcher Launchy to compose Gmail messages.

Create A Feed For Unread Gmail Messages – Use RSS Feeds For Unread Messages.

Export And Backup Emails From Outlook To Gmail – How to export email messages from Microsoft Outlook To Gmail.

Fast PDF Viewing in Gmail – How to view PDFs right in the browser.

How To Setup Gmail In External Mail Clients Properly – Explains how to setup Gmail in external mail applications like Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook.

Import Contacts From Hotmail – How to import Hotmail contacts into Gmail.

Import Emails Into Gmail – How to import desktop emails into Gmail.

Manage All Email Accounts With Gmail – Guide for users with multiple email accounts.

Set Gmail As The Default Mail Client – How to set Gmail as the default mail client in Firefox 3.

Send SMS Text Messages – How To send SMS messages with Gmail.

Use Gmail As A Drive In Windows – Configure Gmail to Appear as a normal drive letter in Windows.

Use IMAP in Gmail – Explains how to use Gmail over IMAP.

Work With Attachments – Work with attachments in Gmail.

Misc:

Gmail Mobile - Access Gmail from a mobile phone.

Gmail Productivity Tips – Three productivity tips for Gmail.

Gmail Shortcut List – List of Gmail Shortcuts.

Gmail Shortcuts – How to use shortcuts for Gmail shortcuts.

Gmail Stickers – Get some Gmail stickers for your computer keyboard from Google for the price of a return stamp.

How To Make a Physical Gmail Notifier – Create a new gadget that will tell you if new mail has arrived in the Gmail inbox.

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The developer of the Fast Dial add-on did add malware like features to his add-on according to hundreds of angry commenters on the official add-on page at Mozilla. The latest versions of the Fast Dial add-on changed the default search engine and removed the first three fast dial fields with links pointing to websites selected by the author of the extension. The add-on did also change the browser’s homepage to a Fast Dial page. What makes the matter worse is that there is no dialog to notify the user about the changes and no way to opt out during the installation.

The problems with the automatic update of add-ons and themes are therefor the following:

• There is no telling what changes are made to the system. No direct display of a changelog or information about the changes.
• There is no lock on system settings, add-ons can change various user defined settings without notification
• A backup is missing which could be used to restore the old properties prior to the installation

It would be really great to see a System Restore like feature in Firefox so that it would be possible to undo changes done by add-ons, themes or even Firefox updates.

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This concept is not really that different from creating a simple html file with links and use that as the startpage except that it does not require technical knowledge to create the page. The Firefox extension adds an icon to the Firefox status bar which provides access to the extension’s functions and options to add the current page to the startpage.

The extension will automatically grab the url, page title and a folder suggestion of which the latter two can be customized. Folders are basically headings under which the titles are shown on the startpage.

Three default styles can be chosen in the option which differ in design and functionality. One of the styles provides access to a Google Search as well and it is possible to define custom styles.

The Firefox extension overwrites the current homepage setting without confirmation. It is not a big deal usually but users who have not backed up the settings should do so before installing it. The add-on is experimental meaning that users need to login to be able to install the add-on.

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Back to the Firefox extension. It adds six new icons to the right side of the Firefox location bar which look a lot like the icons that the Tagmarks extension is adding in that place. Users with the Tagmarks extension enabled might run into troubles. This has not been tested and is just an assumption.

The icons provide easy access to the following functions:

• Copy URL
• Create Tiny URL
• Search Site
• Up One Directory Level, Double-click for Root
• Tags
• Anonymous Surfing

Some functions require an explanation while others are pretty obvious. Copy URL copies the url of the current tab to the clipboard. Create Tiny URL will create a tiny url and replace the current url with the Tiny URL which could then be copied with the Copy URL button.

Search Site will simply open a google search in a new tab that uses the site parameter and is waiting for user input. Up one directory level does what it says while a double-click on the item loads the homepage or root address of the site.

Tags shows a few tags that can be used to tag websites while the anonymous surfing icon will reload the current website using an anonymization service.

Several of the functions are configurable by right-clicking them. A right-click on the Search Site icon will open a search form that can be used to search the site directly. The most extensive settings are available for the anonymous surfing function. Users can pick from a few dozen web proxy servers and configure a domain to be always loaded by a proxy.

The URLBar extension for Firefox 3 adds a few interesting features to Firefox that might appeal to more than just a few users. One option that would make sense would be keyboard hotkeys for the functions which would speed up the process. Another viable option could be to automatically use a proxy on a specific tab even if the domain gets changed.

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Writing down part of the url in the address bar would display all hits while tags only show the websites that have been tagged with that name which means that a unique tag will only show one result.

Adding tags to bookmarks is completely optional and a cumbersome process especially for users who imported bookmarks from Firefox 2 and decided to tag them all, or at least part of them to use the tagging feature for all bookmarks.

The following three Firefox add-ons help the user and make tagging much easier.

• Handytag: Firefox 3 does not suggest tags when a user bookmarks a page, even if he bookmarked and tagged a similar page before. Handytag steps in and provides tag suggestions by looking at previous tags and external sources like Delicious, the webmaster of the page and the inbuilt keyword extractor.
• Tagmarks: Inspired by the star in the address bar which, when clicked on, will automatically bookmark the current tab. Tagmarks introduces a set of additional icons in the Firefox 3 address bar which can be used to tag a page. The user can select between one and all of the icons available and list all tagged bookmarks in a separate window.

  The Firefox add-on does have a few limitations. There is no way to associate different names with the icons or to add new icons that might be missing. This could be really useful if the developer would add customization to the add-on.

• TagSifter: Provides a way to browse the tags in the sidebar which are showing related bookmarks when selected. Comes with a Firefox 2 bookmark importer that can tag pages automatically and makes use of operators to find tags, for example tag2-tag3

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Everyone is constantly searching for information and Firefox users are in the great position to be aided by hundreds of search extensions that make searching easier, comfortable and faster.

To much choice on the other hand puts some pressure back on the user who now has to pick the useful extensions and cast the other that are not helping him aside. That’s where this article comes into play. It lists the Firefox Search Extensions that you need to search the Internet professionally. They help you find the information you are looking for faster and efficiently.

The following list contains useful search plugins that can speed up the information finding process tremendously. No toolbar plugins have been included in the list.

General Search Plugins:

Add to Search Bar – Lots of websites provide search forms which can be used to search the contents of those sites. The Add To Search Bar plugin makes it possible to add those to the list of Firefox search engines so that the search can be conducted from the search function in Firefox.

Advanced URL Builder – Add custom searches to the Firefox right-click menu.

CacheIt! 1.0 – It happens sometimes that a website is not responding. It could be down or moving to another server. CacheIt provides access to cached versions of the page so that the information can be retrieved even if the original website is not responding.

Context Search – Only Google Search is available by default when highlighting a term in Firefox. This plugin adds additional search engine options to the menu so that the user can perform searches on Yahoo, Amazon or eBay.

Cooliris – Formerly Piclens. Provides 3D browsing for Image and Videos searches. Creates stunning effects.

CyberSearch – Supercharges the Firefox 3 Location Bar with search results that appear instantly. Perform searches in the location bar without having to open a search engine.

Dict – Look up Word definitions of highlighted words by right-clicking them and selecting the appropriate action.

Find In Tabs – Perform searches among multiple tabs. This works pretty well in conjuction with the MultiSearch plugin.

HighlightAll – Pressing Control F in Firefox opens a search form that allows the user to search on the active page. Highlight All highlights all occurrences of the search term on the page making it easier to find them.

Interclue – Find out what’s behind a search result before clicking the link.

MultiSearch – Ever wanted to search for multiple search terms at once? MultiSearch steps in and makes that possible. Just enter search terms and a comma delimiter to open search results for each of the terms in individual tabs. The terms Firefox, Mozilla, Thunderbird would open three tabs each displaying search results for one of the terms.

Search Keys 0.8.1 – Search Keys adds keyboard navigation to search results pages of Google, Yahoo and Delicious. Instead of clicking on a search term the user can press the assigned number on his keyboard to open the website. This makes it possible to perform a search and open results without using the mouse at all.

Searchbar Autosizer – Automatically resizes and clears the searchbar. Can also revert back to the default search engine. Useful add-on for minimalistic Firefox themes.

Surf Canyon – Search Engine Assistant – A search assistant that automatically recommends and ranks search results based on the users choice. It can pull data from search results pages that are currently not shown to the user.

Who Is This Person? – Highlight a name on a webpage and search for information about that person on sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and Google News.

Site Specific Search Plugins:

Bug.gd Error Search – Bug.gd is a user driven website that contains a huge database of errors and solutions. This search plugin adds the error search to Firefox.

Coogle – Highlights the search phrase on websites that have been discovered by searching on Google.com.

Customize Google – Removes unwanted information like ads from Google search results and adds additional useful information like search options on other search engines to it.

Delicious Bookmarks – Keeps the Bookmarks of Delicious and Firefox in sync.

GooglePreview – Adds thumbnail previews of the websites in the search results.

Locator – Locates highlighted addresses on Google Maps.

Webmaster Specific Search Plugins:

SearchStatus – Displays a wealth of information about the current website in the statusbar. This includes the Google Pagerank and Alexarank. Provides Link Reports, whois search, keyword density and nofollow link options among others.

SEOQuake – A useful extensions for webmasters who want to optimize their pages for various search engines.

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Most users on the other hand prefer simplicity and no user interaction and that’s where YesScript comes into play. Its approach is the complete opposite of NoScript. YesScript allows all scripts on all websites unless they are blacklisted by the user.

The advantage of this method is that less user interaction is required. It does however undermine the security aspect because scripts will be executed normally as long as the website is not in the blacklist.

It comes down to an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of both methods. NoScript provides enhanced security while YesScript less work and vice versa. Installing YesScript from a security standpoint does not make that much sense but it is quite capable of removing scripts from websites that make extensive use of them.

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Some users might prefer do whitelist websites on a per-site basis and that is perfectly reasonable. Others prefer to whitelist all bookmarks at once which is not doable in the options of the add-on. The author of the add-on however has created a script (discovered at Firefox Mastery) that takes the contents of a bookmarks file and creates a whitelist file out of it.

The process itself is pretty simple, users do need to have access to their bookmarks in html format though. Firefox 2 users can simply access the bookmarks.html file in the Firefox profile folder while Firefox 3 users need to export the bookmarks into html format first which can be done in the Bookmarks Manager.

Once the file is available it has to be opened in a text editor. All contents need to be copied and pasted into the script on the Adblock Plus website.

That script will generate a whitelist file for Adblock Plus which can be imported in the preferences of the add-on.

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IdentFavicon is an automatic solution that creates identifiable and recognizable favicons from identifiers like IP addresses. This add-on uses the CRC-32 code of the website as the identifier to create unique favicons for every website that does not have one. The benefit of this add-on is that the creation process is automatic. It does have a few shortcomings that will hopefully be addressed by the author of the extension.

The favicons that are generated do not seem to be saved which means that all bookmarks that did not have a favicon in first place will remain without one when browsing the bookmarks’s menu. Even sites that have been opened and bookmarked will not make use of the generated favicon in the bookmarks.

It’s more of a live favicons add-on that only propels the tab bar.

A far more sophisticated tool is the Favicon Picker add-on. This one makes it possible to change any favicon manually. It might mean more work in the beginning because the changes have to be made in the Bookmark’s properties menu but the results are better.

The picked favicon appears everywhere, in the bookmarks and in the tab bar making it easier to identify websites visually no matter where you go in Firefox. As I said earlier it is possible to change favicons, if you have liked the old Google favicon better than the new one you could change it to the old one again.

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