50 Add-Ons to Enhance Your Browsing Experience in FireFox

Today we’ll look at fifty of the best extensions for Firefox that can improve your usage and experience when browsing the web.

A word of warning — several of these add-ons are labelled experimental and may cause problems with your Firefox configuration. Each link provided goes to the official Mozilla Add-on page, each of which give a good overview of the particular add-on. But still, backup your Firefox configuration (and the rest of your computer while you’re at it) and install at your own risk.

Earn Monthly Paychecks For Viewing Ads

Play the game and earn a few bucks.If you really love to make money online for real,join the site Wordlinx. You earn monthly paychecks for viewing 20 second adverts daily.After signing up 'continue login' and press the 'Browse ads' link on the top of the login page, and start viewing the ads one by one.For more details read the FAQ and About sections on every page of Wordlinx.

Mozilla Firefox Has Just Turned 5 Years Old!

How To Find Updates for all your Firefox Plug - ins

Find Updates for all your Firefox Plug-ins

Firstly, you select Tools -> Add-ons from the Firefox menu bar, you’ll get a list of all extensions, themes and plug-ins that are currently installed in your copy of Firefox.

The same add-ons dialog has a “Find Updates” feature to help you figure out if you are running any out-dated extensions but that doesn’t work with your plug-ins. How do you then find out that you are running the latest versions of all plug-ins?

It’s simple now. You can open the Firefox browser and visit the Plugins Check page hosted on mozilla.org. This will create a list of all plug-ins that are installed on your system and will match that data with its own list to determine if you are running an older version that has been marked out-of-date.

In case this online check fails for a particular plugin, you can click the “Research” button to perform a search on Google using the plug-in name as the search query. This is not always accurate but you’ll at least reach the vendor’s website that is officially hosting the plug-in.

It makes sense to visit the plug-ins checker page occasionally because older plug-ins not just make your browser insecure but they also make it more unstable. Mozilla says 30% of the reported crashes are caused by old plugins.

Bookmark Previews: Cover Flow for your Bookmarks

Bookmark Previews is a Firefox extension, which generates thumbnail previews for all your Firefox bookmarks and lets you browse through your bookmarks in Apple-ish Cover Flow interface.

Basically, this extension adds two views to your bookmark manager: Thumbnail view (Cover Flow style) and Album view. Whenever you add a bookmark or visit any of your bookmarked pages, it snaps a screenshot and preserve it. When you first install this extension, it’ll create thumbnails for your bookmarks in background.

It’s pretty cool, if not very usable.

Bookmark Preview

Improved Version of Read it Later for Firefox 3

Read it Later is a handy Firefox add-on, which we’ve covered earlier. Basically, it’s pretty similar to the bookmarking feature, but it’s meant only for those one-time interesting pages. You can save pages of interest to read it later. The developer has released a new version of the add-on, which makes it compatible with Firefox 3 and adds several new features as well.

Read it Later for Firefox 3 tightly integrates with Firefox 3’s address bar. Just next to the ‘one-click bookmarking’ star in the address bar, Read it Later adds a checkmark. Clicking on the checkmark will save or remove the page from your reading list.

Another nifty feature to be included in this version of Read It Later is the ability to sync your list with multiple computers. For instance, you can sync your office reading list with your home computer using the unique feed ID and password given to your list. This way, your read list is no more tied down to your home or office computer. What’s more? Read below the fold:

• Offline Reading: If you want to access your reading list, while you are away from active internet connection, Read It Later can prefetch those pages and save it for offline reading.
• RSS Feed: Your reading list is accessible from any RSS reader (like Google Reader, FeedDemon or even a mobile phone). You can also use your personalized RSS feed to share your reading list with others.
• Click to Save Mode: While running through tons of links in delicious, digg or any other social media site, you can toggle the ‘click to save’ mode by pressing Alt + M (customizable). Any link clicked, while this mode is active, will be straight away added to your reading list.

You can install Read It Later from Firefox 3 from here.

8 hacks to make Firefox ridiculously fast

Double your browser's speed in just five minutes

  

1. Enable pipelining

Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received, often reducing page download times. To enable it, type about:config in the address bar, double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining so their values are set to true, then double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set this to 8.

Keep in mind that some servers don't support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. Set network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining to false again if you have any problems.

2. Render quickly

Large, complex web pages can take a while to download. Firefox doesn't want to keep you waiting, so by default will display what it's received so far every 0.12 seconds (the "content notify interval"). While this helps the browser feel snappy, frequent redraws increase the total page load time, so a longer content notify interval will improve performance.

Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) somewhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type content.notify.interval as your preference name, click OK, enter 500000 (that's five hundred thousand, not fifty thousand) and click OK again.

Right-click again in the window and select New > Boolean. This time create a value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to True to finish the job.

3. Faster loading

If you haven't moved your mouse or touched the keyboard for 0.75 seconds (the content switch threshold) then Firefox enters a low frequency interrupt mode, which means its interface becomes less responsive but your page loads more quickly. Reducing the content switch threshold can improve performance, then, and it only takes a moment.

Type about:config and press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Integer. Type content.switch.threshold, click OK, enter 250000 (a quarter of a second) and click OK to finish.

4. No interruptions

You can take the last step even further by telling Firefox to ignore user interface events altogether until the current page has been downloaded. This is a little drastic as Firefox could remain unresponsive for quite some time, but try this and see how it works for you.

Type about:config, press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Boolean. Type content.interrupt.parsing, click OK, set the value to False and click OK.

5. Block Flash

Intrusive Flash animations are everywhere, popping up over the content you actually want to read and slowing down your browsing. Fortunately there's a very easy solution. Install the Flashblock extension (flashblock.mozdev.org) and it'll block all Flash applets from loading, so web pages will display much more quickly. And if you discover some Flash content that isn't entirely useless, just click its placeholder to download and view the applet as normal.

6. Increase the cache size

As you browse the web so Firefox stores site images and scripts in a local memory cache, where they can be speedily retrieved if you revisit the same page. If you have plenty of RAM (2 GB of more), leave Firefox running all the time and regularly return to pages then you can improve performance by increasing this cache size. Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click anywhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type browser.cache.memory.capacity, click OK, enter 65536 and click OK, then restart your browser to get the new, larger cache.

7. Enable TraceMonkey

TraceMonkey is a new Firefox feature that converts slow Javascript into super-speedy x86 code, and so lets it run some functions anything up to 20 times faster than the current version. It's still buggy so isn't available in the regular Firefox download yet, but if you're willing to risk the odd crash or two then there's an easy way to try it out.

Install the latest nightly build (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/), launch it, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Type JIT in the filter box, then double-click javascript.options.jit.chrome and javascript.options.jit.content to change their values to true, and that's it - you're running the fastest Firefox Javascript engine ever.

8. Compress data

If you've a slow internet connection then it may feel like you'll never get Firefox to perform properly, but that's not necessarily true. Install toonel.net (toonel.net) and this clever Java applet will re-route your web traffic through its own server, compressing it at the same time, so there's much less to download. And it can even compress JPEGs by allowing you to reduce their quality. This all helps to cut your data transfer, useful if you're on a limited 1 GB-per-month account, and can at best double your browsing performance.

12 add-ons every Firefox user must have

A dozen extensions to fire up the 'fox!

Firefox's extendability is one of its great advantages, and there are thousands of plug-ins to choose from.

But having so much choice can be confusing, and it's often hard to tell which add-ons are worth installing and which are best left alone. So look no further - here's our 12 essential Firefox extensions. Download them now!

1. Copy plain text
Ever copied something from the web into a document only to have it ruined because the formatting is also copied? Fix this by getting Copy as Plain Text. Once it's installed, highlight some text, right-click on it and choose 'Copy as plain text' to do just that.

2. Get TinyURLs
This add-on lets you create shortened URLs without having to go to a separate web page. Install TinyURL Creator 1.0.5. Now browse to the site you want to share, right-click anywhere and choose 'Create TinyURL for this page'. The result is automatically copied to the clipboard.

3. Use hyperwords
For the Swiss army knife of text add-ons, get Hyperwords. Once installed, it provides you with a dizzying array of options for highlighted text through its right-click menu. Choose 'Search' and then select from Google, the current site or a range of news sites and social-networking services for immediate search results. You can also look up the selection in a range of reference sites, including Wikipedia and the Urban Dictionary. There are also options to translate the text or share it with others.

4. Resurrect pages
When a website that you need goes down, you can hunt through each of the various caching services manually to find a snapshot of it, but this can be time-consuming. The Resurrect Pages extension does the hard work for you, replacing the standard 'page cannot be displayed' message with one that includes links to web cache services. Use these to quickly see if a service has a cached version of the page you want.

5. Avoid typos
It's easy to make a mistake when typing in a web address. URL Fixer 1.5 anticipates common mistakes and sets them right so that you're not left with a broken link. It won't catch every slip, but it will help reduce your irritation levels a little.

6. Block ads
Adverts can be a big irritation. The AdBlock Plus extension enables you to block adverts that you don't want to see while allowing you to permit them for other sites. You can also set it up to block content from a number of different subscription services, and opt to turn off its filter for sites that you approve of.

7. Block script
Some sites execute code without your explicit permission. In a few cases, like that of the Twitter worm Mikeyy, this can be abused. No Script blocks all third-party scripts – including JavaScript, Java and Flash objects – until you give your permission for them to run. You can also identify sites as trusted so that you're not constantly vetting scripts on familiar pages.

8. Pretend to be IE
Some webmasters are wise to the fact that Firefox users can block ads and scripts with plug-ins, so they prevent access to their sites for people using Firefox. User Agent Switcher disguises your browser as Internet Explorer to get round this restriction. The utility adds a sub-menu to the Tools menu that enables you to select the browser and OS that you want to display to sites.

9. Run IE in Firefox
Some sites need Internet Explorer to render properly. Rather than close Firefox, try IE Tab. Right-click and choose 'Open Page in IE tab' to open a new tab that emulates Internet Explorer.

10. Add Google Bookmarks
Use the GMarks extension to integrate your Google Bookmarks with Firefox. Log into your Google account to replace the existing Bookmarks menu and Bookmarks Toolbar folder with GMarks. This is a handy way to keep all of your bookmarks in one place.

11. Add bookmarks from IE
Another bookmark synchronising add-on is Xmarks that has evolved from an earlier extension known as Foxmarks. You can use it to synchronise your bookmarks with Internet Explorer and Safari, meaning that you'll have quick access to your favourite pages no matter which browser you're using. It also provides site suggestions and community feedback.

12. Check site security
McAfee's Site Advisor add-on provides a service that's focused on making sure that you're safe online. When you run a Google search, each result is either rated as 'safe' or has any potential problems flagged. Hover over the Site Advisor icon next to the result to find out more.

 

How to 8 Easy Firefox Tweaks for Super Fast Web Browsing

Fast loading web pages while surfing the Internet may have more to do with your web browser settings and preferences than your Internet connection speed. Try these easy tweaks and you'll see that you're surfing the Internet from 3 to 30 times faster!

1. Open your Firefox web browser. In the address/location bar type [about:config]and then press your Enter key. (NOTE: DON'T TYPE THE BRACKETS.)

2. In the Filter bar type [network.http.pipelining]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.

3. In the Filter bar type [network.http.pipelining.maxrequests]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name and change the value from 4 to a higher number anywhere from 10 to 30. I set mine to 30.
4. 
   In the Filter bar type [network.http.proxy.pipelining]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.
5. 
   
   In the Filter bar type [network.dns.disableIPv6]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.
6. 
   In the Filter bar type [plugin.expose_full_path]. Then, double-click on this line under Preference Name in order to change the value from false to true.
7. 
   
   In the Filter bar type [network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help]. Now, you are going to create a new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click on this line under Preference Name and select New, then Integer.
8. 
   
   In the New Integer value box type in [nglayout.initialpaint.delay] and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type [0] (that's a zero) and click OK.
9. 
   
   In the Filter bar again type [network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help]. Now, you are going to create another new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click on this line under Preference Name and select New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type in [content.notify.backoffcount] and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type [5] and click OK.
10. 
    In the Filter bar again type [network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help]. Now, you are going to create another new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click on this line under Preference Name and select New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type in [ui.submenuDelay] and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type [0] (that's a zero)and click OK.

Reopen Closed Tabs in Firefox

Closed Tabs With an Open Window

1. Step 1

   Click on “History” from the Firefox browser window of the closed tab. This will open a list of options. Toward the bottom of the list is the option “Recently Closed Tabs."

2. Step 2

   Click on the side arrow with “Recently Closed Tabs.” This will open another list. This list contains the names of all recently closed tabs, plus an option to “Open All in Tabs.”

3. Step 3

   Select your desired tab by clicking on it. If you are not sure which recently closed tab it is, you can alternatively select “Open All in Tabs” in order to view them all. Select the correct tab, and close out of all unneeded tabs.

When the Window Closes

4. Step 1

   If closing your tab also closed your window, not all is lost. Open a new window and click on “History."

5. Step 2

   Between “Home” and the grayed-out “Recently Closed Tabs” is the history of the sites that have been recently visited. Your closed tab should appear in this list. If you have your settings adjusted to erase your history when you close out of Firefox, this option will not work.

6. Step 3

   To check or change your “History” settings, click on “Tools,” then “Options,” and then “Privacy." Make sure to check the option to “Remember visited pages for the last [insert any number here] days."

How to Minimize Firefox Memory Usage

1. Method 1 - -
   
   (1)Open Firefox and click Tools in the browser top menu, then click Options > Privacy.
   
   (2)In the 'History' section, leave 'Remember what I’ve downloaded' unchecked.
   
   (3)In the 'Private Data' section, click the button 'Clear now...', when the dialog box comes up, put a check mark beside these items: Cache, Saved From and Searched History, Offline Website Data. You can mark the 'Cookies', too, if you want. Click 'OK'.

2. Step 2

   - - Method 2 - -
   
   (1)In the Firefox address bar type [about:config], minus the brackets, and press Enter. Click the button "I’ll be careful, I promise!" if you are seeing a warning message.
   
   Next, create a Boolean (false) value and name it "config.trim_on_minimize", without quotations. Set it’s value to 'True'.
   
   You should set the value according to the mount of physical RAM installed on your computer. Set value according to the following: (Installed RAM: 256MB / Set the value to: 4096), (Installed RAM: 512MB / Set the value to: 8192), (Installed RAM: 1GB / Set the value to: 16384), (Installed RAM: 2GB /Set the value to: 32768), (Installed RAM: 4GB / Set the value to: 65536) (Installed RAM: 8GB / Set the value to: 131072).

3. Step 3

   - - Method 3 - -
   
   (1)Launch Firefox then enter this, [about:config], without the brackets, in the address bar.
   
   (2)Scroll down and find entry that says: browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers, double
   click the item.
   
   (3)In the 'Enter Integer Value' text box, type in:
   "0" to disable the Firefox cache, change "1" through "8" to set the maximum cache; to "1" through "8" previously viewed pages, enter "-1" to return the cache to default. Enter value without quotation marks.

4. Step 4

   After reclaiming some RAM from Firefox, open the Task Manager while keeping firefox browser open. To access Task Manager:
   
   (1)Click 'Start'. Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Performance
   (2)Find the Firefox process on the current activity list, and view the RAM usage. You'll witness Firefox RAM usage drop dramatically.

5. Step 5

   According to lab tests, Firefox never seems to clear the cache memory it uses. It won't let go of memory until you close all windows Firefox. If you never close Firefox browser completely while spending several hours on the web, your computer will use nearly 1GB of accumulated memory during the session. If you feel a lag on your Firefox browser speed while online, then it might be a good idea to try the fix suggestions in this article.

Firefox magic: Kill your Search box

I know that 90 percent of Mozilla Firefox users who read this post will think I'm nuts. I can hear you now: "I love my Firefox search engines! How will I search Amazon?!"

Well, I love my search engines, too, but that silly Search box in the Firefox toolbar simply takes up too much room for my liking, especially because you can use all of the functionality of your favorite search engines directly from the Firefox location bar (also called the "address bar" by people like me). I'll show you how.

If you prefer an address bar that goes all the way to the right side of the interface, listen up. It's simple to use Firefox "Quick Searches" in the location bar to eliminate the need for the Search box entirely. By default, Firefox installs with four Quick Search links already in your bookmarks: Google, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, and Urban Dictionary.

Try it out. Type "wp pee-wee herman" into your regular address bar, hit Enter, and you'll be taken to a special search page on Wikipedia for "Pee-wee Herman" that will automatically direct you to the Wikipedia page for Paul Reubens, with no Search box necessary.

The real trick to killing your Search box is transforming all of your installed engines into Firefox Quick Searches. There are several ways to accomplish the feat, but I'll detail the two most common. After that, removing the actual Search box is a snap.

First method

Right-clicking in any Search box allows you to 'Add a keyword for this search...'

The first technique for changing all of your search engines into Quick Searches is the most reliable, but it takes a bit more effort than the second. Start out by visiting the Web site of the first search engine on your list. Let's use the ubiquitous Internet Movie Database Engine (IMDB) as an example.

On the IMDB home page, find the Search box, and use the drop-down menu next to it to set the type of search you want (titles, names, characters, or "all"). Then right-click in the empty search field and select "Add a keyword for this search" from the context menu. An "Add bookmark" dialog will appear. Name your Quick Search (e.g. "IMDB search") and select your keyword.

I prefer the shortest keywords possible that are easy enough to remember, so I use "im" for IMDB. Decide where you want to save your new search bookmark, and hit "OK."

From this point on, in order to search IMDB, you'll only need to type in "IM

" into your location bar. Give it a try.

Process all of your search engines in this same fashion, creating Quick Searches for each. When you're done, you can kiss that Search box good-bye.

Second method

The Bookmark Properties menu lets you add Quick Searches manually.

The second technique for converting search engines into Quick Searches accomplishes the same goal as the first, but it utilizes that pesky Search box while you've still got it around.

First, select Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks to open your bookmarks directory. Then go back to your open Firefox browser window. It's easiest to sit those two windows side by side.

Start with the first search engine in your Search box. For me, it's CNET Download.com. Type in "s" as your search term, and you'll be taken to this Download.com search result for "s." The URL in the address bar looks like this:

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=s

You see that "qt=s" in the URL? That's your search string. In order to change it to a quick search, all you need to do is change the search term to "%s". If you're searching for "s" already, all you have to do is add a percentage sign before it. The Quick Search URL will look like this:

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=%s

Copy that URL and go back to your Bookmarks window. Select any of the bookmarks in the Quick Searches folder, and hit "New Bookmark." In the ensuing dialog window, add the name of the search ("Download.com search"); the "Location," which is the URL above (http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=%s); the keyword you want to use (I chose "dl"); and any optional description. Then hit "OK." You've now got a new Quick Search for Download.com

Simply repeat the process for each engine in your Search box until you create a Quick Search for all of them

.

Removing the Firefox Search box

Once you don't need the Search box, it's simple to remove it.

Now here's the easiest part of the whole process. The Search box can be removed like any other element in your Firefox toolbar. Right-click on any open space in your toolbar, and select "Customize" from the context menu. A Customize Toolbar dialog will then appear.

Simply click on any part of Firefox's Search box (your mouse will transform into a hand icon when hovering over the Search box) and drag it into the Customize Toolbar window. Now you see it; now you don't!

If you've got anything like the default Firefox interface, your location bar will now expand all the way across the toolbar to the right edge of the browser. And if you ever get lost and confused without your Search box, you can always bring it back by opening the Customize Toolbar dialog and dragging the Search box anywhere you'd like on the toolbar.

Sample Quick Search bookmarks

If you're still not quite sure what I'm talking about, you can download this CNET Download.com Searches bookmarks file to view some examples. Once you've saved it locally, open Firefox, then go to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks. From the Organize Bookmarks menu, select File -> Import, select "Import Bookmarks from File," and then browse to the "download_search_bookmarks.html" file you saved locally.

Now you'll have a new bookmarks folder named "CNET Download.com Searches" at the bottom of your bookmarks that includes these 20 Quick Searches listed here:

Amazon.com - Type "ama

" to search the shopping site Amazon.com.

Boing Boing - Type "bb

" to search the pop-culture blog Boing Boing.

CNET - Type "cnet

" to search all of CNET.com.

CNET Download.com - Type "dl

" to search CNET Download.com for software.

eBay - Type "eb

" to search the auction site eBay.

Flickr - Type "fl

" to search the photo-sharing site Flickr.

Google - Type "g

" to search Google Web search.

Google Images - Type "gi

" to search Google Images.

Google Maps - Type "gm

" to search Google Maps.

Google News - Type "gn

" to search Google News.

Google Product search - Type "gp

" to search Google Product search.

Internet Movie Database - Type "im

" to search all of the movie and TV site IMDB.

Last.fm - Type "lastfm

" to search the music-discovery site Last.fm.

CNET News.com - Type "news

" to search News.com.

SiteAdvisor - Type "sa

" to search the Web-site security service SiteAdvisor.

Thesaurus.com - Type "th

" to search for synonyms and antonyms on Thesaurus.com.

Urban Dictionary - Type "ud

" to search for slang terms or street meanings on Urban Dictionary.

Webware.com - Type "ww

" to search for Web-related software on Webware.com.

Wikipedia (English) - Type "wp

" to search the community encyclopedia Wikipedia (English version).

YouTube - Type "yt

" to search the video-sharing site YouTube.

Three useful Firefox 3 'awesome bar' hacks

1. Control how many listings you're getting. The default number of sites that show up on the Smart Location Bar, or "awesome bar," of the nwe Mozilla browser is 12. Changing that number works the same way as getting rid of the sites altogether.

Just type about:config into your address bar, hit the "okay" button when the security warning pops up, then paste browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the open box, and hit the Enter key.

Double-click the result, and it'll let you change that digit to whatever you want. One thing to note, though, is if you add more results, it won't make the list any longer than six at a time, so you'll still have to scroll.

2. Keep bookmarks off the address bar. You save a bunch of sites, but you don't want them showing up when you're typing, right? This extension will keep the church-and-state line of browsing history and bookmarks from being crossed ever again.

This probably isn't useful, if you only have a few bookmarks, but it can be very helpful if you've got a huge collection that requires you to scroll down the list to find the site you're looking for, effectively killing any time saving the bar was meant to do.

3. Keep certain sites from showing up altogether. Got a site you'd rather not have others see when they're using your machine? Unless you've got browser history turned off, and the site isn't bookmarked, you're generally out of luck.

There's currently not a way to keep specific sites from showing up or right-clicking to remove them from the list, which is why we have to recommend using Apple's safari it's "private browsing" feature. When toggled, it won't save any of your information, clicks, or cached data for anyone else to find.

If you don't feel like switching browsers that emulates the same thing, deleting only the bits of data from that session. Just don't be surprised if your significant other or kids ask why there's an eyeball in the corner of your screen.

Chat with your friends in Facebook without having to be on the page using a simple feature in Firefox.

So you've been having fun with Facebook's somewhat half-baked chat service for the last day now, but are you growing tired of having to first log-in, then pop-out the chat window? For those of you who want to chat without this two-step process, there's a nice little tweak discovered by Mozilla Links that lets you set Facebook chat to pop out in Firefox's side bar.

I'm not really a fan of sidebar driven applications (gDocsBar not included), but this implementation works out pretty well. It will load up your buddy list and work just like the pop-out version does--minus of course the actual pop-up.

I'm still waiting for Facebook to add away and invisible modes, and allow other chat applications, such as Pidgin, Meebo, and Trillian, to integrate it. In the meantime, this tweak makes it a little more bearable.

Firefox add-on puts Wolfram Alpha in your Google

If you've casually been using Wolfram Alpha, but don't want to give up your Google addiction reliance, there's hope for you yet. A new Firefox extension lets you keep using Google, while showing Wolfram Alpha results on the side of the page.

I've been using it all morning and it's a nice addition if you're a search enthusiast. Your Google results come in just as quickly as they usually do, while the Wolfram ones catch-up on the side. This makes it a good way to test some of the limitations of the new search engine, as it only covers so many topics. My favorite use for it is to pull up nutritional information for fast food and cast lists for movies. Both are activities that usually require going off the results page to find the information I was looking for, whereas Wolfram simply grabs and displays it in an orderly fashion.

The only drawback I've run into with this extension is that it can clip off the bottom of the Wolfram Alpha results unless you've got Google set to show 20 or more search results per page. On some of the longer entries this this means you're not seeing potentially important information. On the plus side, there's a quick link to redo the search in Wolfram Alpha, in a different browser tab.

Note: This extension is experimental, which means you need to be registered with Mozilla's add-ons directory to install it in your browser.

Firefox Add-Ons: Add Just About ANY Engine to Firefox Search Bar Quickly, Easily; Take Screen Caps Directly from Firefox Browser

What can we say, we love Firefox add-ons. This week, two add-ons (one essential favorite) and one add-on we just began using have received updated. Here’s the lowdown. Access and use of both add-ons is free.

1) The Essential Add to Search Bar (1.7) by Malte Kraus makes adding just about any search engine (even some library OPAC databases) to the Firefox Search Bar VERY EASY and VERY FAST. It’s something that can be mentioned at all classes about web browsers and search since no tech skills (except a few clicks) are needed to use it.

In our view, this is one of the most useful and important Firefox add-ons out there.

A) Download/Install the App
B) Go to the search engine you would like to add
C) Place cursor in search box, right click (CLICK #1) and select “Add to Search Bar” (CLICK #2)
D) Box Appears, with name and icon (both can be changed, up to you) (CLICK #3)
E) Now, the search tool should appear in your Firefox Search Bar.
F) So simple but still powerful and very useful.
See the operation in action by viewing this screencast.

Version 1.6 and 1.7 (just released) have added and improved a number of features including:

* all engines with /similar/ names can be added
* non-ASCII characters in parameters are encoded correctly
* HTTP Status Code 304 is successful as well
* corrected Spanish translation
* when an icon selected by the user is rejected, an error message appears that explains why
* engines with the same name can be added (or, in reality: spaces are added at the end)
* engineInfos.xul has IDs so it can have overlays

Btw, you might also find: Organize Search Engines by the same developer of value. We do!

Finally, a similar tool, to add engines to IE is available from MS. Look for the gold “Create Your Own” box.

2) We’ve been using Add to Search Bar for some time and we’re thrilled to see that it continues to be developed.

Recently, we began using another Firefox add-on that also updated this week. It’s named FireShot and integrates directly with Firefox.

It’s free to download and free to use.

Customize Google

Anyone who has ever wished they could bend Google to their will should download this add-on. It gives you a tremendous amount of control over the way Google and its associated sites work. Want to remove all ads from Google and Gmail? It can do it. Want to add links to the Wayback Machine in your search results so that you can find Web pages from long ago and far away? It'll do that as well. It will also anonymize the Google cookie UID so that Google can't create a profile about you, and much more.click here to install

Adblock Plus

Good news: What may be the most popular add-on of all time works with Firefox 3. This extension does exactly what it says: It blocks banner ads so that you can surf the Internet without flashing, annoying advertisements. Nothing more, and nothing less.Click here to install.

Force Old Extensions to Work in Firefox 3

When you install Firefox 3, it checks to see if your old extensions have been updated for the new version of the browser. If it finds they haven't, it disables them.

If you like living on the edge, you can change a couple of settings to force Firefox to use your old extensions. Be forewarned, though, that doing this can cause compatibility problems and other woes.

Go to the following settings in about:config, and change both to false by double-clicking them:

extensions.checkCompatibility

extensions.checkUpdateSecurity

If you don't want to muck around with about:config but still want to force old extensions to work in Firefox 3, download and use the Nightly Tester Tools extension.

Gmail Handle mailto: Links

Gmail, surprisingly, doesn't show up in the Firefox list of mailto: handlers. But you can add it. Just follow these steps:

1. In the address bar, type about:config and press Enter. Ignore the warranty warning.

2. In the filter box, type gecko.handlerservice.

3. From the entries that appear, double-click gecko.handlerServiceAllowRegisterFromDifferentHost. This will change its value from false to true.

4. In the address bar, copy this code, exactly as you see it, then press Enter:

javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto",
"https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

5. Below the address bar, you'll get a message asking if you want to add Gmail as the application for mailto: links. Click the Add Application button.

6. Next time you click a mailto: link, a screen will appear that lets you choose an appropriate application. Select Gmail, check the box next to "Remember my choice for mailto: links," then click OK.

From now on, Gmail will handle the links. As with Yahoo Mail, if you're not currently logged in, you'll first have to type in your e-mail and password, and then Gmail will create the e-mail.