Easy Firefox » Firefox Facts

RIP Xmarks

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:00:55 +0000

Well, it is a sad day in Firefox Extension Land because Xmarks has announced it will be biting the dust soon. The cross browser bookmark syncing tool will shut down service January 10, 2011. I am sad to see Xmarks become another failed experiment for the Web, but hopefully the great minds and people behind the product will move on to bigger and better things.

It is totally understandable to have to give things up if the money is not there. Believe me, I know it is hard to be profitable out there – as the only money I make on my projects is though my website advertisements. However, even though I have thousands of readers, ad clicks aren’t really making it easy to quit my day job (even if I wanted to). Maybe this will serve as a reminder that it is hard for good things to remain free, and if you enjoy using a product – you should look for ways to give back to the development of the product.

One thing is for certain, the world of bookmark syncing has to thank Xmarks for paving the way. For Firefox users, Firefox Sync will soon be your built in replacement for the Xmarks-like bookmark syncing.

Todd Agulnick, the Co-Founder of Xmarks sums things up nicely here:

I’d like to thank our investors, who stuck with us through uncertain times; my colleagues, who toiled long hours in search of a scalable business; our localizers, who made Xmarks available in 33 languages; and our users, for their unstinting support and willingness to tell us quickly and candidly when we misstepped. You will all be missed.

So long Xmarks – you will be missed!

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Edit Form History in Firefox

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:02:41 +0000

Ever needed to search through, correct or delete the entries that are saved to the form history inside of Firefox? With Firefox alone, this can not be done. If you download the add-on Form History Control – then you will be optimizing your saved form history in no time at all.

If you don’t clear your browser’s recent history religiously, you might have noticed that you have several entries to choose from when you start to type inside of a text form.

The Form History Control add-on for Firefox gives you the ability to do all kinds of neat things with this information. You can sort the list of form history. You can filter (by selecting one of the filters) to slim down the list of forms you are checking into. You can edit past phrases that have been saved, to correct them for spelling or grammar too. The best tool included with Form History Control might be the cleanup option. This will automate the removal of form history.

The history of specific form fields can easily be managed by right clicking in the form you wish to manage. You can then select to delete the complete history for that specific form, delete the current value you have selected or go in and manage the entries for this one form.

You can pick up the Form History Control add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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Turn Off Session Restore

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:01:47 +0000

Due to privacy concerns, some Firefox users may wish to disable or turn off the session restore feature in Firefox. As an example, if your computer is used by multiple users, the browser could crash while you are checking your Gmail account. Rather than restoring Firefox, you decide to go do something else. When somebody else comes in to launch Firefox, the browser will be restored to your inbox (due to fact that is where it crashed). If you want a little more browsing privacy, here is how you disable the session restore feature in the browser.

First thing you will need to do is visit our old friend, the about:config screen. In the address bar, type in:

about:config

and then press the "Enter" key. If you are warned about the fact that you can really mess Firefox up if you muck around inside of about:config, just go ahead and click "I’ll be careful, I promise!" and continue.

Now, find browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash in the list. You will want to double-click that entry, and then set it to false. Session restore inside of Firefox will now be disabled.

Here is what Mozilla has to say about the privacy issues that might exist:

Session Restore may keep you logged in to sites that you were logged into before you closed Firefox. If someone else used your computer after you, they could access your account on these sites. If this is a concern then you should not configure Firefox to open all windows and tabs from your previous session ("Show my windows and tabs from last time" option described above).

I would not consider this a huge privacy problem, but if it is something you are concerned about – it is nice to know Firefox left the option open for you.

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Best 10 TV and Movie Personas for Firefox

admin — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:00:28 +0000

What are some of the best Personas you can pick up for Firefox from the Film and TV category? I recently took a trip through some of the user created backgrounds for Firefox, and found ten of the best examples. These are all Personas I find both usable and fun to look at, and might help lighten the day the next time you launch your favorite browser.

Here are my top 10 favorite Film and TV Personas for Firefox:

Cookie Monster

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Star Wars Death Star

Sponge Bob Square Pants

Star Trek – Red Shirt

There you have it. Let me know which one is your favorite in the comments or if you have another Persona background to share, be sure to post those too.

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Web Notes for Firefox

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:04:51 +0000

Need some built-in note taking features when it comes to browsing the web? The Web Notes add-on for Firefox might be the extension that makes your day. This simple add-on features a floating window that can be placed anywhere on the screen for your note taking needs.

Here are a few more features of this handy browser extension:

You can right click a tab for options.
Saving notes is automatic.
Anytime you change a default note it will be saved for that web site.
You can directly access a web site that has a saved note by left clicking the site in the Sites menu item in the Options menu. If you right click the site you can edit the site’s name.
The Web Notes window may be minimized or restored by clicking on the Web Notes menu item in the Tools dropdown or, if you have installed it, the Web Notes toolbar button image. The minimized window can also be restored by resizing it.
If you move the minimized note to a convenient location, it will stay there and be remembered the next time you open Web Notes.The minimized Web Notes window will automatically be restored for web sites that have a Web Notes’ note. Those that do not will have a minimized Web Notes window. This behavior (auto min/restore) can be turned off and on in the Options menu. This setting will also be remembered the next time you open Web Notes.

Now, while it might not yet substitute my current Notetab Std being open 24/7 for my note taking needs, it is a good start. It has many more features than one would think, and you really have to try it out to see if it is right for you or not. Anything that helps organize wins my vote, so go give Web Notes a shot. You can download Web Notes over at the Firefox Add-ons website.

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Search in Firefox Panorama

admin — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:04:01 +0000

I have made no secret about the fact that the one feature I am looking most forward to in Firefox 4 is the new Firefox Panorama tool (formerly known as Tab Candy). Now, I have shown you why Panorama is really handy when it comes to getting rid of the extra browser windows, but now they are also introducing a very nice search feature too.

So lets say you have all your tabs grouped up, you have several websites loaded up – but you want to find your email in a hurry. You can click the little magnifying glass on the side, type the name of your email client (like Gmail) and it will be highlighted for you.

Here is a short video from Aza explaining more about how the new search feature would work:

Overall, this is one more thing that is making me want to get my hands on Firefox 4 even more. I love the fact that the search is so fast, and I can’t wait to start using Panorama in my everyday browsing.

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Turn Firefox in Glass, Sorta

admin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:02:11 +0000

For those of you using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you probably have already noticed that by default, Firefox does not have the cool glass effect that some of your other programs might have. You can make Firefox a little more transparent though, with the Glasser add-on.

Now, I’ll be honest – I didn’t think it would make that much of a change for me. Sure, some more of Firefox is transparent – so what? However, after giving this add-on a try finally, I might decide to keep it. I like the fact that it gives the bookmarks toolbar a little ‘bit more highlight and makes it stand out a ‘bit more too.

Overall, I think it does make the Firefox 3.5/3.6 interface a lot sleeker. You can pickup this interface changing extension from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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Double Click Tab Actions

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:03:52 +0000

Tired of right-clicking to get a link to open in a new Firefox tab? Well, with the DblClicker installed – that will be a thing of the past. This simple add-on for Firefox adds double clicking to the list of things you can do in your browser to bring up new links.

This lightweight tab extension for Firefox is pretty cool. Once installed, it pretty much enables double-click action to a lot of things we do daily. Here are the amazing features it brings to the table.

Double-click Link to open in new tab.
Double-click Bookmark/History to open in new tab.
Autohide Bookmark/History after selection – according to DblClicker Options.
Double-click tab action – according to DblClicker Options
Duplicate Tab – default || Close Tab || None – avoid conflicts when using other tab clicking extensions.
New tab will open in front/background for Links, Bookmarks/History according to FF preferences/DblClicker Options.

I open links in new tabs all the time, so having this add-on installed is a definate must for me. Once you get used to double-clicking links, the functionality this add-on brings really feels like second nature.

You can download the DblClicker add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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LavaFox – Purple, Green and Black Themes

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:01:56 +0000

Time to dig through the newest Firefox themes to see what treasures we can find. Today’s selection comes in three different flavors, green, purple and black and is known simply as LavaFox.

Now I have mentioned before that is is really hard to make a usable dark Firefox theme, but I think LavaFox does a great job at getting the job done. It doesn’t seem too dark – and is still really usable and great to look at. The sleek black interface will look great on any Windows 7 or Windows Vista desktop too.

Just about every aspect of the skin is themed too – which is nice to see that they paid that much attention to the details. Want to give them a shot?

All three themes can be downloaded from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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Turn Firefox into a Shoot-em Up Game

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:02:15 +0000

Looking for an easy way to pass the time on a slow Friday? Destroy the Web is the perfect game you can add into Firefox to help keep yourself entertained. Turn any webpage out there into a shoot-em up video game.

Once installed, you will see that Destroy the Web adds an extra menu toolbar button. Once you click it, the game begins. It is then your goal to click on and “shoot” all the content on the webpage. Destroy links, images, divs, headings and more in this little game for your browser.

Here is a little more about the Destroy the Web add-on from the developer:

Not satisfied with current games available for Firefox, I strived to create a game in such a way that it is well integrated with the actual browsing experience. Unlike the rest of those games, Destroy the Web is played against any page in the Web, causing the outcome to be always different.

it is definitely different, and a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be too. You can download this add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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