While many people set up their mobile phone – such as rooting an Android, for example – to allow for tethering and accessing the cellular data network with a PC, it is a practice that is generally frowned upon by the mobile providers. However, there are times when you’re just desperate for Internet access, and you need the larger screen that your laptop offers.

In previous articles, I’ve described how you can tether your rooted Android phone to your laptop, and Dave described how you can tether a jailbroken iPhone in much the same way. My preferred method of tethering is using the awesome Wireless tether app that I mentioned recently.

Installing The Emulator

Once you have that tether enabled, and you’ve got your Wireless data Internet connection activated on your phone, the following guide will help you to conserve bandwidth so that you won’t draw too much attention to yourself while surfing.

The first step is to install a mobile phone emulator – a few options include using the Android developer SDK that has an emulator tool, or you can install the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit from Sun which includes a good emulator as well. The simplest solution is to install the MicroEmulator program to your PC.

You will need Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your system (if you don’t already). When you launch the MicroEmulator, it won’t look like anything at all special at first. It basically looks like a cellphone with a mobile screen. First, make sure you’ve enabled Internet access by clicking on “Options” and then make sure “MIDlet Network Access” is checked.

The beauty of this emulator is that it’ll run most mobile browsers like Bolt or Opera Mini. As far as I know, Opera Mini is just about the easiest to install – all you have to do is download the JAD and JAR files at the Opera download page. Save them somewhere you’ll remember, preferably in the “devices” folder in the MicroEmulator application directory. Then, you can load up the Opera Mini browser inside the emulator by clicking on File and then “Open MIDlet File…”

You will see “Opera Mini” appear on the main screen under the list of devices. To launch the mobile browser, just select it and click “Start”. The Opera Mini browser will launch just like you’re running it on your own mobile device – along with the streamlined bandwidth that you’d be using if you were actually using your phone.

While this is pretty cool – it isn’t good enough. The whole point of using your computer or laptop is to take advantage of the large screen, right? Let’s resize the display window to a wider display. In MicroEmulator, you do this by clicking on Options and “Select Device…”

Select “Resizable device” and then click on “Add…“  You’ll see a list of devices to choose from. Click the mobile browser you’ve installed, and then type in the size of the window that you would like.

Once you launch Opera Mini again, it’ll now be in a larger window with the size parameters you set.  Make sure to go into the Opera Mini browser settings and enable “Fullscreen” mode and enable “Load images” and set “Image quality” to medium for an optimal browsing experience. Just because you’re browsing over a mobile network with your laptop doesn’t mean you can enjoy it a little!

Now, when you launch any page that has a mobile version, you’ll notice that the site “senses” you’re using a WAP connection and will serve up the mobile version of the page – cutting down your overall bandwidth significantly. Here’s the main page of MUO displayed through this Opera Mini browser running on my laptop.

Clicking on one of the articles, the page loaded in just seconds, used only about 300 KB to fully load the page.

Loading it in a regular browser consumes over 1.5MB of bandwidth.  You can imagine how the data consumption can pile up over time if you don’t use a mobile browser to take care of your Internet needs while you’re on the road.

I am not encouraging anyone to break the terms and rules of their contract, however there are a lot of people that specifically sign contracts that allow tethering, but usage is on a metered basis. The method described above will allow you the convenience of using the nice widescreen of your laptop, while maintaining a lower data usage that won’t break your bank account.

So, give the MicroEmulator with Opera Mini a try and see if it opens up your world to new, mobile possibilities. Do you find that using a mobile browser is too limiting? Are there other mobile browsers that work well with MicroEmulator? Share your own experiences in the comments section below.

One feature Opera has been lacking for awhile is easy extension support. Firefox and Chrome both make extensions easy as pie, and Internet Explorer 8 isn’t bad at them either. Now Opera is embracing them whole-heartedly as well, going so far as to create a Mozilla-style extensions website.

I’ve poked and prodded through this site a bit and found some must-haves.

Mini Wolfram Alpha & Wikipedia

Wolfram Alpha has just the coolest name, doesn’t it? Just the name is reason enough to download this extension. What it does, however, is very handy – using this, you have your own mini version of Wolfram Alpha that can be expanded on whatever page you’re viewing. Need some information? Just type in whatever you’re looking for and this plugin will provide all the functionality of Wolfram without having to visit the page.

A similar extension also exists for Wikipedia. Install the Mini Wikipedia extension, opening up the mini window by clicking on the icon in the upper right, and you’re good to go. Wikipedia is effectively converted from a webpage into a browser application.

FastestTube

There isn’t much to say here. YouTube downloader extensions have been popular on every browser, and now Opera users have their own to enjoy with FastestTube. You can download to either MP4 or FLV format. HD versions of YouTube videos are only available in MP4 format.

Google Images Direct

I find Google Images pretty useful, but it would be nice if Google sent you directly to the image in question. I understand why they don’t – they want to make sure you see where the link is being served from so as to give the host some credit – but I’d rather sidestep that. And with Google Images Direct, you can. Now clicking on a Google Image link will send you directly to a full-sized version of the image in question.

Edit The Page

The Edit The Page extension essentially turns the Opera web browser into a mini web editor. Turn it on and you’ll be able to add or delete text, movie images, and even copy-and-paste formating elements. You cannot save these changes, obviously, but you can use this tool to create a quick mockup of what your website (or someone else’s website) would look like if a few images were moved or some text was changed.

FaceChat

As you probably well know, you can use Facebook as an instant messenger by sending in-browser IMs through Facebook itself. That’s great, but sending messages via a webpage isn’t exactly the best way to handle instant messaging.

FaceChat is just one of many ways to resolve this issue. Once installed, FaceChat lets you IM your friends using a pop-up window in the upper right. Oh, and just to be clear, this extension has nothing to do with the website Face Chat.

Opera Configurator

As most veteran Opera users will tell you, Opera is an incredibly customizable web browser with a lot of things to explore and change. This can make Opera rather difficult to understand for new users, who may lose themselves quickly in its maze of menus. Opera Configurator tries to resolve this by placing many important Opera options in one place.

In fact, it places many arguably not-so-important Opera options in one place. The sheer amount of information here may not make this the best starting point for complete Opera noobs, but users who like to trick out their software will appreciate the level of detail found here.

Conclusion

The extensions feature for Opera 11 Alpha is very new, so there aren’t many extensions to choose from yet, and the ones available are still in early development. If you’re expecting to hop on and find something equivalent to the extension pages for Firefox or Chrome you’ll be disappointed.

This is a brave new world, however, so be sure to let developers know what you think of their extensions (or create your own!).  As always, if you have a favorite that wasn’t listed here, let us know in the comments!

Designing websites for desktops is hard enough. Between Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and the infamous Internet Explorer web developers have always had their hands full. You need to ensure users of each browser can use your site. With the advent of widespread smart phones, though, the problem is even more complicated. You need to ensure your site looks and functions well on mobile platforms.

Opera Mobile Emulator gives you a way to do just that. This desktop program mimics Opera’s mobile version perfectly, allowing you to test a given site quickly and easily. It’s also pretty fun to use as a mini-browser, if you’re looking for something like that, so even non-developers can have some fun with this one.

There are a number of mobile browsers out there; Opera Mobile is just one of them. If you want to use it on your cell phone, I suggest you read more about downloading Opera Mobile. If you want to give this program a spin on your desktop or laptop, though, keep reading.

Getting Opera Mobile

Getting Opera Mobile isn’t all that difficult; just head over to the Opera developer page to find out all the information you need to. You’ll find downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux there.

Linux users having trouble installing the Mobile Emulator, rejoice! There’s a portable version that can run on every Linux distro over at PortableLinuxApps, a site we’ve profiled in the past. Check it out if you don’t want to bother dealing with installation.

Using The Program

Fire up the program and you’ll be presented with your most-visited sites. Start using the program and you’ll quickly realize that this interface is not meant for the desktop; it’s very much a phone design. That’s obvious enough.

You can change a few settings, but not many:

Tabs aren’t visible on screen; rather, they are a button-press away:

As you can tell, this program is very much identical to the phone version of Opera Mobile. If you really want to see what it’s about I suggest you read about the mobile version of Opera.

What It’s For

As mentioned before, this program is perfect for testing whether your website works well on mobile browsers. While it’s specifically meant to show you how your site will look on Opera Mobile, it can also give you a general idea of how your site will look on all such devices. My site JustinPot.com, for example, sports a fairly unique interface. It’s kind of weird, I know, but I like it for some reason. How does it work on a mobile browser?

My experience was not a good one. Looks like I’ll be in the market for a new WordPress theme within the next couple of weeks, or at least a good mobile plugin.

MakeUseOf does have a mobile version, however, and it works really well in Opera Mobile. Good to know.

Alternative Uses

Not really a web designer? You still might be able to have fun with this one. Mobile sites tend to be less cluttered than their desktop equivalents, so this browser could be a good choice for distraction-free reading. It’s also worth trying this browser out if you’re considering getting a smart phone; it’s a pretty good way to explore how the web will look on it.

Whatever you use Opera Mobile Emulator for, you have to agree that it’s cool of the Opera team to offer it. I enjoyed playing with it, and learned a bit about my own website in the process. You can too, so check it out!

As always let us know what you think in the comments below. Also feel free to ask for help, should you need it.

The browser remains our main porthole for viewing the web. It’s also the main entry point for malware, Trojans, and others browser attacks of their ilk. Then there are the plug-ins like Firefox add-ons, Active X controls etc. There are many ways for a malicious code to punch a hole through. One of the worst is the ‘Man-in-the-browser’ attack.

Let’s all be paranoid by default and get ourselves a good anti-virus and firewall to begin with. Then, it’s always a wise idea to keep our software and sundry apps patched with the latest security updates. But most of all it pays to keep eyes and ears open to what’s happening around us. The web may be like the badlands, but it also has heroic sheriffs and town marshals. A few online browser security tools play that role.

ScanIt

ScanIt puts your browser through 19 vulnerability tests. You can run all tests in one go, choose individual tests, or test for bugs specific to the browser (e.g. Firefox has 10 tests). The browser scanning tool supports Firefox, IE, and Opera. The FAQ will give newbies an idea of why browser vulnerability tests are important and the dangers of browser bugs.

Qualys Browser Check

Qualys uses a plugin to check for exploit weaknesses in the browser. Qualys checks Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer for potential vulnerabilities and security holes in your browser and its plugins. It flags insecure and out-of-date versions that put you at risk with color codes like red for “˜Insecure’, or “˜Obsolete’.

For any item that is insecure or out of date, a Fix It button appears. Simply click the Fix It button to download the latest update to fix your security issue.

BrowserScope

BrowserScope to start off is a bit geeky. It is an Open Source online tool to compare your browser against the community and see how it fares on security, rich text implementation, network latency, web standards support, and JSKB tests. You don’t need to sign-in or download any plugins to run the tests.

You can compare all browsers on your computer and see how each scores. The table with the test results can also be used to see which browser in general is doing well. It seems Chrome is leading Firefox at least on security.

Panopticlick

Panopticlick checks if your browser’s configuration is unique. The more unique your browser, the less easily it could be tracked. Web tracking is a privacy risk for users. Online advertisers usually resort to web tracking to collect usage information. Panopticlick collects anonymous data and compares it against its own 5 million strong database to get the score.

Panopticlick is run by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to look into the privacy risks posed by web tracking.

ShieldsUP

ShieldsUP is a firewall monitoring and port scanning online tool. With detailed port testing, the scanning tool displays info on five categories ““ File Sharing, Common Ports, All Service Ports, Messenger Spam, and Browser Headers. You can also test individual ports (or sets) among the 65535 and lookup specific port information.

The real value of ShieldsUP is in the comprehensive information it provides on firewall security and what you need to shore up your defenses. You don’t need to register to run the tests.

PCFlank

PCFlank is a website that tries to ensure that we stay protected on all sides with its range of six tests (and a connection speed test). PCFlank has Stealth Test, Advanced Port Scanner Test, Trojans Test, Exploits Test, Browser Test (for privacy), and a Quick Test that covers the Advanced Port Scanner, Browser and Trojans Tests.

Firefox Official Plugin Check

Our Firefox browser may have more plugins or addons than fleas on a dog’s back. But outdated plugins pose the danger of a bite that’s worse than a flea. In 2008, we had the first news of a password stealing malware disguised as a plugin. Plugin exploit attacks can be because of poorly written extension code or deliberate design.

I am not sure if Firefox verifies the authenticity of each addon, but the least we can do as users is to keep the ones we have constantly updated. Firefox does it automatically, but the Plugin website is a help.

A browser is just one of the bits that make for a weak or strong computer system. From unsecure Wi-Fi to infected pen drives, a computer user has to monitor both the front and back doors. Fortunately the user has help in the form of more advanced browsers with anti-phishing features, pop-up blockers, private browsing, JavaScript disabling etc.

Some more help can come from our rich list of posts covering everything on computer security and safe browsing:

• Top Five Computer Crimes & How to Protect Yourself From Them
• 8 Best Sources To Follow Computer Virus News & Alerts
• The 10 Best Free Anti-Virus Programs
• 10+ Best Firefox Security and Privacy Addons
• 4 Quick Sites That Let You Check if Links Are Safe

Know any other browser security test tools? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: pasukaru76 (away for 2 weeks)

By now, this feature has been added to all major browsers. There’s but one catch. Not everyone enjoys it.

Whether it’s due to hardware restrictions, or simply because they’re used to a different user interface, “Try to keep up”, and “you’ll get used to it” aren’t valid solutions. In software, too, the customer is king. Below is how you can disable the feature in Firefox 4, Google Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer 8.

In Google Chrome

The feature was only added to Google Chrome a couple of months ago. Since you can’t disable it in the preferences, here’s a nifty little workaround.

First, browse to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\ – where ‘C’ is the drive of your Windows 7 install. Right-click on chrome.exe and open the properties pane.

In the compatibility tab, check the box next to ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for:‘, and select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) from the drop-down menu. Click OK.

Google Chrome will now run like it would on Windows Vista. That is, without those preview tabs. Alternatively, you can also append these changes in the properties pane of a Google Chrome shortcut. If you ever want to re-enable the preview tabs, simply turn compatibility mode off.

In Mozilla Firefox

Open up Firefox, type “about:config” in the address bar (without quotation marks), and hit enter. This will open a screen with advanced settings. Please refrain from changing anything else that you don’t understand. In the filter field, at the top of the screen, type browser.taskbar.previews

This will take you to the relevant settings. Double-click browser.taskbar.previews.enable, so that its value changes to False.

If you ever want to revert these changes, simply visit these settings again, and return browser.taskbar.previews.enable to True.

In Opera

Turning off the preview tabs in Opera is mighty similar to the Firefox method.

First, open your browser, and direct your browser towards “opera:config” (without quotation marks). Go to User Prefs, and look for the “Use Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnails” setting. Make sure this box is unchecked.

To re-enable the preview tabs at a later point in time, simply tick that box again.

In Internet Explorer 8

Ok, nerds aren’t too big a fan of Internet Explorer 8, but as the standard browser on the world’s most popular operation system, a lot of people are still using it. Being a Microsoft product as well, this browser was the first to support the preview tabs feature. Here’s how you go about disabling it.

Disabling this option is probably easiest in Internet Explorer 8. Start by opening up your browser.

Go to Tools -> Internet Options and open the settings pane for ‘Tabs’. At the top, you should be able to find ‘Show previews for individual tabs in the taskbar’, a box ticked by default. Simply uncheck it, save the changes, and you’re done.

Do you know an easier way to disable the preview tabs in any of these, or even a whole-together different browser? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Opera does not have as wide of a user base as other web browsers, so a casual observer might notice a lack of an add-on to block advertisements and be dismayed. How could a modern web browser become even mildly popular and not have an ad blocker present?

The answer is that Opera does have a way to block advertisements, but it is actually built into the browser and is called a content blocker. This tool works like any ad blocker, but unlike an ad blocker add-on it does not come pre-configured.

So, let’s take a look at how to make it work.

Blocking Selected Ads

To block ads you first need to access the content blocker tool. You can do this by right-clicking on any blank area of a webpage and then clicking Block Content from the drop-down menu that appears.  The page that you are viewing will fade out, and Opera will ask you to select the content that you do not want to view.  Just click on the offending advertisement and then click the Done button at the top of the web browser. Presto! The ad is gone and will be whenever you visit the website.

If for some reason you want to make the ad re-appear you can reverse the process. The blocked content will appear in the faded view of the website with a big red BLOCKED CONTENT banner. Select the blocked content and then click Done to make it reappear.

Blocking All (Or Almost All) Ads

The above process works well for blocking selected advertisements, but obviously it would be annoying to do it for every single website you ever visit. It works best if you only find a few particular ads annoying.

But what do you do if you find all ads annoying? Opera has you covered there, as well.  Right-click on an any portion of a webpage (any page) and then click Block Content. Once the page has faded out, click the Details button at the top of the web browser.

This will open up a window that lets you enter in the advertisements that you would like to block. Note that although this filter does say “Blocked on current page“ at the top, the modifications that you make here do apply to all webpages.  You can also reach this window by clicking on the Opera icon in the upper left and then navigating to Settings > Preferences > Advanced > Blocked Content.

You will need to add the information about ads that you want to have blocked manually. Below are some of the most common ad servers.

*/ad.*
*/ad/*
*/ad2*
*/ads.*
*/ads/*
*/adv.*
*/adv/*
*/annonse*
*/banner*
*/click*
*/context-ads*

This makes a big difference in how a website looks.

Before:

After:

Adding these ad servers to blocked content will block many of the ads that you’ll encounter, but this won’t block every ad. For a more complete list, check out Fanboy’s Adblock List for Opera. This list includes literally thousands of entries. It is a bit overkill, but if you really want to block everything, it is the most complete list you’ll find.

How Do You Like Opera Now?

Blocking ads in Opera is easy. In fact, I think that Opera’s method to block advertisements is superior to the methods used by other browsers, as they mainly rely on add-ons to do the dirty work for them. Opera may be a niche browser, but it has some very cool features, and the way it handles blocking content is one of them.

Opera is a bit different from Firefox and others, however. Or rather, it is a bit more advanced. While other browsers offer tabbed browsing, they treat each individual tab as a separate entity. You can display one tab at once. Opera, however, uses tabs like windows inside the browser. In this tutorial we’ll take a look at four ways to use advanced Opera tab features in order to make browsing the web easier.

1. Pin Tabs

Opera has the ability to pin tabs to the taskbar. This can be accomplished simply by right-clicking on an Opera tab and then clicking Pin Tab. When a tab is pinned, it no longer has an X on the right side of the tab which can be used to close the tab. Instead it has a magnifying glass symbol.

Using the Pin Tab function allows you to make websites you visit very frequently, such as your search engine or a web-based email client, a permanent fixture in your web browser. When you use Pin Tab on a website in Opera it becomes permanent even if you close Opera. The website will still be pinned when you open Opera later.

2. Using Follower Tabs

The follower tab is a feature unique to Opera. You can create a follower tab by right-clicking on a current tab in the taskbar and then clicking Create Follower Tab. The follower tab will be blank when it first opens, but now any link you click on in the original tab will no longer open in that tab. Instead it will open in the follower tab.

Follower Opera tabs are handy when you are browsing a website and blog and you want to check out multiple articles. For example, let’s say you’re browsing Makeuseof.com and you found a post you want to read. However, you want to keep browsing the main page as well. You could use the follower tab feature to make browsing easier. When you find a post to read, simply click on it to open it in the follower tab. The functionality of the follower tab can also be achieved by simply opening new tabs, but the follower tab streamlines the process so that you are not constantly opening and closing tabs.

3. Cascading and Tiling Tabs

Opera tabs are unique from other web browsers in that they act more like windows than tabs, making the taskbar label of Opera’s tab manager very appropriate. The difference in how Opera handles tabs isn’t evident at first, but it becomes obvious when you right-click on a tab and then go to the Arrange section. Here you’ll find options on how to manage tabs in the Opera browser’s space.

From this menu, you can minimize or maximize all of your tabs. The more interesting options, however, are the Cascade, Tile Vertically and Tile Horizontally options. You can use this feature to tile all of your open tabs inside the Opera web browser. This feature can be used to easily arrange multiple websites so that they can be read together. It can also be used to pick out which tab you want to read, as you maximize any of the tiled tabs so that they take up the entire browser space.

4. Use Session Management

Opera has a built-in session manager by default. A session manager is a feature which can save all of the tabs which you are currently working on for later use. You can re-open these tabs at any time through the session manager.

To try it, open a few tabs. Then click on the Opera menu button in the upper left hand corner of the browser. Go to Tabs and Windows > Sessions > Save This Session. Name the session and un-check the “Show these tabs and windows every time I start Opera” checkbox. Then click okay. Now close all of your open tabs.

Once all tabs are closed, go back to the Sessions menu. You should see the session you saved as a selection in the menu. If you click on it all of the tabs you had open will re-open, letting you pick up where you left off.

Conclusion

These tab management features should make using tabs in Opera much easier, and they are features which, for the most part, other browsers cannot yet emulate. Once you know how to use Opera tabs, you’ll find that certain tasks, such as researching multiple websites or browsing blogs, is easier in Opera than in other browsers.

Opera Mini Web Browser [iTunes link] for the iPhone has a few features that should have shipped with the iPhone – Opera’s Speed Dial homepage, searching for specific text within a web page and the choice to remember passwords.

Launching the Opera Mini browser for the first time will take you to a screen with a brief overview of its main features, after which you will always see your Speed Dial screen. Opera Mini comes preloaded with a few sites already added to your Speed Dial: CNN, MyOpera, Facebook and BBC News. If you want remove any of these, click on its icon and hold down until a menu appears with the choice to either clear or edit the slot. If you want to add a new site, simply click on one of the empty slots and enter the information. Any sites you have already visited will be conveniently listed for you to choose from.

Another feature where Opera excels over Safari is its search bar. Using the search bar next to the address bar, you are given the choice of using Google, Amazon, Dictionary.com, eBay, IMDB or Wikipedia. It’s possible to remove any one of these search engines, but if you’re a fan of Bing or other search engines, you’re out of luck, because there is no way to add alternatives.

Opera boasts tabbed browsing, which is executed in a slightly similar way to Safari, in that when you have several tabs open, an icon at the bottom of the screen will show you how many web pages you have open. Moving between these pages in Opera Mini, however, is a very different experience than in Safari. Rather than swiping between screens, clicking on the icon will pull up a small screen with thumbnails of each tab that is open to select from. You can continue to open and close additional tabs using this menu.

One of the best features in the Opera Mini browser is the ability to control opening a link in a new tab. Clicking on a link and holding it down will bring up a small menu where one of the choices is to open it in a new tab. Opera’s “long click” can be used in a second way – to select text on the screen. After choosing that option, simply swipe your finger over the section of the text you would like select, and it will be highlighted. You can then choose to copy that text, or to search for that selection using the search engine of your choice. It has to be said, however, that Apple’s copy and paste method is a little bit more user-friendly. Clicking a picture and holding it down will bring up a small menu allowing you to save the image, or open it in a new tab.

Some may argue that storing passwords on a mobile phone is a security threat that they would rather not risk. Either way, Opera gives the user to choice to save passwords or not. When this option is switched on, when you log into any given web page, you will be asked whether or not you want to save the password.

If you use Opera on your desktop, you will be happy to know that the Opera Mini browser also includes its Opera Link feature, which allows you to sync your bookmarks, speed dial and search engines between your iPhone and computer.

And of course it has all the standard features to be expected in a browser – a decent bookmarking system and the ability to browse through your history.

So the only question left to answer about Opera Mini is the browsing experience itself. Setting Opera Mini to full screen mode allows you to dedicate more of the screen to browsing rather than menus, so aesthetically, it definitely has one up over Safari. With Opera Mini you can open all web-pages in a mobile format – regardless of whether or not the site in question offers the option. When you’re on Edge or 3G – this is an extremely handy feature. In the screenshot below, you can see the difference on the BBC News website when opened in it’s normal state, and when opened using the ‘Mobile view’ setting.

When you zoom in on a webpage, you will discover another interesting little feature that Opera Mini offers – you can use the back button to zoom back out to fit the web page to the screen. But in general, the pinch and zoom method feels a little bit laboured using Opera, and web pages look a little bit better in Safari.

Testing out the speed on Safari versus Opera Mini gave us varied results. In some cases, Safari loaded faster, while in others, Opera Mini got there quicker. The differences however did not seem in any way significant to push users in the direction of one browser over the other, although Opera Mini’s initial load up time can sometimes be surprisingly long. Only time will tell if Opera Mini can sway long-time Safari users away from their default browser.

Have you tried out Opera Mini [iTunes link] for the iPhone yet? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Well as it stands today, with so many Firefox addons, almost anything is possible in Firefox. Here are some add-ons that add common features of various browsers that are not present in Firefox by default:

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is the one browser that really comes close to being the default browser on my computer. Extensions are possible but the API is limited. Once the extensions API opens up you can expect to see a slew of extensions for the Chrome browser as well.

Here are some Firefox addons that replicate the features found in Chrome:

1. Locationbar2 – Adds Chrome-like domain highlighting and other interesting features to the Firefox address bar. It allows you to click on segments of the URL for navigation. The colors and text are customizable according to your liking.

   

2. New Tab Jumpstart – Replaces Firefox’s default start page with a Chrome-like start page displaying thumbnails and recent history. Although the start page’s design has changed in the latest version of Chrome, jumpstart still offers you the start page from previous versions.
3. Chromifox Extreme – If you like the looks of Google Chrome you should check out the Chromifox extreme theme. It’s as close as you would get to the Chrome look and feel. If the title bar irks you, you can try Chromin Frame. It didn’t work on my side when I was writing the article so you might want to keep that in mind.

   

4. Download Statusbar – Chrome displays downloads at the bottom of the window whenever you start one. Download statusbar lets you do just that in Firefox. You can customize it with a host of options and appearance settings. It also features a mini mode, which you can use if you would want to save on screen real estate sometimes.

   

5. App Tabs – Lets you pin selected tabs permanently to the tab bar. The tabs are locked and remain open across different browser sessions until you explicitly close them.
6. Mozilla Prism – Lets you prism applications from Firefox. The applications can be opened using a shortcut just like any normal desktop applications and feature a minimum browser UI.
7. Omnibar – Omnibar is a nice attempt (although it falls short) at replicating Chrome’s incredible address bar and what all you can do with it.

Firefox’s Newer Versions

Quite a lot is known about how upcoming Firefox releases will look like and what they will all feature. Here are some Firefox addons that let you enjoy those features in Firefox 3.5:

1. Ctrl+Tab – Lets you switch and list tabs by using the Ctrl + Tab shortcut. So what’s new about that? Ctrl+Tab presents an Alt+Tab like UI, which lets you see thumbnails of all open tabs when you hit ctrl + tab.

   

2. Tab Progress Bar – Displays a progress bar on top of each tab.

   

3. Strata40 and Stratabuddy – These are more for the visual overhaul than functionality. Here is a glimpse of what Firefox looks like after installing Strata40 and Stratabuddy

   

Opera

1. All in One Sidebar – Opera features a very functional sidebar. You can get a sidebar for Firefox using the excellent All in One Sidebar extension.

   

2. FireGestures – There are many Firefox addons that add the ability to execute commands using gestures. FireGestures lets you do almost all of them. You can use mouse movement gestures, wheel gestures, rocker gestures and keypress gestures. An absolute must try if you love mouse gestures in Opera.
3. ImgLikeOpera or ImgLikeOpera Reloaded – These add-ons give you greater control on how Firefox loads images. You can block images altogether, display cached images only or load all images. You can also selectively load images if you have turned them off for some reason.

   

4. Smart Stop/Reload – I absolutely loved the idea of a single button that acts as stop and reload depending upon current browser activity. If a page is currently being loaded the button changes performance to the ‘stop loading’ action, else it acts as a reload/refresh button.
5. FireTorrent – Opera can act as a bittorrent client. If you want to add such capabilities to your Firefox install have a look at FireTorrent.
6. Speed Dial – The name says it all. It replicates Opera’s speed dial which is shown on new tab pages. I personally prefer it over something like Newtab Jumpstart, mainly because of too much information that the latter presents. The add-on gives you access to the 9 most visited websites from the new tab page.
7. Tab Preview – Gives you a thumbnail representation of the contents of any tab when you hover over it within the tab bar.

   

Internet Explorer

1. Fireclip – Loosely replicates the Web Slices feature that is available in Internet Explorer 8. The addon lets you clip various parts of a web page and monitor them for change

   

2. myFireFox – A theme that simulates the IE8 look and feel.

Safari

I must confess that I am not a big time Safari user so I am looking for your help on this. I had it on my computer for maybe an hour or so before I got sick of it. So based on that little meeting, here are a few suggestions:

1. Fission – Takes the progress bar inside the address bar. You can customize the color or use your own images as the progress bar. Neat!

   

2. Tabs Open Relative – This add-on makes new tabs open next to the currently selected tab, instead of opening it all the way to the right at the end of the tab list.
3. FoxTab – Brings cool 3D effects to Firefox. It replaces the default tab switching action with something a lot more spectacular. Not only that, it offers you different layouts in which tabs are arranged when you summon FoxTab’s powers

   

You can of course mix and match all these. In fact many of them could have easily featured under more than one browser category. App Tabs and Fission could have been mentioned under upcoming Firefox features while tabs open relative could have been featured under Opera as well. The Firefox addons mostly play well with each other, themes can cause the occasional problems, in which case you can always switch back to the default theme, or start Firefox in safe mode.

Got some more suggestions? I am sure you do. There is always a little more when talking about Firefox addons. Share your recommendations in the comments.