Bookmarks gather by the dozen each day and they gather dust just as quickly. Today, a browser like Firefox offers tagging as a means to clean up bookmarks. Subject specific folders have always existed to bunch similar bookmarks together.

But bad habits reign supreme and usually bookmarks end up in a haphazard array. A lot of sites have their fifteen minutes of fame and then disappear. But the bookmark is left behind like a gravestone marker. A lot many sites update their favicons or change over to a new URL. But the bookmark remains stuck as a misdirected pointer on the web highway.

The broom to clean up bookmarks and bring them up to date by eliminating the dead ones is called AM-Deadlink. The four browser bookmarks it helps sweep are of Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox (FF ver. 3+ with an alternate method).

AM-Deadlink detects the dead links and duplicates, and marks them for removal. It can also clean up duplicates in comma-separated and tab-limited text files and saved URL files. Also, AM-Deadlink downloads the current favicons for all your Favorites and Bookmarks for the four browsers.

AM-Deadlink is a 1.3MB free download. Its operation is fairly straightforward. Let’s see it in action.

Sweeping away the dead bookmarks

1. On install, AM-Deadlink provides an option to install itself as a normal Windows program or as a portable program on your thumb drive. The second option is for those who want to carry the freeware around on their flash drives and use it to clean up multiple computers. In other words, it’s a portable app!
2. The interface is simple with a dropdown to select the browser of choice. Selection of the browser triggers the program to list out the bookmarks for the specific browser.
3. Proceed to check the bookmarks with a single click. The time required for complete checking will of course depend on the number of bookmarks you have piled up. The software went through the 360 odd IE bookmarks in approximately 8 minutes and alerted the completion with a sound.The Status column shows the state, whether the link is lost, it’s healthy or there is some other error with the page. You can sort the errors to the top the list and individually re-check them by opening them in an internal preview or in a browser.

   

4. After validating the links, you can choose to delete the faulty links. Sorting the errors on top also enables to delete them all together.
5. Favicons can also be similarly checked, updated or deleted.
6. AM-Deadlink searches for duplicate bookmarks which is a common affair for most of us.
7. It’s always good to have a backup copy in case you delete the wrong bookmarks. AM-Deadlink makes safe your browser bookmarks from your itchy-delete-happy fingers by providing a backup option in a zip file.

Alternate Method for Firefox 3+

AM-Deadlink does a good job with IE and Opera but falters slightly when it comes to the latest version of Firefox. You have to go around a bit because the latest version of Firefox uses a database rather than a single URL file to store all the bookmarks.

The alternate method involves using the Export HTML feature in Firefox’s Bookmark Organizer and processing this HTML file through AM-Deadlink. The cleaned up HTML file can then be imported into a fresh bookmarks folder (importing it into the older bookmarks will create duplicates).

The bit of manual labor with the latest edition of Firefox is the only slight flaw in an otherwise impressive free program. Also, apart from the Help file, AM-Deadlink does not really make it clear how to go about the Firefox cleanup job.

But the end, AM-Deadlink does a dandy job of cleaning up the waste that lies in our bookmarks folder. Now, it’s only left to us to pay those links an occasional visit.

AM-Deadlink (ver.3.3) is supported on Win9x/Me/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista.

Image Credit: P/\UL

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Although there are a whole bunch of Firefox spin-offs, Chrome is still pretty much solitary – at least, it used to be.

ChromePlus

Created by Maple Studio, ChromePlus is a Google Chrome alternative that uses the Chromium source code. They’ve released a Chrome spin-off, with some additional features that should make the browser even more fun to use.

ChromePlus looks pretty much the same as its Google brother, and also has the same basic features and strengths – but as a Google Chrome alternative it has a few extra presents under the hood. Read on for a sneak preview of those additions, and see why you’re going to uninstall your current browser in a few minutes time.

Super Drag

Super Drag is an incredible feature that’ll speed up your browsing and research work infinitely. It gives you two nifty extra functions.

Most straightforward is link-dragging. By dragging a link, and releasing it anywhere on the page, the link will automatically be opened in a background tab. This is especially useful on laptops, where you don’t have a scroll button and would have to work with Control-click.

If you start dragging around pieces of highlighted text, a whole other thing happens. Release your mouse anywhere on the screen and a Google search query will be opened in a new tab. Next time you’re reading a text and encounter something you don’t wholly understand, grab a hold and flick your mouse. This makes ChromePlus into an amazing research tool.

You can specify if the new tab needs to open in the background (default) or foreground of your browser in the options, or disable the function altogether.

IE Tab

IE Tab isn’t new. That is, to Firefox users. It’s one of the most famous Firefox add-ons. The biggest difference is that it’s now implemented in Chrome.

Innovating or not, IE Tab can be a life-saver. Although the practice is dying, some web-developers still feel the need to limit their web experience to Internet Explorer browsers. If you ever encounter a webpage that you can’t access with your Chrome browser, don’t close the app. By pressing the browser logo at the right of your address bar, you can make your browser seem like Internet Explorer.

New tabs should open up in Chrome mode by default. If they don’t, reversing the process is as easy as you’d think. This time, hit the Internet Explorer button to switch worlds.

Arrow Trace

We already told you how Super Drag was going to make your browsing a lot faster. Here’s another feature that’ll give your productivity a boost.

By holding your right mouse button, and drawing on the screen, you can execute a variety of commands; scrolling up and down, switching tabs, opening a new page, and so on. We call these “mouse gestures”.

To give you a general idea, here are a few examples:

• straight down makes you scroll down a page
• straight up makes you scroll up a page
• straight left lets you go back in browser history
• straight right lets you advance in browser history
• up, sharp left makes you go to the previous tab
• up, sharp right makes you go to the next tab (screenshot example)

They’ll take some getting used to, but can make your life a lot easier! If you don’t feel like it, you can once again disable it in the options.

Double-Hit-Close

Not that much of an innovation, but you can close a tab by double-clicking it. No more marksmanship required with that little ‘close’ button.

Download Manager Integration

Those using Chrome have probably noticed that it doesn’t support a hell of a lot of download managers. Most of the time, you’ll still be obliged to copy-paste your links.

ChromePlus has integrated download functionality for a whole bunch of popular download applications. Next time, just right-click your links to have them sent over to your download manager.

You can download ChromePlus here

Do you use Chrome yet? Why, or why not? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

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There are numerous tools that aid the serious searcher. Yolink belongs to that tribe. Yolink can be compared to a search accelerator, a growing class of web tools which bring the results closer and faster.

Let’s throw Yolink into the deep end of a web search and see how it comes up. With a thumbs up or for gasps of air?

What does Yolink do?

Yolink can be described as searching within results of a normal web search. For any webpage, put in a search query into the Yolink search box. Press enter or click the adjacent Search Links button.

For instance, here I am searching for Charlize Theron, the actress and Oscar winner in Wikipedia. The tool searches through all the links in that particular page for information matching the search query. The Yolink search accelerator results will be displayed in a right-sided split-pane, adjacent to the original web page.

The Yolink results are like little previews which help you decide which one needs to be followed to get to the right information. The search query is presented in the context of the content. Yolink’s utility goes deep into the levels of the webpage and filters information that’s relevant to the search query thus, saving the researcher’s time as he does not have to needlessly follow each and every link in the hunt for Charlize.

Click on any of the Yolink results which you feel is relevant for further lookup and that same link opens up in its original Web page (on the left pane) and is highlighted in the context.

Yolink’s behavior can be changed from the Yolink button next to the address bar. This button is also a toggle switch to hide and unhide the toolbar.

You can fine tune your search results by modifying the Search Options from the toolbar. Five options for the keywords are available which are self explanatory – Best Match, Match All, Exact Match, Match Any, Allow Breakouts. Allow breakouts is a Firefox-only feature and it’s for forcing the split screen on websites which do not allow dual pane view.

Save & Share your Yolink Search Accelerator Search Results

You can also store and share all your Yolink results in an online account. All it takes is a free registration with any email ID. With the email verification done, you are set to use your account space to save any link for further reference or share it with others.

To save a link, use the Save & Share button on the Yolink toolbar or click on the little Save & Share green icon next to any result.

The detailed user guide for Yolink can be read here.

The result

As an add-on it’s quite large, weighing in at 6.9MB and installs as a search toolbar. Users who like their browsers to be lean ‘n mean machines may not like the add-on weight. The casual searcher may also think of it as overkill. But for the guy who takes his searches passionately, it’s quite a serious tool. I found its main dexterity in trawling through lengthy webpages and news sites. It has also become a handy tool for multi-word search as I can view the context instantly for the multiple search queries without wasting any time.

Do you like to install search accelerators to enhance your search? Which ones have made web search faster and easier for you? Do you think that Yolink could become a worthy member of that tribe? Let us in on your opinion.

Youlink (ver 2.0) is a browser add-on compatible with Firefox (PC and Mac) and IE (ver 6, 7 and 8).

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The easiest way of course is through add-ons as Firefox calls them or extensions as Google Chrome calls them. Chrome has a lot going for it despite the vacuum of extensions.

But Google had promised support for Google Chrome extensions and it is beginning to keep it. The official support for extensions has been announced and though it’s still not fully on in the standard version, one gets it with the developer version of Google Chrome.

A few posts back we saw how to download and install Google Chrome extensions in the developer version. Do go through that post again and come back here. In this post we will check out some of the coolest extensions to download and use with Google Chrome.

The population may be small but the seeds of popularity are being sown with these baby steps.

1. Google Chrome Backup

   If the first thing you savor is peace of mind then the Google Chrome Backup is a must install. This is a small tool to create, backup, restore and manage Google Chrome profiles that holds all your bookmarks, history, saved passwords etc. This is not an extension in the strictest sense as it does not run within the browser but as a separate install. Nevertheless, it’s an important tool to have.

   

   The 1.1MB download works with Google Chrome version 0.2.149.27 onwards and requires .NET framework.

2. AdSweep

   A simple ad blocker extension that modifies the CSS rules on a webpage to hide the advertisements. The small javascript code recognizes ads (especially banner ads) based on specific patterns and blocks them. The extension may not work on all webpages because some ads may escape the recognition patterns used by AdSweep.

   

   The 32KB AdSweep userscript works with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

 

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3. Session Saver

   Something I really like because it harks back to the Save sessions and Manage sessions feature of Opera. It’s useful if you have to switch off and need to come back to the same tabs at some point later. This extension can save  multiple sessions each with its own name. You can also save all saved sessions as bookmarks.

   

   The 107KB Session Saver extension is compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

4. TPGoogleReader

   This is a Google Reader extension for Chrome. The extension makes reading and managing feeds a one click job. It installs as two little icons on the toolstrip and shows the number of unread feeds. In the normal mode, clicking on the items counter opens the first unread item and marks it as read. In the auto-mode, one click on the checkbox opens the unread items in background tabs and marks them as read.

   

   The 9.7KB TPGoogleReader extension is compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

5. Web of Trust

   WOT is a free browser add-on that protects the user from online scams and risky websites. A pop-up opens from the bottom of the screen and indicates not only the trustworthiness of a website but also how things stand with a site’s vendor reliability, child safety and privacy. You can also contribute your own ratings and select the ratings you want to get alerts on.

   

   The WOT extension is a 523KB download compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

6. Smoothscroll

   This extension simply adds the smooth scrolling behavior to Google Chrome. Smooth scrolling auto-scrolls the browser at a constant speed. Click the middle mouse button/scroll wheel and drag the mouse down to set the scroll speed.

   The Smoothscroll extension is a 3KB download compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

7. Bubble Translate

This Google Chrome extension enables you to do inline translations of a webpage into any language supported by Google Translate with a single click. You can set all language choices from its settings.



The Bubble Translate extension is a 34KB download compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

8. Cleeki

   This extension is basically a feature rich search accelerator for Google Chrome. Highlight any keyword on a webpage and a little adjoining icon gives you access to a lot of internet choices from Wikipedia to YouTube to get more information. The information opens up in a little inline window, so you don’t need to browse away. Search can also be done on multiple sites at the same time.

   

   The Cleeki extension is a 56KB download compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

9. LastPass
   

LastPass is an online form filler and password manager which got some high marks from us in a previous post. For error free performance, switch off Chrome’s inbuilt password manager (Wrench Icon – Options – Personal Stuff) and Form Autofill under the same tab.



The LastPass extension is a 315KB download compatible with Google Chrome developer version 4+.

10. Greasemetal

Familiar with Greasemonkey userscripts for Firefox? Those little pieces of code that help you customize your Firefox browser. Greasemetal is the Chrome incarnation of those handy javascripts which let you modify its behavior. It’s a good extension to have because a lot of userscripts continue o be developed and are made available from sites like Userscripts.org.

Greasemetal comes as a 1.2MB installer download for Google Chrome.

These ten extensions represent just a few of the many that are out there and slowly burgeoning with each iteration of the Chrome browser. Hopefully, it won’t be long before Chrome would give the Firefox add-ons gallery a run for its download. For us users, this is a war where we will get all the spoils.

True, ten is a very small number. Which is your extension you would have liked to have seen on the list?

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The need for extension support was almost a clarion call as soon as the browser hit the market. The ability to extend the browser’s prowess using little third party apps is what separates Firefox from the herd. And Google has been playing catch-up.

Has it caught up? No, but it is definitely a few yards closer.

The good news is that Google Chrome now officially supports browser extensions. That’s the little bit of good news along with the fact that there developers are jumping on the Google bandwagon and packaging new code to broaden the scope of the browser.

The little bit of bad news is that Google Chrome extension support is still not a feature of the stable version of Chrome but you get it in the latest build of the dev channel release. But as the Chromium team’s blog says, extension support is on the runway and taxiing towards a takeoff for all versions.

Not to get confused between Chrome and Chromium – Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome which Chrome relies on for its final build.

So let’s get up and running with installing extensions in Google Chrome.

1. Download and run the 2MB Dev Channel installer from the Chromium Developer page.
2. The updated version (4.0.221.6) features an extension manager. The extension manager can be accessed in two ways –
   • Type in chrome://extensions/ in the location bar of a new window or tab.
   • Access it by clicking the wrench icon and then Extensions.

   

3. To those of us more attuned to the Add-ons box of Firefox, the extension manager will seem very basic. It features just three tools. The developer version gives you tools to load, pack and update extensions. Remember, Chrome still does not have anything similar to an add-ons gallery, so a direct route to search and select Google Chrome extensions is lacking.



4. To try out your first ‘official’ extensions, head over to these this Chromium page for installing any of the provided three sample extensions. The extensions download as CRX (Chrome Extension Installer) files. Chrome supports two formats for extensions-Compressed CRX files and its uncompressed (unpacked) counterpart which generally consists of files written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.



5. Click the install link below the snapshots and download the package and install in Chrome. If you have downloaded it to your hard drive, just drag and drop it into the browser window.



6. For valid extensions, the Installed extensions section in the Extensions manager, displays the confirming information.



7. Uninstalling or disabling the extensions is also just a matter of a single click from the extensions page.

But all this brouhaha for just three sample extensions! It could be a big letdown, if not for third party developers working behind the scenes on extensions of their own. I can straightaway suggest to you two sites that could empower your browser by a bit…

- Chromeextensions
- Chromeplugins

These sites are not associated to Google but are merely a place for independent developers. But they are the groundbreakers in every sense of the word as Chrome tries to become the internet’s Swiss army knife like Firefox. The salvo has been fired by Google. With time it could be a toss-up between browsers. We just have to pick the browser we want.

Do you think Chrome could soon match up?  Do you know of any other sites offering Google Chrome extensions?

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Most download managers have it, µtorrent has it and they are perfect for my need. There has always been a great void in this setup due to Firefox. Many a time, I have files downloading in Firefox but no way to auto-shutdown the computer. Some time back, I hacked together an auto script that would sit there and wait for the Firefox’s ‘Downloads finished’ notification to appear, it would then close Firefox and shutdown the computer. Lame I know, but it did the trick.

Recently, however, I found an excellent addon that lets you do schedule auto shutdowns in Firefox and a whole lot more, its (aptly) called Auto-Shutdown. The addon is auto shutdown software that provides you with a number of options to perform precisely the action you want once the downloads have completed. You can play sounds, clear downloads, shutdown, logoff, restart your computer or run any command or multiple commands through a script.

Auto Shutdown is available at AMO, it works with Firefox version 3 and upwards. Once installed, the auto shutdown software will add a power icon to the status bar. You can remove the icon if you desire, however it provides quick access to its options and can be used to enable auto-shutdown in a flash.

You can use the built-in commands for basic needs like shutdown, hibernate, stand by, etc. There are different versions of these commands for different version of Windows and Linux and Mac.

Apart from the built-in commands you can do almost anything with Auto Shutdown. You can run any JavaScript code or any external application when the downloads finish or when the computer is idle while Firefox is downloading the files. To run custom commands or JavaScript code:

• Go to the Customize tab within Auto Shutdown settings.
• Type in your code in the lower text area surrounded by <javaScript> </javaScript> tags or <shell> </shell> tags depending on what you are planning to achieve.

• Click Save As and assign the script to User Command 1 or User Command 2

• Choose User Command 1 or User Command 2 from Adjust shutdown Command drop down list towards the top.

You can easily pass arguments to external applications and Auto Shutdown also provides you with certain reserved words that can be used in your scripts to refer to special locations and files. %sysRoot%, for example, refers to the Windows/system32 directory and %WinD refers to the Windows directory. The complete list is available here.

You can also choose the amount of time Auto Shutdown waits before executing the commands after the downloads have finished. Auto Shutdown will display a countdown for that specified time, allowing you to save any work if you have been working along or cancel the download altogether. You can force Firefox to exit when the command is eventually triggered and choose to restore the session, the next time Firefox is started. If you use DownThemAll, Auto Shutdown has you covered and can monitor DownThemAll as well.

Auto Shutdown is a dream come true if you ever leave the computer running only to let the downloads complete. With Auto Shutdown, you can now automatically close the browser or shutdown the system when downloads complete. Give it a spin and let us know what you like or dislike.

Do you have some clever ways of your own to automatically shutdown the computer after downloads complete? Let us know in the comments.

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Basically, Greasemonkey allows users to write and implement scripts that customize the way you interact with websites.

Until now, people who knew nothing about writing scripts have been limited to just installing scripts made available by others.  Well, not anymore my friends!  Now we have a whole new, user-friendly, no scripting necessary way of changing the way we interact with our favorite websites.  Sound too good to be true?  I thought so too!  Please check out the Customize Your Web Firefox add-on.

The way this add-on works is really neat.  Basically when you are on a site you want to customize Firefox, click on the hand-dandy icon in your Firefox tray and start customizing.

In this post I would like to walk you through how to set up a few customizations I have found useful.

Automatic clicking

With this add-on you can make it so that a specific button is clicked upon the load of a website.  For instance, when I head over to the login screen for my blog, timmyjohnboy, I always have to click on “log in.”  I already have the username and password fields auto-filled but perhaps I’m just too lazy to click the stupid button.  Come on, you can’t tell me you’ve never felt that way!

Anyways, just click on the icon (or press F10) and you’ll be given a bunch of options.

You’ll also notice that as you move your mouse across the site, the objects highlight and if you click them, you’re given some options.

For what we want to do, and that is saving us from the overbearing task of clicking the “log in” button, click “click.”  Then a window pops up giving you the options you’re looking for.

Make sure the left button is chosen and make sure that the repetition behavior is set to “run always” if you want this to happen every time.  Then, hit “OK.”  Then, in the script properties sidebar, click save for the settings to be saved.

OK, now I can be automatically logged in just by making a few adjustments!  This can obviously be done for any website where you want to automatically click any button.

Get ride of elements you don’t want to see!

For the sake of demonstration, let’s head over to GodlySheep and get rid of Brett’s nifty little sheep icon!  OK, I am not saying that I don’t like the icon, I really do!  It just makes a really good object to make an example of!

Basically just follow the same steps (browse to godlysheep.com, click the icon in the tray, and click on the sheep graphic) but this time click on “remove.”

Just like before, make sure that the repetition behavior is set to “run always.”  Then click the same “save” button.  This is what you should now see:

Cool, huh?  This trick can be applied to many different objects, including ads!  For instance, if you’re like me and you hate those MySpace ads, all you have to do if remove them!

Move objects or elements (cut, copy, and paste)

Let’s say we also want to rearrange the sidebar on GodlySheep.com to better suit your usage patterns.  Let’s move the banner below the navigation links.  All it takes is some simple cut and paste actions.  Click the banner and then click cut,

choose the appropriate settings, and then click the navigation area and click paste after.

That’s all it really takes.  Always make sure you save your changes.

It is also necessary for me to mention that changes you make can ALWAYS be deleted so don’t worry too much about ruining something. You can also do many MANY more modifications with Customize Your Web, including toggling the visibility of objects, keyboard shortcuts and so much more!

Whilst exploring this add-on to customize Firefox, let us know what tricks you like the most!

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Right about now, you may be thinking you don’t like that idea. Me neither. Yet, even worse are those cookies that track your activities, gather information and report it back to a website that you’ve never visited – a third-party website. The 2o7 cookie is one such cookie. What is this 2o7 cookie? Let’s take a look at it.

What is This 2o7 Cookie?

The 207 cookie is intended to track web usage and other information. The exact information that the 207.net cookie will track varies from user to user. The information is gathered and reported back to 207.net allegedly anonymously. Meaning, that it contains no information that can be used to identify that the information came from you.

This is hard to verify as there are many, many versions of the 207.net cookie. I’ll get into that in a second.

Who Made 2o7 Tracking CookieIt?

A marketing firm called Omniture creates the cookies that report back to 2o7.net. They do this on behalf of their customers, which include such heavy-hitters as eBay, Wal-Mart, Expedia and Ameritrade.  That’s why it’s hard to tell exactly what the cookie you have may be tracking. eBay will want different information than Ameritrade. One may be tracking the effectiveness of an e-mail campaign, while the other may be tracking their banner ad campaign.

Omniture set up the 207.net domain name as a way to maintain a degree of anonymity and to put the load of all these cookies onto a server that is used for nothing else. From a technology point of view, this is a good practice. From a public relations point of view, it’s a flipping disaster!

How Does this 2o7 Cookie System Work?

When you visit a site that is a client of Omniture, the site drops the cookie onto your computer. The cookie tracks the information it’s designed to track and sends it to the 2o7.net site. Now, Omnitrade does operate other domains that their cookies report to as well, but 207.net seems to be the most popular.

Omnitrade compiles the data into something meaningful and sends that information to their client. If that’s the case, then these cookies are relatively innocuous. However, some clients may also request to have that information sent to someone else as well. That’s where things get a bit colluded. Who are they sending it to? For what reason? Is it really anonymous?

Is the 2o7 Cookie Bad?

People that look at the cookies and see the 207.net part and then visit the 207.net domain would see nothing – a blank page. Then they would do a whois on the domain name and find that it is owned by Omniture. Not knowing who in hades Omniture was, things seemed, dare I say it, ominous? (Omniture does now have a page there that explains the generalities of the cookies.)

The other aspect to these cookies is they do take up resources. They do affect your Internet speeds and your computer speed. It may be an insignificant amount or it may bring you to a near-standstill.

Yet overall, cookies aren’t that bad. There are bad ones, but for the most part they are very helpful. They store information such as website preferences, login information and such, that make it easier to use many websites.

How Do I Stop the 2o7.net Cookie?

If you are still unsure about the 207 cookie, you can delete it and block 3rd party cookies from being set again. You do NOT need special software for this. Omniture does have a page that can help you with this, but guess what? Yep, it sets another cookie. The opt-out cookie only works for the browser and computer that you set it on. So if you use Firefox on your home computer, that’s the only one the opt-out cookie will block from 2o7.net.

Here’s a small tutorial on how to block 3rd party cookies in Firefox, then in Internet Explorer.

How to Block 3rd Party Cookies Like 2o7 in Firefox

It’s pretty easy, yeah. Click on Tools in the top toolbar. Then click on Options. Just like below.

When the Options window opens, click on the cute mask for Privacy, then uncheck the accept third-party cookies checkbox. Now, you will receive only cookies that report back to their originating site. Easy peasy!

Block Third-Party Cookies Like 2o7 in Internet Explorer

Pretty much the same as Firefox, really. Click on Tools in the menu bar, then click on Internet Options.

When the Internet Options window opens, click on the Privacy tab. Now you’ll see the slider. To block only 3rd party cookies, slide the slider to Low. Realistically, having it on Medium at the least is probably safer.

Now with all that done, you have no worries about the 207.net cookie. Sound good?

If this article helped you, I’d be glad to hear about it. If you know something more about 207.net cookie being more dangerous than I’ve described, let us and our readers know in the comments.

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Being an Opera long-time fan (back to the days of Netscape vs. IE), I’m also curious about what goodies Opera 10 has to offer. So I gave Opera 10 – Mac version for me – a test drive, and here is my Opera browser review with several nice features that I like.

Speed Dial those pages

The first thing that users will notice is the “speed dial” page which will always be shown every time a new blank page is opened. The idea is that users will be able to access their favorite pages using these pre-configured “dial-pad”. Something like “Top Sites” in Safari.

There are nine default boxes, click an empty one to add a web page and click on an assigned one to go directly to that page.

Users can configure how many dial-pad boxes they want – from 4 (2 x 2) to 25 (5 x 5), what background image to show, or whether they want to hide or show speed dial.

What makes this feature special is the ability to synchronize these speed dial boxes to other Operas in other places, even under different OSes and different devices.

Link with Opera Link

The synchronization process discussed above is done using a feature called Opera Link. Using this service, users can synchronize Speed Dial, Bookmarks, Personal Bar, Typed History, Notes, and Searches.

But before using it, users should sign up first for an Opera account.

I think this synchronization feature could be Opera’s strongest selling point because of the existence of Opera Mini. As one of the leaders in mobile browsers, Opera Mini could “persuade” its users to try the desktop version just to have all of their data synchronized between devices.

Playing with Panels

Opera has a customized side panel which can be opened by clicking the “Panels” button next to tabs.

Users can fill in the panels with useful tools like Bookmarks, Widgets, Notes and History, by going to Tools –> Appearance menu

and then choosing the Panels tab.

Mail and Chat

Opera has an email client built-in the browser. Even though some users might prefer a stand-alone client, others would likely embrace the idea of Mail-Browser integration.

The first step of using this client is creating an account.

Beside email, there are other kinds of account that could be set, such as Newsgroups and IRC chat. (I wonder whether anybody still use these two classics and I also wonder why Opera included them).

Peeking through tabs

This one is a simple feature which I think is very useful. Users can peek into the background tabs just by hovering the mouse above the tab.

Turbo-charge the browsing experience

Opera 10 has another unique feature called Opera Turbo. Opera claims that this feature is able to boost the Internet bandwidth speed on slow connections by using Opera proxy servers to compress data and image traffic before they reach the browser.

To enable the feature, just click on the Opera Turbo’s teeny-weeny button on the bottom-left corner of the window.

Users should customize the turbo setting first before using it. There are three settings available: Automatic, On and Off.

Those with slow internet connections will be grateful for this free service provided by Opera as there are many similar services out there that charge high monthly fees for more or less the same features.

Surely, there are many more features in Opera 10 such as mouse gestures and widget support (similar to addons for Firefox), but for now, I’ll limit myself to these favorite features of mine.

And if you think you still need a little bit “nudge” to try Opera, please look at the CPU usage comparison between Opera and our favorite Firefox. (Those are dynamic numbers which always change slightly from time to time, but you get the picture, right?)

One more thing, for this Opera browser review I used Opera for Mac, but I assume the features would be the same under different OS. Opera 10 is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, QNX, OS/2 and BeOS.

Do you use Opera? Which features do you like? Share your thoughts and opinion in the comments section below.

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Let’s today shift the focus slightly towards a few external Firefox tools that can be used to optimize Firefox:

SpeedyFox

SpeedyFox is a cool little Firefox tool which lets you optimize Firefox for speed. Firefox stores a lot of information in an sqlite database, which grows over time.

SpeedyFox takes care of any database fragmentation and thus makes Firefox zippier. You might not see a difference if you try SpeedyFox on a fresh Firefox install, it works great after you have been using Firefox for some time. Just close Firefox, run SpeedyFox and point it to the profile you want to optimize.

The optimization may take some time depending upon how much data SpeedyFox has to work with. Also don’t forget to check out The ultimate guide to speeding up Firefox 3.5

Silence of the Foxes

This simple Firefox tool lets you create custom Firefox installers which you can use to deploy Firefox’s preconfigured settings and add-ons. It unpacks the original Firefox setup, lets you add your own extensions, themes, preferences and then repacks to give you a silent installation package.

Although this Firefox tool was designed a long time back for a now obsolete version of Firefox, it worked pretty well for me. Download and fire it up, choose a new project and point the application to Firefox Setup that you downloaded from the web. It will extract the files, detect your Firefox profiles and show you the files that it will add to the silent installation package.

By default it adds your preferences and bookmarks, if you want to add themes and extensions you will have to download the .jar and .xpi files and add them to the files to be added to the installer. Once everything is done, it will create a file sfirefox.exe which is your new silent installation customized package. You might want to go through the readme file for some advanced tinkering.

FirePasswordViewer

Firefox can remember the login details for your favorite websites. All these details are encrypted and then stored in Firefox’s profile database. FirePasswordViewer lets you view these details for any Firefox profile you point it to. You can use it to get back passwords you might have forgotten and some other purposes (use your imagination here).

The Firefox tool will not work if you have enabled and set the Master Password. So it might be a good idea to set your Firefox Master password to protect yourself from such hacks. It can be set via the Security tab inside Tools > Options in Firefox.

FireMaster

Just when you thought setting the master password protected all the sensitive sign-on information, we present FireMaster. FireMaster can be used to recover the master password in case you forget it. However, like always, there are inherent limitations as with any password recovery tool – FireMaster uses a combination of dictionary and brute force attacks so it would take a very long time to recover any moderately strong password. All the more reason to use strong passwords. Refer FireMaster page for usage tips.

Do you know of some other tools you can use with Firefox for similar purposes? You can tell us all about them in the comments.

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• store notes and web pages from my research stage for offline view.
• quickly create a to-do list and alarms out of assignments and tasks, and be able to be synchronized to iCal (then to my mobile) so I’ll always get reminders wherever I am.
• access my email easily.
• track and record my writing assignments and submissions.
• post to blogs and also serve as a word processor – both in WYSIWYG and HTML view.
• show the word count for each of my submissions.

The most important thing is the whole features should come free and in one package (as I’m a bit tired switching back and forth between applications).

Then I remembered about Firefox – the browser that can be transformed into almost anything that we want it to be, and wondered whether I can expand it to be THE writing tool I’m looking for.

The Hunt for the Add-ons

Everybody knows that one of the greatest things about Firefox is the wide range of add-ons available. What I did was search for the right writing addons for Firefox with the right features. I found too many options so I have to be super selective.

And the winners are:

1. Scrapbook –> This is the first writing addon for Firefox on my list. Scrapbook is like a storage house for all of your research materials. You can easily send any web page to be archived inside Scrapbook, either by dragging and dropping it into the Scrapbook sidebar (Option + K)

   

   or by right clicking on the page and choose “Capture Page”.

   

   Add folders, sub-folders, notes, and organize them to your heart’s content by dragging and dropping. I could go on forever as I really love this tool, but there are still a lot to cover so I’ll just link you to our previous coverage on this nifty tool.

2. Scribefire –> Since most of my writing assignments are in the virtual world and need me to be familiar with HTML, I think I’ll just use this powerful blogging add-on to also serve as a WYSIWYG word processor. Scribefire allows its users to easily switch between rich-text and source editing.

   

   To get a clearer picture on what this baby can do, check out the comparison between Scribefire and Deepest Sender.

3. Extended Copy Menu and QuoteURLText –> Sometimes you run into texts that need to be handled with more than just standard “Copy” feature.

   

   These two add-ons provide Firefox users with the ability to go beyond that. Extended Copy Menu enables users to copy the selected text as plain text or HTML, while QuoteURLText will include Page Title, Location and copy date to the copied texts to be used as perfect quotes.

4. Word Count Plus –> Another common thing about writing assignments besides time limits – a.k.a deadly deadlines – is dimension limit or more popularly known as word count. If you have to count your writing word by word, believe me, whatever reward you’ll get won’t be worth the hassle . Imagine J.K Rowling counting the words in her books.  Scribefire is a writing addon for Firefox that has its own word count tool (right click –> View –> Word Count), but for other content – like website text – there’s Word Count Plus.

   

   To use it, just right click on the selected text and choose count words.

5. PageZipper –> How many times have you encountered an article that spans to several pages? Some are so long that it can be turned into a book. Clicking “Next Page” once or twice is still bearable, but if the number goes into more than ten and you have to do it on so many articles, you’d better use PageZipper.

   

   This add-on will combine all the next pages into one and saves you the click. (please note that not all webpages are compatible with this tool) But the usage goes beyond that: if you’ve archived the combined pages using Scrapbook and done a light editing with Scrapbook’s tool – like Highlighter, Annotation and DOM Eraser – you’ll have a tidy document ready to be printed.  See here for T.J’s in-depth look at PageZipper.

6. Toodledo –> This is the add-on version of the online service with the same name. I chose this one among tons of to-do list tools because this one can easily synchronize with iCal and GCal. It means that there’s no way that I can escape from all of my writing assignments.

   

   Another reason is that adding a new task to Toodledo from Firefox is a snap, just hit Command + Option + A (Mac) or Control + Option + A (Windows/Linux) (or use the “Tools –> Toodledo –> Add task” menu). If you are curious, you can read more about Toodledo.

7. Evernote –> If there was no 40 MB limitation on the online storage, this extraordinary service would be my choice of the ultimate writing tool. I filled up Evernote’s limit in less than a week, while my Scrapbook size has already passed 100 MB size and still growing. But that doesn’t mean that I would waste all of the great features. Evernote is a great tool to add, edit and share notes (text, voice, pictures) from any devices that you have from wherever you are.

   

   My sudden muses will never go down the toilet again, I just make quick notes with Evernote, and then manage them all at home – make copies to Scrapbook and delete the originals from Evernote.

All in all, these writing addons for Firefox are the nearest thing to a perfect writing suite for me. But each person has his/her own preferences, so my choices could be different from yours.

Share your favorite writing-related add-ons using the comments below. If you know of another tool that could replace these combinations, you are welcome to share.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Doing my research for this post (yes, it’s almost like real journalism here at MakeUseOf), I was surprised to read the first version (1.0) was released only five years ago, in November of 2004. Even with the recent extra competition brought on by Chrome from Google, Internet Explorer and Opera, it kept gaining popularity. Mozilla Firefox now has a market share of about 22%.

Alright, enough with the history lesson. Many people like to take Firefox with them on a USB drive to college or work so that they can use their personalized settings and plugins. A lot of these places still use Internet Explorer 6 or something like that, so using a portable version of Firefox seems like the smart thing to do. Installing is easy when you use the portable version PortableApps, but updating Firefox portable is not so easy. If you don’t have a portable version of Firefox installed yet, read this article on how to turn your USB drive into a fully functional PC or just go to www.portableapps.com to install it. But if you want to update a portable Firefox app, you can’t just click the auto-updater button that pops-up when there’s a new version. You have to install a normal version of Firefox, with some special settings. Here’s how.

Download the regular setup file

You can download the regular setup file from Mozilla. The latest version at the time of writing is 3.5.2. So if you have a previous one, it’s wise to update because Mozilla keeps plugging security holes all the time.

Start the installation

Double-click the file you have just downloaded. Click ‘Next’ in the first window. Now pay attention as it goes a little differently than usual. In the second screen, select “Custom” and deselect the check-box next to “Use Firefox as my default web browser”.

Click ‘Next’ to continue.

In this screen, click “Browse” to search for the folder where your portable Firefox is installed on your USB drive. Select the “DefaultData\Firefox” folder so the location ends with “\FirefoxPortable\DefaultData\Firefox”. This way, you overwrite the files from the current installation but keep all your settings and plugins. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Next’.

In the next screen, deselect the options to create icons since you already have icons from the previous installation. After this, you can click ‘Next’ to check the summary and press “Install” to do just that.

There you have it, your portable Firefox is updated, all secure and future-proof. Until the next update anyway. Click “Finish” with the checkmark in place to check out the newest version of the open-source browser. You can take Firefox with you to your school or office. It’s also a great way to try out the newest alpha versions without endangering your stable version. You can find the latest test versions here, but as Mozilla themselves claim it “might delete all your files and cause your computer to burst into flames”.

If you’re new to the portable apps, I recommend looking around at their site Portableapps.com. There is a suite of the most used software that you can start with. Some apps to check out are OpenOffice.org Portable, Pidgin Portable and FileZilla Portable. Here are some more portable app suggestions.

Do you use portable apps? How do you update them to the latest versions? Share your technique in the comments.

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Today, not only can browsers go to websites and view information but they can also interact with the websites they visit and that can end up leading to trouble if you’re not careful of what you download, specifically with installing Active X controls.

A brief history of ActiveX before we start. ActiveX is a software and coding framework made by Microsoft in 1996 and now competes with Sun Microsystem’s Java platform. ActiveX controls are almost like “mini” pieces of software that can be used not just in Internet Explorer, but also in other pieces of software such as the Offfice product suite and Windows Media Player. When the controls are in your browser, they are usually used for visual plugins, such as specialized 3rd party media players, remote control applications, online virus scanners and other things of that nature.

You might visit a website occasionally which will prompt you to download/install ActiveX in your computer, and say “yes” to the couple of security confirmation prompts that come up not knowing what you’re really accepting, but this is exactly where the danger lies. Most people only care to get to the content they’re visiting, so they will keep clicking “yes” and “accept” as many times as it takes to see the final page, and that is where the danger lies for you to be opened up to viruses, trojan horses, spyware and even phishing attempts.

ActiveX controls can be dangerous because, once you finish installing Active X controls, they have most of the functions a regular Windows program running on your desktop has, which is a significant security problem if the control was from a malware infested site or was downloaded by mistake. That’s why if you have a prompt for a questionable or suspicious ActiveX control from your browser, the worst thing that can happen will simply be that you won’t be able to see the site or page you’re trying to visit.

If you think you’ve installed a risky ActiveX control, it is easy to remove. If you’re using Firefox, click on Tools, click Add-Ons, then click on the Plugins tab and disable the control that you’re trying to remove by clicking disable.

In Internet Explorer, click on Tools then on Manage Add-Ons and make sure that the “Toolbars and Extensions” type is selected on the left menu. Click on the control you’d like to remove and then click disable by its information in the lower right corner.

Finally, a word about how to stay safe. Some online toolbars (such as the Google Toolbar) and many browsers (including Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox) can help by warning you that a site you are trying to visit is known for downloading malicious code to its visitors browsers so if you do get such a warning from a browser, be sure to pay attention to it. Most browsers usually show a red screen before loading the page to make sure you get the message!

Do you have tips on how you stay safe while browsing? Share them with us in the comments below!

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You connect directly to the proxy server and it connects you to the rest of the Internet, using its IP address. Simple, effective, but more and more hard to come by.

As groups continue to try to regulate your Internet usage, proxy servers are being shut down. This has the effect of pushing people back into the main lanes of the highway called the Internet. It’s so much easier to track your sheep if they are all in the same field.

Let’s see what we can find for free proxy lists of proxy servers you can use.

Public Proxy Servers

Around since 2002, PublicProxyServers is an independent, free service to allow you to find proxy servers for privacy and to circumvent browsing controls.

I think what makes this an excellent service is that they track the performance of each server on their free proxy list.

Poor performance, or slow download/upload speeds has been the biggest traditional complaint about using proxy servers. With Public Proxy Servers, this problem can be minimized.

On average, the proxies listed have response times of less than a second. Not good enough for you? Sort the list by access time! Want to appear that you’re coming from another country? Sort the list by country! You can sort the list by any of 7 criteria.

Probably my only complaint about this site is that they have plain text advertising that looks a lot like their regular content. Not much to complain about, I know.

Stay Invisible

Stay Invisible has more than just a free proxy list. It provides some tools to help you determine if your IP address is being effectively blocked.

According to Stay Invisible, there is a fault in Java that allows for your real IP address to be revealed, even if you are using a proxy. They also provide solutions for that problem.

You can find a traditional list of proxies here, with more information about each server, such as:

• Originating Country
• Anonymity Level
• Form Submitting
• URL Encoding
• Referrer Hiding
• Cookie Blocking
• Script Blocking
• SSL Access

These details may not seem that important to you, but it would be good for you to learn a bit more about each and what they could mean to you.

What I like best about Stay Invisible is that they have a list of other proxy lists! You can order that list by how many lists each list has added today, or in the last 7 days. This will help you find the freshest lists with more working proxies.

Centurian

Centurian is another site that offers much more than a free proxy list. With an appealing design and easy to use layout, this is a learning resource as well.

Centurian provides articles on different proxy-related subjects, scripts related to proxy usage, and a forum.

The list can be sorted by the criteria of how new it is on the list, country, or script used to provide the proxy server. The speed of the proxy servers is shown graphically with a bar, that represents its score out of 10 for speed.

Now, I don’t know how that score is calculated or exactly what it means in terms of performance, however it is a nice, simple way to see if a particular proxy is useful.

Anonymity Checker

Yet another site that lists proxy servers, but has a little twist that I think could be quite useful. Their list of servers comes with a ‘whois’ link for each server. This should help you to determine just who is running the proxy server.

Is it a university, business, or government?  Consider what each might have to gain for giving you ‘anonymity’. Nothing is free.

Things to Keep In Mind

Please keep in mind that just because you are using a proxy, does not mean you are guaranteed to be anonymous. Some proxy servers will track IP addresses that use them. Some offer no additional protection beyond being a proxy and your IP address can be accessed anyway.

Another thing to consider is this – how safe is a service that is being provided in order to ‘break the rules’? What if the server is being set up for a honey pot attack? That something is too sweet and easy to pass up, but then it becomes a trap.

So, my advice to you is to use these proxies with caution. Do some research and only use a proxy server when absolutely necessary.

Image Credit: Anonymous9000

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Heck, I am just kidding; but it’s true for me at least that sometimes the Firefox download pop-up is a bit too in my face. I like all downloads to be behind the scenes and unobtrusive. I wouldn’t like to do away with the Firefox browser for this minor ‘inconvenience’.

Thankfully, the gallery of Mozilla Firefox add-ons lets me do away with just the download window by giving me three options to choose from.

These three add-ons go a long way in improving the download job by replacing the default download window.

Download Statusbar (v 0.9.6.5)

Download Statusbar saves screen real estate by handing the download job to the goodish little status bar. It’s a wonder of coding that the 445KB add-on packs in a lot within its small size. The add-on can be configured as a separate status bar (Full Mode) or kept within the Firefox status bar (Mini mode).

This is just one option within its quiver of configuration settings. Some other features are…

• Progress notifications give detailed information about downloads. Notifications can be switched on and off. Tooltip notifications add to instant feedback.



• Retain, remove or trim download history.
• Automatically continues downloads with the Firefox download manager, even if the main browser is closed. Pops up a confirmation alert when a download is halted or deleted.
• Pause and resume downloads with a single click (i.e. if downloads are resumable).



• Play a sound when the download finishes.
• Run a finished download with a double click.  Also one can open containing folder, visit source website, and rename the file.
• Appearance of the download status bar can be customized. For instance, Speed Colors allow you to visually appreciate how each download is progressing.



• Virus scanning using default anti-virus can be configured to automatic or manual. File type filters for scans can be set.



• The add-on auto hides when not in use.
• It is also available in 25 languages.

Download Statusbar is a recommended Firefox add-on. Alternatively, check it out at the Mozdev community site.

Custom Download Manager (v 2.1b90630)

The custom part of this add-on is that the user can choose to open the download in a separate tab, sidebar or a fresh window. Though it’s not feature rich as Download Statusbar it introduces some control over the process. User friendly customization features include…

• Decide the buttons, the look and their location with a few checkbox settings. Two important buttons which you can set are – Copy Download Link and Go to Download Page.
• Decide on the behavior of the download manager window. For instance, close the download manager when done.
• Set an alert for an exe file operation.
• Enable/Disable virus scan for a completed file.

Custom Download Manager is compatible with Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

Downloads in Tab (v 0.0.9)

If you like your download control to be sans any frills, then this add-on fits the need. Downloads in Tab moves the job from the pop-up windows to a regular tab. It’s actually just a tab version of the pop-up. The features are also limited to the regular tab controls…

• Opens a tab automatically with a download and closes it when downloads are finished.
• You can move the download tab to the background by choosing the only from menu setting in the Options panel of the add-on.
• The download tab can be set to become the first tab of the browser window.

Downloads in Tab is an 18KB recommended download from Mozilla.

Karl has also taken us through 11 add-ons he can’t live without. You might want to check out his post for a brief mention of Download Statusbar and the nifty download manager/accelerator called Download Them All.

The three add-ons profiled here cover the gamut of download operations. From the bells and whistles of Download Statusbar to the plainness of Downloads in Tab. And somewhere in between we have the Custom Download Manager. We all have our requirements and thankfully a whole gallery of options to pick for them. Which is your pick of the heap?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Being the native Mac OS X browser, Safari – which should have been a no brainer choice for Mac users – faces a fierce challenge from Firefox – the browser that can be anything you need it to be. Add-ons are Firefox’s ultimate weapon.

But Firefox is not the only browser that can add functionalities using add-ons. The Safari browser also has plugins to expand its ability. While there are far less Safari browser plugins than there are for Firefox, not everybody needs everything.

So for anybody who are still deciding which one of the two should be the main browser, maybe these list of Safari browser plugins can help you choose sides.

Multifunctional

1. Glims is on top of my list of all other Safari plugins. It has expanded the search box functionality of Safari plus some other bonuses such as: re-opening closed tabs, automatically re-opening the tabs from the last session and full-screen browsing.  It’s been discussed here.

2. SafariStand also adds a few helpful features to Safari such as: Stand Bar (for quick access to bookmarks), history, Stand Search with Spotlight support, an Action Menu, option to restore last workspace, a site alterations preference window with the option to put custom CSS layouts on specific sites, and syntax coloring in viewed source. Go to more detailed explanation here.

Please note that you need to install SIMBL 0.8.2 or later before you can use SafariStand.

Searchbar

3. Inquisitor beautifully extends the functionality of the search bar. It auto-completes your search term, gives you search recommendations and lets you quickly see the results for your specified terms on another sites. If you need to have the powerful searchbar only without additional extra functions choose this one over Glims. Inquisitor also supports IE and Firefox. More about it here.

Multimedia

4. CoolIris (Preview and PictLens) will transform Safari into a picture and movie viewer – in style. ‘Nuff said.

We’ve covered CoolIris before, and it’s nice to know that this product is also working fine under Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux; and for other browsers like Firefox, IE 7 and IE 8, and Flock 2. Safari under Windows is not supported though.

Blockages

5. Safari AdBlock and SafariBlock are the ultimate tools to block ads and provide cleaner browsing. Most web publishers would hate these two as parts of the publishers’ revenue come from advertising. But for users, blocking ads means less clutter and more browsing speed.

6. Click-to-flash – will prevent any flash content from automatically loading and will replace it with an empty grey box. Just click on the box to load the content. Anyone with a slow internet connection will find this webkit plugin indispensable.

Social Media

7. Safari140 is the tool to tweet. This plugin will allow you to send direct tweets from Safari, auto filled with the current site while the long URL’s are shortened.

8. DeliciousSafari is self explanatory. This is the tool to create and use del.icio.us bookmark from Safari.

Tools

9. Greasekit is the comparable Firefox’s Greasemonkey in Safari. It gives users the scripting ability to change looks and add new functionality to their favorite sites. Greasekit is compatible with most Greasemonkey scripts.

Just like SafariStand, Greasekit need SIMBL.

10. Firebug lite is the answered prayer for users who want to have Firebug ability – once Firefox exclusive – in other browsers. There are two ways to activate Firebug under non-Firefox browsers: insert the code in the site, or use the bookmarklet.

This one is not exactly a plugin but it is the solution for those who said that the only reason he/she stays with Firefox is Firebug.

More

11. Pimp My Safari – is the place to go to find more Safari add-ons in the form of plugins or bookmarklets. Please note that not all of the plugins are free.

This list is far from complete, but I think it’s a good start. So if you know (and use) other good Safari plugins, please share them using the comments below.

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Alternative web browsers are aplenty and have a low barrier of entry even for less technically savvy computer users, but people are generally not keen to change their habits or spending time researching, downloading and installing another application – especially when the one that comes preloaded appears to be working just fine.

1. Firefox is not perfect software, but its vulnerabilities are fixed in a considerably shorter amount of time. Many new users are curious – is Mozilla Firefox safe? Updates are released immediately, not on a monthly schedule, and clock in at fewer than 10 MB. Users are notified automatically and prompted to install the update with a single click. The update process doesn’t take more than a minute on a modern computer.

2. Since Firefox is open source, anyone can look at the source code, anyone can spot a problem and contribute a fix. Would you leave your car keys with a guy that says “trust me” or at a car lot with video surveillance and a logbook?

3. ActiveX applets, the way IE extends the functionality of the browser, are a known highway for malware and viruses. Firefox works with verified and signed add-ons. Even if you choose to install a malicious add-on – and the browser warns you – the damage is limited to the information in the browser whereas ActiveX exploits could be used to take over the whole computer.

4. Conscious users can install NoScript, an add-on that takes care of vulnerabilities that are not yet patched, either in Firefox or other plug-ins such as Java, JavaScript and Adobe’s Flash. It achieves this goal by allowing the user to selectively enable interactive objects that the user decides to trust, automatically blocking the rest.

5.  Security through obscurity; malicious programmers will always target the browser with the largest user base, especially if that user base is less tech savvy.

6.  Firefox uses a service provided by Google that notifies the user before entering a potentially malicious web site. These websites ask for your financial data under false pretenses or contain malicious software often posing as something useful such as codecs or registry fixes.

We check the radiator on the car when the temperature indicator turns red; by the time the computer starts acting up or not starting at all, and by all chances appearing to work just fine, your documents, passwords and financial data might already siphoned half a world away. Most people don’t realize this, there are no clear warnings, but using Internet Explorer is in itself a security threat.

I substantiate that statement by citing the Google Analytics on my blog – there are still people using old, un-patched and therefore vulnerable versions of Internet Explorer. The reasons behind this range from the hassle of dealing with Windows Update, millions of machines without a valid license which cannot access updates and users not realizing the importance of having up to date software.

This is not news, yet there are people unaware of the danger posed. Washington Post’s Brian Krebs reports on the Security Fix blog “Internet Explorer Unsafe for 284 Days in 2006”. Even a fully patched and up-to-date version of IE 6 contains at least 22 discovered vulnerabilities; IE 7 stands at 9 and IE 8 at 2. By comparison, the latest version of Firefox (3.5.1), a free and open source browser, has zero un-patched vulnerabilities; the previous version (3.0.x) also stands at zero.

As always, you’re welcome to leave a comment below. Is Mozilla Firefox much more safe compared to IE? You might also want to check out some MakeUseOf posts on security, Firefox or browsers in general.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• How Installing an Active X Control Can Open The Door To Hackers (7)
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Backup your bookmarks – and bookmarklets – and use these recommended bookmarklets across all platforms. All bookmarklets were tested on Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4.

Here’s our list of 20 must-have bookmarklets for your browser – feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

To add a recommended bookmarklet to your browser, click on the bookmarklet and drag and drop to your bookmarks toolbar. Want to save space? Organize your bookmarklets into a folder in your bookmarks toolbar.

1. Share on Tumblr – A custom bookmarklet to clip pictures and quotes to a Tumblr tumblelog.
2. MapThis – Highlight addresses and click on the bookmarklet to generate a Google map of the address.
3. Bookmaplet – Similar to MapThis, highlight an address in your browser and click on the bookmarklet. It will automatically open a Google Map with the address.
4. Share on Facebook – Quickly share websites, links and videos on Facebook.
5. Spell Check – Activate Firefox’s built-in spell checker in any static website. Great for proofreading websites before they are published or double checking someone else’s work.
6. twitthat! – Share websites, links and videos to your Twitter account.
7. bit.ly – Shorten links and get great statistics on how many clicks they get with this handy URL shortener. (bit.ly is also the default URL shortener of Twitter.)
8. Boxqueue – Add videos to your Boxee Queue for viewing later. You must have a Google account and Boxee account to make this bookmarklet work. Visit the My Feeds section in Boxee to watch your saved videos.
9. Twitter Reactions – Read reactions on Twitter about the page you are currently viewing with this bookmarklet.
10. Darken – Invert the colors on webpages with a simple click. Some people prefer dark backgrounds and light text, so this bookmarklet’s for you.
11. BugMeNot – Stop registering for websites and use BugMeNot’s database of usernames and passwords to sign in to “registered users only” websites, like news sites.
12. GmailThis! – Automatically share links via your Gmail account without having to copy/paste the link.
13. getASIN – Make Amazon Affiliate links quickly. Just replace usernamehere with your affiliate ID.
14. WordPress Comments – Fill in the comment form on WordPress powered sites. Change values to your name, email address and blog URL.
15. Clip to Evernote – Save clips of websites to the popular notebook software Evernote.
16. DiggThis! – Quickly add new sites to Digg.
17. Remove Bloat – Remove bloat from websites such as music, background images and more.
18. Subscribe in Google Reader – Subscribe to RSS feeds in Google Reader, skipping the “Google Reader or iGoogle” selection page.
19. Google Bookmark – Bookmark websites to your Google Bookmarks account.
20. Readability – Click on this bookmarklet to clean up websites and make them more readable.

Some other great resources for recommended bookmarklets (other than nagging the tech guy at your job) include: Bookmarklets.com, marklets.com, and Jesse’s Bookmarklets Site.

Which bookmarklets do you use?

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• Welcome to My Firefox: Extensions, Themes, Setup (14)
• View A Multi-Page Article On One Single Page With PageZipper (14)
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Today I discovered Fire.FM which puts a Last.FM toolbar in your Firefox browser. Normally I shun most toolbars in an attempt to keep my Firefox browser running smoothly but after installing Fire.FM, I just know that I will be holding onto this one for quite a while!

With Fire.FM, you can play Last.FM music directly from your Firefox browser without having to visit the site.  You can also get access to your Last.FM radio stations as well as finding similar artists.

The only snag is that listeners to Last.FM outside of the United States, Great Britain and Germany will be asked to subscribe for €3.00 per month ($4), after a 30 track free trial period.  But anyone in the United States, Great Britain and Germany will not face such limitations.

Let’s take a look at each feature in more detail.

After logging into your Last.FM account via the toolbar, you can access your stations by going to the drop down menu.

You can create a station via the toolbar and it will ask you what name you want to give it. Afterwards it will load automatically and start playing :

Whether you create a new station or load an existing one, the music will begin loading and start playing within seconds. You will also receive a pop up window at the bottom of your browser telling you what song is coming :

The toolbar also gives you access to your “Top Artists” and “Similar Artists” so you can discover similar new music :

And to round off the Last.FM features, you can tag, like and dislike the track that’s playing.

This seems to be a well-made Firefox extension which doesn’t slow down Firefox. I have had it running for hours and so far Firefox hasn’t slowed down at all.  It is great if you are browsing / working online and you would like to have some music playing in the background.   An extension like this brings your music to you at the click of a button and of course every song you listen to and every change you make is more or less immediately reflected in your Last.FM account.

With Fire.FM, there is practically no reason to visit the Last.FM webpage, except perhaps to approve friend requests, visit groups or view events which you can’t do with the toolbar.   But if your only use of Last.FM is to listen to music, get the toolbar.

What do you think of Fire.FM?   An essential extension or a piece of bloatware?  Let us know in the comments.

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If you take stock of your own friends list you will surely find that at least half of them have come through the lost and found power of social networks. And if you take stock again, you will find that our online habitat is mostly a few of these social networking sites and of course, the omnipresent browser.

What I would do without the browser and those little byte sized Firefox add-ons which make it a whole lot richer. Using Firefox outfitted with the right “find friends” add-ons, I can home in any of the social networking sites and hobnob with fellow groupies.

So let’s head over to the Mozilla Add-ons gallery and see what’s in store for us who like to schmooze over bandwidths.

Firefox Super Search

It’s like a master list…a who’s who of search engines. The add-on installs as a toolbar. There are 160 of them with almost 70 that can be used from the toolbar itself. The layout is categorized into different types of searches. So after using it a few times one shouldn’t have a problem dropping down to the right search engine.

Though not specifically for ‘searching friends’, there are a lots of them which help you hunt for them over the net. There are basically two ways to search – blue icons mark the ones you can use directly from the toolbar; green icons are the directory lists for which the shortcut is given in the add-on.

The list of searches is long and varied – reverse lookups, social search, people search, public records search et al. apart from generic web searches.

BuddyFetch

Buddyfetch is an experimental “find friends” Firefox add-on that searches across many social networks IMs and dating sites. It gets added as an additional search engine in the search engine bar. You can search for buddies based on common interests, gender, age, language or location. Use the filters and single or combination keywords to find people after your own heart.

LinkedIn

This one is for the serious guy, not for the tween, the teen or the tweet. LinkedIn is the world’s most popular social network for the professional. If you are one among the 45 million members from a cross-section of 150 industries then you are sure to find a likeminded friend or contact here. The Firefox search add-on makes the job a tad easier by adding a search engine to the Firefox search bar. Not very impressive but its simple functionality lets you search from the bar.

You can also keep an eye open for the updated version of the LinkedIn Companion for Firefox which doesn’t seem to be working for Firefox 3.5x yet.

Facebook Toolbar

The Facebook toolbar brings the social networking site and your circle of friends to your browser. The toolbar lets you do your thing like search and connect with friends, receive notifications and share content. You can set your status via the toolbar and get the same of your friends. Upload photos and quick link to all areas of Facebook. If you spend most of your time poking and defacing your friends walls then this one is for you.

Friendbar

This add-on is less about finding a friend but more about keeping them. Though the add-on installs at a slightly hefty 1MB, it offers real time benefits for the Facebook and Twitter buffs. The interface almost resembles a media player with streaming real time updates (photo and text) of activities in the two social sites.

To complete the effect there’s a play-pause button too. You can post, tweet and reply from the toolbar. Instant TinyURLs makes sending interesting links easy as a tweet. The settings panel lets you configure the Twitter update frequency and other sundries like the look and the scrolling style.

FireStatus

This very unobtrusive experimental add-on lets you send status updates, notes and URL links synchronously to multiple social networks and services, like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Delicious and identi.ca. It also displays updates from them in notification pop-ups, for real-time communication with friends. It installs near the status bar and a right click on the icon opens up all its features.

PeekYou Status Bar

Yes, this one is almost the web equivalent from the peek-a-boo game we have all played as kids. This is a search engine enhancement as it shows the people behind the search results. That is the guy who is associated with the site.

According to the developers it works with most of the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Live.com, Ask.com, and Clutsy.com. The add-on installs as a status bar and updates the info with each site that’s loaded on that page.  Clicking on the small profile pics next to the search results or the bar takes it to another detailed info page.

It looks like a work in progress as numerous well known blogging names were not displayed. You can also check out profile listings from the homepage of PeekYou where you can search by name, location and tag.

Identify

This add-on also does a similar ‘unmasking’ job as the last one. Identify though goes one step ahead and collates together available profile info on the man behind a website or blog from many different sources and lists the other social sites where he can be found. All it takes are two keystrokes once a page loads – On Windows it’s Alt – i. Of course, expect hits and misses so do double check the info always.

Kutano

If friendships are forged around common interests then a browser add-on like Kutano is a big help. Kutano basically connects the webpage you are browsing to the comments it’s generating in Twitter-space. This add-on won’t get your old friends but will certainly help make a few new ones. Kutano opens up on a sidebar and lists all tweets and discussions on related to that site/page…whether it’s good or bad. Kutano lets you respond and start discussions yourself. You can share the discussions in Facebook and MySpace with a click.

Yoono

I won’t say too much about Yoono as Wez has shown in detail how to Stay Socially Connected Online With Yoono . Suffice to say that this add-on acts like a central command center for social connectedness. Connect with your buddies on social networks and on IMs like Google Talk Yahoo, MSN or AIM. After log-in you can start searching for friends who are on Yoono by using an address book of Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or AOL, or simply by their Yoono username.

These ten Firefox add-ons are not only about searching for friends old and new using the power of social networking. They are also add-ons which make social networking more seamless by bringing together the different services under a common umbrella. They also underscore the one universal fact – it’s easier to make friends than it is to keep them. Let’s hope these add-ons add to the heart that beats for a friend.

Has your social connectedness hinged around any of these add-ons?

Image Credit: Striatic

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While Mozilla’s “open to user manipulation” nature generally is a benefit, it can also cause a lot of issues. As a result, Mozilla’s flagship browser may be buggy, i.e. slow launch, slow page loading, unstable, crash often. However, most of these bugs are man made and chances are you can easily fix them yourself.

Let the following tips be your complete Mozilla Firefox troubleshooting guide. Some very common issues are listed between step 3 and 4.

First, I assume your Cache is cleared! This can be done under > Tools > Options > Advanced tab > Network tab > Offline Storage header > Clear Now button. Eventually grant more Cache space. Finally reboot Firefox and proceed.

Before analyzing your issue(s) in detail, make sure you’re running the latest version of Firefox and its add-ons, such as extensions, themes and plugins. Per default, Firefox regularly checks for updates. Plugins, however, can not be updated automatically!

1. Firefox

Update Firefox: > Help > Check for Updates…

Download and install browser updates if necessary.

If your problem persists, check extensions and themes (step 2).

2. Extensions and Themes

Open Add-ons: > Tools > Add-ons -OR- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [A]

Update extensions: Within the Add-ons window / sidebar: > click on the extensions icon, then go to the menu above and click > Tools > Check for Updates. Wait until checkup completes and proceed with installing updates.

Update themes: Within the Add-ons window / sidebar: > click on the themes icon, then go to the menu above and click > Tools > Check for Updates. Wait until checkup completes and proceed with installing updates.

Restart Firefox after updating extensions and/or themes. If your problem persists, check plugins (step 3).

If you think there is a compatibility issue with a specific extension or theme, you may find clues on the Mozilla Knowledge Base, the comments for that extension/theme on the Mozilla Add-ons site or the creator’s website/FAQ.

3. Plugins

Firefox does not automatically update plugins! Plugins allow viewing of various content types, e.g. PDF, Flash or DivX. In some cases, plugins are installed manually and also require a manual update. Usually, Firefox automatically recognizes third party software installed on your computer and integrates required plugins from there. Issues may occur in Firefox, if you have not updated plugins or software that provides necessary plugins, e.g. RealPlayer or QuickTime.

Open Add-ons: > Tools > Add-ons -OR- [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [A]

Update plugins: Open the Mozilla plugins website. Under > Documentation select your > operating system, then switch to > A – Z listing. Within the Add-ons window / sidebar click on the > plugins icon and compare the plugins you have with the versions listed on the website. Update plugins or respective software as needed. Make sure you disable second and third instances of the same plugin.

Reboot your computer after updating plugins or respective software! If your problem with Firefox persists, proceed to step 4.

If you think that you’re having an issue with a specific plugin, check the Mozilla Knowledge Base for specific information. They also provide tutorials for installing plugins.

Intermezzo: Common Issues

After making sure everything is up to date (if possible), let’s look at some common issues before proceeding with general steps. I will point you directly to the respective articles on the mozillaZine or Knowledge Base.

I. Firefox will not start up – profile locked or operating-specific issues

II. Firefox crashes – find and search for your crash signature

III. Firefox is running but not responding – profile is locked

More specific issues can be found on the mozillaZine Issues with Firefox page. For general advice on how to troubleshoot issues with Mozilla Firefox, please proceed.

4. Safe Mode

This step is suitable for localizing any issue you’re having with Firefox. It tells you whether the problem is in your personal customization (extensions, settings, plugins) or whether it’s a general issue with the browser, independent of your personal user profile (corrupted installation, compatibility issue with other software etc.).

Run Firefox in Safe Mode:

• Exit Firefox, make sure it’s not running.On Windows, open the > Task Manager (right-click on > taskbar and select > Task Manager from menu), switch to the > Processes tab, click on > Name to sort entries alphabetically and try to locate > firefox.exe. If you still find it, right-click on the > firefox.exe entry and select > End Process from the menu.
• Now run Firefox in Safe Mode.On Windows, open > Start > (All) Programs > Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode)

• Do not select any of the options for Safe mode. You don’t want to make permanent changes, yet. Simply click > Continue in Safe Mode.

Saikat has recently written a post about How to Use Mozilla Firefox in Safe Mode, which provides more details and also explains how to launch it under Linux and Mac OS X.

If Safe Mode solved your problem, I recommend to proceed to step 5 and then either reset one customization after the other (i.e. add-ons, toolbars and controls, bookmarks, preferences, search engines) until Firefox runs smoothly without Safe Mode or directly proceed to step 6.

If Safe Mode did not help, proceed to step 5, followed by step 7.

5. Backup

Before you make any permanent changes, you should seriously consider backing up any valuable information, such as passwords, bookmarks and custom settings. Here are several different strategies that will help you back up just what you want. I recommend to make separate backups for bookmarks, passwords and extensions, rather than entire profile backups. Chances are you’ll also import the issue, if you import your entire old profile into a new fresh Firefox profile or installation.

For all manual backup strategies you’ll need to find your Firefox Profile. Check this mozillaZine page for a list of operating systems and where to find the profile folder. In Windows XP it should be located under C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profile name

Backup Bookmarks: This can be done manually. Go to > Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Backup and select a target. Instead of clicking > Backup you can also click > Export HTML… Later you can import your bookmarks via the same strategy.

Backup Passwords: If Firefox is still rather stable and doesn’t crash, you can save your passwords using the Password Exporter extension. Otherwise, there is a manual way to do it. Navigate to your Firefox profiles folder and copy the following files: “signons.txt“, “signons2.txt” and “key3.db“. To restore, simply replace new instances of these files with your backup copies and voilà, your saved passwords are back.

Backup Extensions: With a stable version of Firefox, you can try to use the FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) extension. Otherwise I recommend to backup the entire profile.

Backup entire Profile: Again, if Firefox is stable enough to install an extension, you can try several different backup or sync tools. We have previously covered Weave. Otherwise I recommend MozBackup, a standalone utility that will backup your Firefox profile. If you don’t trust tools, you can again make a manual backup. Simply copy your entire profile folder.

Mark has also written a post about how to backup Firefox preferences.

6. New Profile

Creating a new profile will give you a quick way out of your issue in case Safe Mode fixed your problem. With a new profile you’ll start from scratch – no custom settings, no extensions, no plugins.

• Exit Firefox, make sure it’s not running.On Windows, open the > Task Manager (right-click on > taskbar and select > Task Manager from menu), switch to the > Processes tab, click on > Name to sort entries alphabetically and try to locate > firefox.exe. If you still find it, right-click on the > firefox.exe entry and select > End Process from the menu.
• Run a command prompt and load > firefox.exe -profilemanager
  In Windows go to > Start > Run and type > firefox.exe -profilmanager into the command line.

• In the window that will pop up select > Create Profile… and do so.
• Then select > your new profile and click > Start Firefox.

If this fixed your problem you can begin to import your essential backups, as described in step 5. But be wary of importing your issue and try to import as little as possible. In other words: ditch some of those excessive extensions and plugins!

If creating a new profile didn’t help, although Safe Mode helped, you can either return to step 4 and do a complete reset from Safe Mode or – if that doesn’t help either – I’m afraid you’re stuck with step 7.

7. Re-Installation

This is the last resort. If resetting or creating a new profile didn’t help, then your issue sits much deeper and you’ll need to completely remove Firefox from your system and do a fresh installation. Here’s how you should go about this process.

• Remove Firefox using the tools your operating system provides.In Windows, go to > Start > Control Panel > Ad or Remove Programs and uninstall > Firefox.
• Now rename, move or delete your Firefox profile folders (see step 5 for locating folders in Windows).
• Reboot your computer.
• Reinstall Firefox.

If this fixed your issue, you can import your backups as described in step 5. As mentioned previously, be careful, you may also re-import your problem!

If none of the above helped you probably have a very serious issue! You need expert help and I suggest you post your issue and what you have tried to resolve it at the mozillaZine Forums. Best of luck!

Additional Information

There are a few more tricks and things you can do to improve the performance of Mozilla Firefox and we have previously covered a few of them. Maybe they will help you in the first place.

Are you on XP? Is Firefox still crashing on you and none of these Mozilla Firefox troubleshooting tips helped? Try running Firefox in compatibility mode. Right-click on your > Firefox icon and select > Properties. Go to the > Compatibility tab and select > Run this program in compatibility mode for: and choose > Windows 2000 from the menu. Click > Apply to confirm.

Faster Browsing! James has written about 5 Speedy Tips for Faster Browsing in Firefox. For example you can automatically load the next page, use keyboard shortcuts or download files faster.

Reduce Load Time! Matt had a story about How To Reduce Firefox 3 Load Time on Windows. It involves 3 geeky steps that are very well described in his post.

Need for Speed? Mahendra recently wrote The Ultimate Guide To Speeding Up Firefox 3.5, a post you should definitely check out if you’re only having minor speed problems.

Clear Bulk Data on Shut Down! This is useful if you’re sharing your computer and you don’t want anyone to see what you’ve been browsing for. At least regularly clearing the Cache is something you should consider. If you want to know how to do that automatically, check out Mark’s post on how to Set Firefox To Clear Temp Files, History etc. On Shut Down.

Which extensions should I use? Good question! Only the ones you really, really need of course. Also you should look into some of the security and privacy extensions we have covered in the past. Check out Varun’s post about 10+ Best Firefox Security and Privacy Addons as well as Dave’s post about Keeping Safe On The Web: 8 Firefox Addons For Privacy And Security (some are redundant of course).

Still having issues? You tried all of the above, you searched the mozillaZine for known issues with Firefox, you posted your situation on the mozillaZine Forums and you’re still stuck with a non-functional browser? Incredible! Well, you may not ever become happy with Firefox. May I suggest switching to another browser, such as Chrome as David reports or Opera, which is recommended by Laurence?

Disclaimer

Unfortunately, we’re not able to provide adequate Firefox support here, especially not across various operating systems. Rather than posting your specific issues in reply to this article, I recommend to post them in the mozillaZine Forums. Dozens of experts will review your situation and try to solve the problem with you.

However, if you would still like to share your issue, we will try our best to point you into the right direction. And if any of the guidelines above helped to solve your problem, we would love to hear your feedback in the comments!

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What makes Firefox so popular? Back in the days it hit a nerve with geeks by letting them create, add and share their own content: extensions and themes. It was the start of Web 2.0 and the fascination soon caught on with the general crowd.

If you’re using Firefox, I hope you can appreciate the freedom it provides. One is that you can express your style with custom Mozilla Firefox skins. Here are 15 of the best. Dig in!

Black Steel

(3.0 – 3.6a1pre)

A dark metal theme with sharp contrasts. It will definitely draw attention.

Silvermel

(1.5 – 3.6a1pre)

Silvermel is silver, shiny and quite unobtrusive. The transparent effect for tabs is awesome.

Daum Blue

(3.0 – 3.5.*)

This Mozilla Firefox skin is not revolutionary, but it has a fresh look with nicely designed tabs. If you keep on reading you’ll see that I’m a little obsessed with pretty tabs.

Anthem

(3.0 – 3.5.*)

Anthem is a very stylish template in dark and light grey. I love the look of the tabs. The icons are exceptional and they’re smaller than with most themes, which saves space and gives more room for browsing. This one is my new personal favorite.

Scribblies Plain

(3.5.*)

A playful theme for your kids or the kid in you. Gotta love the icons in the navigation toolbar. Also the tabs are quite original. Definitely something different!

iFox Graphite

(3.0b5 – 3.5.*)

This is the theme I’ve been using for years. It’s clean and simple and also available in three more flavors: pure, metal and smooth.

Simple Green

(3.5b4 – 3.5.*)

Simple Green reminds me of Netscape. If you still mourn the end of IE’s first serious rival, express your grief with this theme.

Stratini Padded

(3.0 – 3.5.*)

This theme made the list because it has a refreshing set of icons and very lovely shaped tabs and boxes. I’m still a huge fan of rounded edges.

Vista on XP

(3.5.*)

If you’re using a Vista transformation pack on XP, you can’t do without a Vista Firefox theme. So this one’s for you!

NASA Night Launch

(3.0 – 3.5.*)

One of the few dark Mozilla Firefox skins that are actually stylish. NASA Night Launch is very cool. Pretty tabs, well-designed icons and a very clean, dark look.

Utopia FFSE White

(3.0 – 3.5.*)

I love the fox in this theme. But also the buttons and tabs are pretty cool. If the animal is a little too much for you, there is one without it: Utopia White.

yogurttree

(3.0 – 3.6a1pre)

Here’s a very soft and girly skin with lovely pastel colors and roundish icons. Yes, we do have female readers! Girls, where are you?

XboxFox

(3.0b1 – 3.5.*)

Girls play Xbox, too! Maybe that’s why this theme isn’t exactly virile. Or is this just a very modern design?

OldFactory Black

(3.0 – 3.5.*)

Here’s one for the guys. Chrome, stone, levers and rounded edges so that you don’t hurt yourselves. I love the levers. Makes me think of Myst. And get this: they’re actually animated!!! How cool is that?

Chromifox Extreme

(3.1b1 – 3.6a1pre)

Finally, here’s a theme that will give Firefox a Chrome-like look, including tabs on top.

You like none of them? Maybe you should try Personas. Kabir wrote an article on How to Create Custom Themes for Firefox with Personas, which can be your guide in getting to know this Firefox addon.

What else would you like to see in a Firefox theme? Maybe you’re lucky and a talented theme designer will read this. So let it out!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• 4 Cool Firefox Tools That Are Not Addons (44)
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• The Winners of ‘Extend Firefox’ – Best Firefox Addons (14)
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Quit Firefox, run “firefox.exe –profilemanager”, and create a new profile to experiment on. Use the new profile as your default only if your performance improves. Only those changes needed from a default installation are mentioned in this guide.

1. Use an Optimized Build of Firefox

If you’re using Windows, use an optimized build of Firefox 3.5.1 for your processor. Use Swiftfox for Linux.

2. Use Blank Homepage, Default Theme, Minimal Extensions

Set your homepage to about:blank. Use only must-have extensions with the default theme. Use Adblock Plus and Flashblock to block unwanted ads and Flash.

3. Optimize Download Options

In Options->Main, choose a folder for your downloads and save all downloads to it automatically. Close the download window automatically when all downloads are finished. Turn off download history in Options->Privacy, Custom settings for history.

4. Customize Content Type Handling

In Options->Applications, modify the following Content Types:

• Set archive files like .zip, .rar, etc. to Save File. Use your favorite archive program separately to open them.
• Set PDF files to Save File. Use your favorite PDF reader to separately open them.
• Set mailto to use your favorite desktop email client or Gmail/Yahoo webmail account. Sorry, Windows Live/AOL Mail users!
• Change Web Feed from Preview in Firefox to your favorite RSS reader.

In general, open files separately, rather than from within the browser wherever possible.

5. Increase Cache, Reduce History Size

In Options->Advanced->Network, increase Offline Storage (size of the disk cache) to 150 MB.

In Options->Privacy, use Custom settings for history, and reduce length of remembered history to 15 days.

6. Customize General Advanced Options

In Options->Advanced->General->Accessibility:

• Check Search for text when I start typing
• Uncheck Use smooth scrolling
• Turn off spell checker if you ROTFLMAO on forums and don’t aspire to be a writer. Keep it on if you’re looking for a job.
• Uncheck Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup. On Windows, set Firefox as your default browser using Program Access and Defaults.

7. Remove Unused Search Engines

Drop-down In the search box, select Manage Search Engines…, and remove any search engines that you will never use.

8. Clean up bookmarks, avoid Live Bookmarks

If you have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox, you might have dead links, or even duplicate bookmarks. Clean them up using the CheckPlaces Firefox extension, and uninstall after you’re done.

Firefox checks Live Bookmarks every hour for updates. Use a dedicated RSS Reader like Google Reader instead. Delete the preset Latest Headlines Live Bookmark.

9. Performance Enhancing Extensions

If you prefer a nice GUI to tweak advanced settings, use these performance enhancing Firefox extensions. If you are the DIY type, these optimizations (and many more) are covered in the next sections.

• FasterFox 3.8.1 Lite is an (experimental) add-on that lets you choose from four presets (or use a custom profile) to optimize Firefox.
• Tweak Network 1.3 allows you to choose from Default and Power profiles for tweaking network settings in Firefox.

Advanced About:Config Tweaks

The following two sections are advanced Firefox configuration changes that are simple to make. Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar in an empty tab. Click ‘I’ll be careful, I promise!’. You can use Firefox’s Safe Mode and select ‘Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults’ to undo any changes you make. Also, entries you change are displayed in bold, and can be reset using the right-click context-menu.

If an entry does not exist, create it by right-clicking on an empty space, selecting New, and choosing the type of entry as listed.

10. Advanced Browser Settings

You can use these recommended values or tweak them as per your system, preference, and browsing habits.

• accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound [Boolean]: Change to False to avoid a sound alert if no match is found when you search for text.
• alerts.totalOpenTime [Integer]: Reduce time to show Download Complete alerts to 2000 (2 seconds).
• browser.bookmarks.max_backups [Integer]: Reduce number of bookmark backups to speed up shutdown from 5 to 2.
• browser.cache.disk.parent_directory [String]: Move your Firefox cache to a disk or partition different from your Windows drive by specifying the folder path here.
• browser.download.manager.openDelay [Integer]: Don’t open Downloads window for very short downloads. Set to 2000 (2 second delay).
• browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo [Integer]: Reduce number of closed tabs you can undo from 10 to 4.
• browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo [Integer]: Reduce number of closed windows you can undo from 3 to 1.
• browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab [Boolean]: Change to False, so that Firefox doesn’t accidentally shut down when you close the last tab.
• browser.urlbar.maxRichResults [Integer]: Reduce maximum number of results in Awesome Bar from 12 to 6.
• dom.popup_maximum [Integer]: Reduce maximum number of simultaneous popups from 20 to 3 or 5.
• security.dialog_enable_delay [Integer]: Reduce delay to wait before installing a new extension to 1000 (1 second). Setting to zero is not recommended because of security risks.

11. Advanced Network Settings

These changes are recommended for broadband users with at least a 2 Mbps (256 kB/s) connection.

• network.dnsCacheEntries [Integer]: Increase number of DNS entries cached from default 20 to 512.
• network.dnsCacheExpiration [Integer]: Increase number of seconds DNS entries are cached from default 60 to 3600.
• network.dns.disableIPv6 [Boolean]: Disable IPv6 if your ISP doesn’t support it (most don’t).
• network.http.max-connections [Integer]: Increase maximum number of simultaneous connections to 48 or 96.
• network.http.max-connections-per-server [Integer]: Increase maximum connections per server from default 15 to 24.
• network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server [Integer]: Increase maximum persistent connections per server from default 6 to 12.
• network.http.pipelining [Boolean]: Change to True to enable HTTP Pipelining.
• network.http.pipelining.maxrequests [Integer]: Increase from default 4 to 8.
• network.prefetch-next [Boolean]: This specifies whether Firefox pre-fetches web pages (and associated cookies) even before you visit them. It is most frequently used to pre-load the first result of a Google search. If you want to improve security and don’t want Firefox to load pages you never actually visit, change this to False. See the FAQ for more information.

Did these optimizations make your Firefox 3.5 faster? Tell us in the comments!

(Some of these tips are via Tweakguides Firefox Tweak Guide)

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Apart from using your favorite website (wink, wink), we’ve seen a bunch of services here on MakeUseOf in the past, allowing you to make a personal, dynamic homepage, greeting you with image slideshows, recent RSS updates, and so on.

Although it seems obvious for most computer users, finding out how to set your browser home page is not evident for everyone. Today, we’ll show you how to change your home page in 5 different browsers.

Firefox and Firefox-based Browsers

Firefox is not just the acclaimed geek-browser anymore. These days, it’s the most used browser in the internet market. As such, that is where we’ll start. Note that any menu-names might have to be translated to your own language, but any changes should be obvious.

How to Set Browser Home Page

In the top left of your browser, open the Edit menu and select Preferences.

In the Main tab, you can change your default homepage. You can also configure Firefox to load with a blank page, or to restore your last session.

When you start typing in the text-field, Firefox will make suggestions based on your history. Alternatively, you can also use the address of the webpage currently active in your browser, one of your bookmarks, or restore the default Firefox Start page.

You can add multiple home pages — which will launch in tabs upon opening firefox — by putting vertical slashes between the links. (e.g. “http://www.makeuseof.com | http://www.google.com”)

This will work with Firefox, but also with Firefox-based browsers, like Flock, Wyzo, and many others.

Internet Explorer (IE7 and IE8)

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer might be loathed by many, but one can’t ignore the fact that it takes a worthy second as most used browser. And thus we go on. The differences between Internet Explorer 7 and 8 are superfluous for this tutorial.

Option 1

In the top right of your screen, open the Tools dropdown menu and select Internet Options.

In the General tab, you’ll be able to set the browser home page to one of your liking. Similar to Firefox, you can use the address of the currently active page, the default start page, or a blank page.

If you want Internet Explorer to open multiple pages upon launch, you  need to type the different addresses in the text-box, below each other.

Option 2

There’s a second way to configure your home page. First, surf to the webpage you want to use.

Next, open the dropdown menu next to the Home button, and select Add or Change Home Page…

A new window will pop up. You can choose to replace your current home page by the current address, or to add the webpage to your current bookmarks.

In Internet Explorer 8, you can also use the current tab set (all your open pages) as homepages.

Google Chrome

Chrome’s one of the new guys on the block, but a relatively popular browser, taking in account its short time with us. If you like Google’s browser of simplicity, this part is for you.

In the top-right corner of the browser, open the wrench dropdown menu and select Options. Go to the Basics tab, here you can configure your homepage.

Option 1

Make sure that ‘Open the following pages’ is selected in the startup section near the top of the page.

In the box below, you can add multiple web addresses to be opened upon browser launch. If you want to open a blank page, you’ll have to enter ‘about:blank’, manually.

Option 2

Make sure that the ‘Open the home page’ is selected in the startup section near the top of the page.

In the Home Page section, you’ve got two options. Either use the New Tab Page — which is selected by default — or enter a custom address in the text-field.

Safari

Safari is the default browser on Mac OS X. A while ago it was also ported to Windows. I must say it’s one of the finest browsers around, but sadly underused. If you belong to the Safari-minority, this section is for you.

If you’ve got Windows, open the Edit dropdown menu and select Preferences… at the top-left of the browser.

If you’ve got a Mac, open the Safari dropdown menu and select Preferences… at the top-left of the browser.

Both in Windows and Mac, you can change your homepage in the General tab. You can choose how to open new pages — blank, or with a homepage — and type in the address of your favorite site. Additionally, you can also choose to use the address of the page you’re currently visiting.

While you’re at it, you can also tell Safari what to do upon opening new tabs. Top Sites, one of the best features in Safari, is default, but perhaps you still prefer to use your homepage.

Opera

Opera is – sadly – one of the lesser used browsers, even though it’s got remarkable charms and has introduced numerous innovations in the browser market. If you’re amongst the fine men and women using this slick competitor, this section is for you.

At the top of the browser, open the Tools dropdown menu and select Preferences.

In the General tab, you can configure your homepage. Either type in the address you want to use, or choose to use the currently active page as homepage.

Alternatively, you can configure Opera to launch with a blank page, the startup dialog, or with the tabs of last time’s session.

This is where we conclude this multi-tutorial. I hope you’ve learned something useful today. If there’s anything you want to say, or ask, please refer to the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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What is Mozilla Firefox safe mode? Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode) becomes the next resort when the regular browser comes crashing down. Firefox is the most talked about browser and has a fan base that would put The Beatles to shame… But hey, it’s only a bunch of code so browser errors do rear their heads.

Here are 5 reasons why the Firefox Safe Mode isn’t a bad idea at all -

1. It’s a diagnostic tool to troubleshoot issues with add-ons, themes or toolbars especially after upgrades.
2. It can be used to compare the extension-loaded Firefox with the default clean slate version of the browser.
3. It can be used to compare speeds if there’s a worry about performance.
4. It can be used to pin down conflicting issues in the user settings (about:config tweakings) after an upgrade.
5. It can be used to go back to the default installed state.

Mozilla Firefox Safe Mode gives us a window to start over (temporarily) by disabling add-ons and resetting (permanently) other settings to defaults. By comparing the performance, we can narrow down and fix the cause of any problem.

There are two ways we can start Firefox in Safe Mode (Windows) –

• From Start – All Programs (Programs in Vista) – Mozilla Firefox – Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode).
• From Start – Run – Type firefox.exe -safe-mode. Hit OK. (or “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -safe-mode)

For other operating systems, the paths are:
Linux – use Terminal and type in /path/to/firefox/firefox -safe-mode
Mac OS X – open Terminal and type in /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode

The Safe Mode dialog box pops up.

We can choose to Exit or go for the other two options – Continue In Safe Mode or Make Changes and Restart.

Continue in Safe Mode

The browser starts in Safe Mode with all customizations disabled. Safe Mode does not load any extensions, themes and third party toolbars. Safe Mode uses the default theme. This is especially useful to check whether the problem is associated with these elements or some other hidden issues. When we exit the Safe Mode, the browser reverts back to the Normal Mode with all the customizations intact.

Make Changes and Restart

This option gets activated if we put a checkmark against any of the five options given in the dialog.

• Disable all add-ons will start Firefox in the Normal Mode with the extensions, themes, and plug-ins disabled.  Note that they are not uninstalled, only disabled. Browse the web with the add-ons disabled or selectively enabled one by one. This helps to whittle down to the problematic add-on. After the fix, don’t forget to enable the remaining add-ons (extensions, theme and plugins).
• Reset toolbars and controls reverts the browser to Normal Mode but without any toolbar customizations.
• Reset bookmarks to Firefox defaults will start the browser in Normal Mode but our bookmarks will lost, replaced by Firefox’s default set.
• Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults will undo any changes we made to Firefox preferences and options or any through about:config.
• Restore default search engines will revert to the default search engines of Firefox.

To exit Safe Mode, close down the browser completely. Sometimes, the browser keeps running in the background – do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to check using the Task Manager. If the browser keeps resuming in Safe Mode, close it down again and restart the computer. Then start in Normal Mode.

The first great thing about Firefox is that it is relatively non-buggy. The second good thing is that the Mozilla Firefox Safe Mode is absolutely straightforward. And the third, with Mozilla’s rich gallery of add-ons — even if one fails, there’s an alternative out there.

You might not have used the Safe Mode option frequently. Even then, your opinion matters. Do let us know your experience with resolving buggy issues.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• Three Firefox Security & Privacy Add-ons that can Co-exist (23)
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[To use the bookmarklets, simply add them to your bookmarks bar. Right click them and choose "Bookmark This Link" or just drag and drop it to the bookmarks bar]

1. Subscribe to a website with Google Reader

Add or drag to your bookmarks bar ——> Subscribe

Here is a known scenario – you visit a cool blog and want to subscribe to it. Now you need to find and click its RSS icon, get to the Feedburner site, choose ‘Google Reader’ as your RSS reader, get to the ‘Add to Google’ page and choose ‘Add to Google Reader’. Easy, right? Well, why not make the process much easier – use the ‘Subscribe’ bookmarklet. Just click it, and you’ll immediately get into Google reader, one click away from subscribing to the site. Life’s good, isn’t it?

2. Speed read online content

Add or drag to your bookmarks bar ——> ZAP read

The ZAP reader bookmarklet opens a new window where it flashes text at high speed (text which you  previously marked in a website). Not only that it makes you read much faster, but it also improves your speed reading abilities (I can personally testify).

It’s a good idea to use a speed that you can read relatively easily when the text is important and you have to completely understand it. Use higher speed when the text is of less importance, in order to gradually increase your reading speed.

3. Tweet a link and monitor it

Add or drag to your bookmarks bar ——> Bit.ly

The Bit.ly bookmarklet is the most useful way I know to share links through Twitter. The bookmarklet pops-up a sidebar within the site you are in, shortens its URL and lets you tweet it without leaving the page. Moreover, it tells you how many people have got to the site through a Bit.ly shortened URL and how many got there through your link.

If you think about it, Bit.ly lets you measure the effectiveness of your tweets. By telling you how many people you’ve reached, you can know if people are reading your tweets and what is the content they like the most. I make sure to check out my Bit.ly stats once in a while to better understand what are my best tweets and how I can reach more people.

4. Share sites via email

Add or drag to your bookmarks bar ——> Email this

If you feel like sending a website via email rather then tweeting it – ‘Email this’ is the bookmarklet that I recommend. ‘Email this’ opens a new email in your default email client (including web based ones) with the site’s title as the subject and the link to the page in the body. All that is left for you to do is add recipients and click send.

‘Email this’ is suitable for work settings, where you would usually share content via email. It’s also better to use it when you need more then 140 characters or you just don’t want to share something publicly.

5. Read any language

Add or drag to your bookmarks bar  ——> Translate
‘Translate’ uses “Google Translate” to display the content of the page in English. More or less, it means you can instantly read sites in any language. Really useful

If you think that there is enough content in English – try to think of situations where local content is better. For example, if you’re going on a trip to another country – reading about it on local websites will get you better results. That is where this bookmarklet will come in handy.

Don’t forget to check out the other bookmarklets that MakeUseOf has written about! What are your top productivity bookmarklets? Share them with us in the comments!

Image credit: vramak

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Unite eliminates the need for a third party server that would normally proxy or relay the content, such as Flickr, Twitter or Yahoo Messenger. It’s essentially like setting up a web server on your own computer, without the hassle of manually installing various software, configuring them and getting a DNS (Domain Name System) account. It also makes the installation of new functionality a “point and click” process.

I’m sure we’ll have a review of Opera 10 shortly, but let’s focus on Unite for the moment. Here are the steps you need to take in order to use the various Unite services.

1. Click on the propeller icon on the left sidebar.
2. Click on the icon labeled ‘Home’ and then on ‘Start’. A wizard will appear. Click next.
3. Create an Opera account for free or sign up for a new one. It is extremely simple and fast, just choose an username, a password and enter an email address.
4. Choose a name that would describe the computer. If you install Unite on more than one computer, this will enable you to differentiate between them and enable sharing. A descriptive name could also help a friend who wishes you to send photos, for example – naming one “The home PC” and another “The office laptop” can easily distinguish the two. Using UPnP port forwarding poses some security issues, but it allows access to your files from outside the local network (Internet) without using Opera’s proxy server which provides a speed boost. If you want a direct connection without UPnP, add port (8840) in your router’s ‘Port Forwarding’ list.
5. Click Finish to save the settings and close the wizard.

You will now be able to start any of the services listed in the left sidebar, such as file sharing. They are designed to be extremely easy to use. For example, to enable File Sharing, click on the File Sharing icon and then on Start. To protect your privacy, it will ask you to select the folder that you want to share.

After you click the OK button, a web page will open that will showcase the content you selected in the previous step. On the left, you’ll see your files, on the right the instructions for sharing with your friends and the permissions. All your friend has to do to access the files is to paste the link given in the right sidebar. A regular webpage will appear in your friend’s browser along with download links for all the files.

All the files are hosted on your computer and are never transferred to Opera’s servers. For the duration you wish to allow users to connect to your Unite services, you need to have the computer and browser open. Be aware that transferring unencrypted sensitive information is not recommended, as all transfers are done using HTTP. The Photo, Media and File Sharing use the same underlying technology while adding specific controls for each media type like a Flash music player and photo thumbnails.

This technology is not limited to the 5 bundled applications: Fridge (secure notes), Lounge (instant messaging), Photo and File Sharing, Media Player. It’s open to developers and uses well-known open standards such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Below is a screenshot of the Lounge, a quasi-instant messaging application. To invite other people, the host needs to send a link to the other participants. They can use any modern web browser to join the discussion.  It is similar in functionality to a private IRC channel.

The Fridge application lets you leave notes for friends or yourself, similar to the ‘Wall’ on Facebook or direct messaging in Twitter.

You can write applications — in the form of Opera Unite Services — that use this server to serve content to other Web users. Why is this exciting? Well, it allows you to interact with contacts, sharing data and services without the need for any third-party Web sites/applications to be involved at all. –Opera Developer Blog

Opera lets the geeks get a taste of the next paradigm shift in web browsing, a great way to win hearts, minds and developers. I’ve radically changed my tune about Opera after hearing from tens of fans and Thomas Ford, Communications Manager.

I invite each one of you to give Opera Unite a try. Download the alpha which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux; and let us know what you think in the comments. What applications should the developers start working on to further extend Unite’s functionality?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Double Vision is one of the best web browsers for this kind of thing – it lets you view and interact with two applications at the same time, without having to switch windows again and again. So, you could be working on your presentation and watching your favorite video or even better – a related tutorial at the same time. Technically, Double Vision is browser, however it has certain features that distinguish it from other browsers and make it perfect for these kinds of situation.

Browse to the website of your choice as you would do with any normal browser. Once there, click on the enter “Double Vision Mode”, the browser will turn translucent and here is the best part – you will be able to click through the browser’s window and interact with any other application underneath. Thus, you can continue working while you watch a video on YouTube, or you can follow along video tutorials and carry out the actions at the same time.

You do realise that you can use this to sneak a peak at YouTube while at work? So, what happens when someone comes to your computer? Well, hit Ctrl + Esc and the browser turns off the sound and disappears as though it was never there in the first place. Hit Ctrl + Esc again and it resurfaces.

Being able to click through the browser window doesn’t take away your ability to control it. While in “Double Vision Mode”, Double Vision displays a tiny control Window that lets you play with transparency, move the window around etc. You can also press and hold the Ctrl + Alt key to restore the window to 100% opaqueness temporarily, interact and let them go to return back to the previous “Double Vision Mode” settings.

You can also watch videos stored locally using all the above features. Local videos are supported in Double Vision 2.0 which is a beta product, but you can try (remember to register or you will be denied access) to see if it works for you.

Do you know of similar applications that will let you overlay stuff on top of each other? Let us hear about them in the comments.

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1. NoScript

Many browser security issues stem from exploits of JavaScript code. NoScript prevents that code from executing, and then notifies you of what code is blocked. You may then add the page to your white-list with a few clicks. That way, you’re protected when browsing unfamiliar sites, but can still check your Gmail and surf Digg.

2. Ad-Block Plus (ABP)

According to Mozilla, this is the #2 favorite add-on (next to FlashGot), and it is for good reason. Ad-Block Plus improves on its predecessor, allowing you to subscribe to a list of advertising codes to block, just like one might subscribe to antivirus updates. Advertisers can potentially track user behavior across the Web, and it’s no surprise that many users don’t like that. Like NoScript, ABP can be disabled for specific sites and pages. ABP will block 99% of the ads out there. And as a bonus, pages should render much faster.

3. Web of Trust (WOT)

My new favorite! WOT adds an extra layer of protection to your browser, utilizing users ratings to show you, at a glance, which sites are OK and which ones should be left unclicked. WOT can enhance search results and links on AOL, Ask, Bing, Delicious, Digg, Dogpile, Google, Gmail, Mahalo, Wikipedia, Hotmail, Yahoo, DMOZ and Reddit, among others.

Above is the first screen you’ll see after installing WOT. WOT can be as intrusive as you wish, and also be used to block kids’ access to unsafe sites.

Above is an example of Firefox viewing a site which has been rated poorly by WOT users. You can still go to the site, but I wouldn’t recommend doing so.

NoScript, Ad-Block Plus, and Web of Trust take only moments to install, but will help keep their users safe from many of the Web’s seedier elements. We welcome any suggestions you may have of additions to this list are welcome, in the comments below.

For more posts on security and privacy online, do read:

10+ Best Firefox Security and Privacy Addons
7 Essential Security Downloads You MUST Have Installed
Detect Fake Antivirus software & Spyware Removal programs
Things To Know When Using a WiFi Hotspot Or a Public PC

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Today, you can see that Microsoft has decided to give a lot more attention to the design of its products. Windows 7 is a testament to that endeavor. It does sadden me that the majority of the UI improvements are derivations or adaptations instead of innovations.

Safari 4 hasn’t suffered radical changes since the beta version – except maybe for the tabs issue which generated a considerable amount of uproar – but it did a fantastic job of polishing rough edges. Safari 4 is fast, usable and has taste.

Let’s dig in a little deeper, shall we?

Unlike earlier versions of Safari for Windows, this iteration integrates beautifully with the default themes in Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7. Whether we believe that “the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript nearly eight times faster than IE 8 and more than four times faster than Firefox 3” or that it “loads HTML web pages more than three times faster than IE 8 and three times faster than Firefox 3” is up to each one of us and the guys who benchmark milliseconds. It does however feel faster than Firefox and IE8 and about the same as Chrome 2.04.

For many of you running Windows 7 (if you aren’t, what are you waiting for? Here’s how to upgrade), Safari 4 has another surprise – it works with the Aero Peek feature the same way IE8 does. The latest stable version of Firefox 3 does not support this capability.

As for the Top Sites view, I can’t really decide what to think about it. It’s not particularly useful – like the integration with Aero Peek – but it does look good and does not impede my usual browsing habits. Use it for a couple of hours, maybe a day, and the most visited websites will be nicely presented when you open a new tab. And, believe it or not, this Minority Report style interface doesn’t take any longer to load than a new blank tab in Firefox. What is useful is the Cover Flow view for History – it makes finding websites a snap for people with good visual memory.

Another aspect that persuaded me to switch to Safari was the layout of the interface elements – compact, streamlined, bare bones – modifications that I did myself in Firefox. Even the menu bar is hidden to save space. However, I didn’t manage to convince the bookmark list to stay on the side in Safari, a perk for wide screen displays.

Thanks to an AdBlock list and a CSS file designed for Opera by Fanboy you can now disable most of ads. All you have to do is download Element Hider CSS file and go to Preferences -> Advanced -> Style Sheet –> Other. Select the CSS file you just downloaded. Remember though that you’re undermining the revenue model for MakeUseOf and the writers behind it as well as other web publications.

The only thing that’s missing from Safari right now is an add-on similar to NoScript. At that point, Safari is just an upgraded version of Firefox (without getting into a technical discussion about the different rendering engines, Gecko versus WebKit).

All the graphical candy takes a toll on the system memory. While I can’t say it’s a memory leak or something else, Safari with 4 tabs open consumed about 200MB of memory repeatedly. Firefox isn’t far behind with a jump from 90Mb to 160MB – one hour staying in idle mode.

You can also read my review of the Safari 4 beta as well as other posts related to Safari. Tell us in the comments what browser you use, why you like it and of course, your impressions on Safari 4.

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