Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

We’ve done all kinds of top 10 Firefox lists in the past, including a rather comprehensive list where we aggregated top 10 Firefox lists from around the web. But nothing really compares to the list that we’ve put together this time around.

Below you’ll find that we’ve assembled over a dozen different lists of the top 10 Firefox extensions. The content of each list has come directly from the Firefox Add-ons site, and from each category we picked the top 10 most popular extensions. In all we have 130 extensions listed below, some of which have made the top 10 in multiple categories. So don’t be surprised if you see some of them duplicated, triplicated, or quadruplicated 🙂 .

Along with listing each extension we also gave a one-sentence description. That way you can tell if an extension sounds intriguing before visiting its homepage.

Note: The Tabs and Toolbars categories have been skipped because, at the time of this writing, the Tabs category had one entry and the Toolbars category had just two entries.

To make it easier for you to jump between the different sections we’ve created an index:

• Overall
• Alerts and Updates
• Bookmarks
• Download Management
• Feeds, News, & Blogging
• Interface Customizations
• Language Tools
• Other
• Photos, Music, & Videos
• Privacy & Security
• Search Tools
• Social Communication
• Web Development

–Overall–

1. Adblock Plus – Blocks advertisements on websites.
2. Video DownloadHelper – Download videos from hundreds of different sites, such as YouTube.
3. FlashGot – Integrates Firefox with your download manager, and offers bulk downloading features.
4. NoScript – Block all scripts from running in Firefox unless you explicitly whitelist a site.
5. Download Statusbar – Shows your downloads near the Firefox Status Bar instead of opening in a new window.
6. IE Tab – Render websites using Internet Explorer from within Firefox.
7. Greasemonkey – Run custom scripts that can add functionality or alter the appearance of websites.
8. DownThemAll! – Download manager that is able to retrieve files in bulk.
9. Forecastfox – Up-to-date weather alerts in your Status Bar.
10. PDF Download – Control whether you open PDF’s inside Firefox (as a PDF or HTML), or open in the default PDF reader on your computer.

–Alerts and Updates–

1. Forecastfox – Up-to-date weather alerts in your Status Bar.
2. PDF Download – Control whether you open PDF’s inside Firefox (as a PDF or HTML), or open in the default PDF reader on your computer.
3. Yoono – Clip information from websites, and save it for future reference.
4. BlueOrganizer – Save and manage your favorite products from the web.
5. Router Status – View the status of your router in the Status Bar (uptime, memory usage, etc…). See the homepage for list of supported routers.
6. Flagfox – Shows a flag in the Status Bar indicating the current location of the website’s server.
7. BlogRovr – Instantly fetches posts from your favorite sites depending on the site that your currently viewing.
8. Alexa Sparky – View Alexa stats for the current site in the Status Bar.
9. Online Bookmark Manager – Keep your Firefox bookmarks online. Changes are made in real-time so there’s no synchronization needed.
10. Footie Fox – View soccer scores for over 190 leagues and cups from 60 different countries.

–Bookmarks–

1. Foxmarks – Online bookmarks synchronization service.
2. All-in-One Sidebar – Switch between sidebar panels, and also view downloads and extensions right in the sidebar.
3. Del.icio.us Bookmarks – Manage your Del.icio.us bookmarks from within Firefox.
4. Speed Dial – A start page that shows thumbnails of nine customizable pages (much like how the Opera browser does it).
5. Clipmarks – Clip and share information from the websites that you visit.
6. Customize Google – Adds optional features to several Google services including Search, Gmail, Calendar, and more.
7. Del.icio.us Buttons – Simple add-on for managing your Del.icio.us bookmarks.
8. iMacros for Firefox – This can memorize repetitive tasks, such as filling out forms, so that you can spend your time doing something else.
9. Yoono – Clip information from websites, and save it for future reference.
10. BlueOrganizer – Save and manage your favorite products from the web.

–Download Management–

1. Video DownloadHelper – Download videos from hundreds of different sites, such as YouTube.
2. FlashGot – Integrates Firefox with your download manager, and offers bulk downloading features.
3. Download Statusbar – Shows your downloads near the Firefox Status Bar instead of opening in a new window.
4. DownThemAll! – Download manager that is able to retrieve files in bulk.
5. PDF Download – Control whether you open PDF’s inside Firefox (as a PDF or HTML), or open in the default PDF reader on your computer.
6. Fast Video Download – Download videos from a variety of sites.
7. FireFTP – An FTP client that is built-in to Firefox.
8. Megaupload – Free slots from Megaupload.
9. All-in-One Sidebar – Switch between sidebar panels, and also view downloads and extensions right in the sidebar.
10. UnPlug – Download videos from a variety of sites.

–Feeds, News, & Blogging–

1. Forecastfox – Up-to-date weather alerts in your Status Bar.
2. Cooliris Previews – Shows a preview of websites and media when you hover your mouse over links.
3. Clipmarks – Clip and share information from the websites that you visit.
4. Wizz RSS News Reader – Read and manage your RSS feeds from within Firefox.
5. iMacros for Firefox – This can memorize repetitive tasks, such as filling out forms, so that you can spend your time doing something else.
6. Yoono – Clip information from websites, and save it for future reference.
7. BlueOrganizer – Save and manage your favorite products from the web.
8. ScribeFire – Full-featured blog editor.
9. BlogRovr – Instantly fetches posts from your favorite sites depending on the site that your currently viewing.
10. TorrentBar – Search for torrents from this toolbar.

–Interface Customizations–

1. Download Statusbar – Shows your downloads near the Firefox Status Bar instead of opening in a new window.
2. PDF Download – Control whether you open PDF’s inside Firefox (as a PDF or HTML), or open in the default PDF reader on your computer.
3. Tab Mix Plus – Advanced tab customization in Firefox.
4. PicLens – Create image slideshows from pictures on any website.
5. All-in-One Sidebar – Switch between sidebar panels, and also view downloads and extensions right in the sidebar.
6. ColorfulTabs – Color each tab so that they are easy to distinguish.
7. Speed Dial – A start page that shows thumbnails of nine customizable pages (much like how the Opera browser does it).
8. Stylish – Using user-created stylesheets you can customize the appearance of websites.
9. Session Manager – Manage how tabs are restored when Firefox is restarted.
10. Tab Scope – See an interactive preview of a tab when you hover over it with your mouse.

–Language Tools–

1. FoxLingo – Website translation and more.
2. Hyperwords – In a single click you get access to searches, references, and more for the highlighted text.
3. Translator – Translate entire websites.
4. Quick Translation – Translate text.
5. gTranslate – Use the Google translation services to translate text.
6. Locale Switcher – Switch the locale of the browser.
7. Quick Locale Switcher – Switch the locale of the browser.
8. SpanishTrans – Highlight an English word on a site and get a Spanish translation.
9. Dictionary Tooltip – Get a definition without needing to open a website.
10. Dictionary Search – Lookup a word online.

–Other–

1. Video DownloadHelper – Download videos from hundreds of different sites, such as YouTube.
2. Greasemonkey – Run custom scripts that can add functionality or alter the appearance of websites.
3. Fast Video Download – Download videos from a variety of sites.
4. Tab Mix Plus – Advanced tab customization in Firefox.
5. PicLens – Create image slideshows from pictures on any website.
6. Del.icio.us Bookmarks – Manage your Del.icio.us bookmarks from within Firefox.
7. Tab Effect – A cube-like tab effect used when switching tabs.
8. Map+ – View a Yahoo! map of a selected address.
9. Customize Google – Adds optional features to several Google services including Search, Gmail, Calendar, and more.
10. Firefox Companion for eBay – Monitor eBay auctions and more from your Firefox sidebar.

–Photos, Music, & Videos–

1. Video DownloadHelper – Download videos from hundreds of different sites, such as YouTube.
2. FlashGot – Integrates Firefox with your download manager, and offers bulk downloading features.
3. Fast Video Download – Download videos from a variety of sites.
4. FoxyTunes – Control your media player from within Firefox.
5. PicLens – Create image slideshows from pictures on any website.
6. Cooliris Previews – Shows a preview of websites and media when you hover your mouse over links.
7. Clipmarks – Clip and share information from the websites that you visit.
8. Image Zoom – Zoom in and out of images on a website.
9. Gspace – Use your Gmail address to store files.
10. Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery – Organize and manage your photos on Kodak EasyShare Gallery.

–Privacy & Security–

1. NoScript – Block all scripts from running in Firefox unless you explicitly whitelist a site.
2. Fasterfox – Performance and network enhancements for Firefox.
3. Cooliris Previews – Shows a preview of websites and media when you hover your mouse over links.
4. Torbutton – Enable or disable the use of the Tor network for secure transmissions.
5. Flashblock – Block all Flash media.
6. Customize Google – Adds optional features to several Google services including Search, Gmail, Calendar, and more.
7. iMacros for Firefox – This can memorize repetitive tasks, such as filling out forms, so that you can spend your time doing something else.
8. FoxyProxy – Advanced proxy configuration.
9. SwitchProxy Tool – Switch between multiple proxy configurations.
10. FEBE – Backup your Firefox extensions.

–Search Tools–

1. PicLens – Create image slideshows from pictures on any website.
2. Cooliris Previews – Shows a preview of websites and media when you hover your mouse over links.
3. Del.icio.us Bookmarks – Manage your Del.icio.us bookmarks from within Firefox.
4. Clipmarks – Clip and share information from the websites that you visit.
5. Customize Google – Adds optional features to several Google services including Search, Gmail, Calendar, and more.
6. Del.icio.us Buttons – Simple add-on for managing your Del.icio.us bookmarks.
7. Yoono – Clip information from websites, and save it for future reference.
8. GooglePreview – Inserts preview images next to the Google search results.
9. Torrent Finder Toolbar – Searches 170 different torrent sites and trackers.
10. Answers – Get immediate answers to your questions.

–Social Communication–

1. Video DownloadHelper – Download videos from hundreds of different sites, such as YouTube.
2. StumbleUpon – Find other sites that you will like based upon the interests that you specify.
3. FoxyTunes – Control your media player from within Firefox.
4. PicLens – Create image slideshows from pictures on any website.
5. ChatZilla – Chat using IRC.
6. Clipmarks – Clip and share information from the websites that you visit.
7. iMacros for Firefox – This can memorize repetitive tasks, such as filling out forms, so that you can spend your time doing something else.
8. Yoono – Clip information from websites, and save it for future reference.
9. BlogRovr – Instantly fetches posts from your favorite sites depending on the site that your currently viewing.
10. Hyperwords – In a single click you get access to searches, references, and more for the highlighted text.

–Web Development–

1. Adblock Plus – Blocks advertisements on websites.
2. NoScript – Block all scripts from running in Firefox unless you explicitly whitelist a site.
3. IE Tab – Render websites using Internet Explorer from within Firefox.
4. Greasemonkey – Run custom scripts that can add functionality or alter the appearance of websites.
5. Fasterfox – Performance and network enhancements for Firefox.
6. Firebug – Advanced web developer tools, such as debugging and monitoring CSS.
7. Web Developer – Has various web developer tools housed in a single menu.
8. FireFTP – An FTP client that is built-in to Firefox.
9. Cooliris Previews – Shows a preview of websites and media when you hover your mouse over links.
10. All-in-One Sidebar – Switch between sidebar panels, and also view downloads and extensions right in the sidebar.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on September 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

Click to Enlarge

I find myself frequently mapping sites to figure out how to get from point A to point B, and today I’ve got an extension that will speed up the process even more. The extension is called Minimap Sidebar Extension, and it’s entire purpose is make viewing a map an unobtrusive and efficient process.

After installing the extension I found a site that had an address listed, and then dragged it over into the "drop zone" located in the sidebar. From there it mapped the address, and in just a few clicks I could get directions to that location. And you don’t have to worry about which mapping service it uses because it supports all of the big ones out-of-the-box: Google, Yahoo!, and Windows Live Local.

Here’s a list of the features it has:

• Drag and drop addresses, KML files (for Google Earth), or links that you want to be mapped
• Maps can be open in the sidebar or in a new tab
• Stores a list of addresses for future access
• Get the coordinates of a map
• Embed the map
• Automatically discover geoURL’s and in-line geotags
• Three views: Map, Satellite or Hybrid
• Works with Google, Yahoo!, and Windows Live Local mapping services to get directions to/from an entry and/or set a locally stored ‘Home Address’

This extension is really only for people who use maps frequently…if you hardly map anything you’ll probably forget to use the extension the few times it would probably come in handy. One thing that came to mind when seeing this is that it would really be useful when planning out vacations and looking for hotels/attractions.

Minimap Sidebar Extension [via Google Operating System]

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on March 27, 2008 by CyberNet.

Mozilla has just launched their new Firefox Add-ons site that shows off a sparkling and freshly revamped interface. Back in February we took a glimpse at what a preview of the new add-ons site had to offer, and overall I would say that it is a really nice improvement over the prior version.

The thing that I like the most is that the add-ons in the Sandbox are actually shown with the search results regardless of whether you are logged in. They are labeled as “experimental” add-ons if they are in the Sandbox, and if you want to install them you’ll still need to login. At least users will know that the add-ons exist which was a big complaint of the extension developers that I had talked to before. It was almost discouraging for developers to create extensions since they weren’t widely available to the public right away.

There are two things that I don’t like though. The first is that there is still no way to customize the sort order of your search results. I’m sure this has to do with performance issues, but I hate not being able to see my search results according to popularity or most recently released.

The second thing that I don’t like, and this is quite a doozy for me, is that the site now checks what version of Firefox you’re running. And guess what, it won’t let you install an extension that doesn’t meet the version requirements specified by the developer. If an extension is compatible with your Firefox you’ll see the typical button on the pictured on the left side below, otherwise it will be replaced with the button on the right:

I looked around and I saw no place where I could change this setting, and seeing that I’m the type of person who likes to test out pre-release versions of Firefox this can cause a lot of headaches. I’m currently running Firefox 3 Beta 4, and many of the extensions are disabled for me since the developers haven’t gotten around to updating them. Sure this is nice so that people don’t think an extension will work with their version of Firefox, but what about people who want to try them anyway?

Check it out and let us know what you think about the new site.

Firefox Add-ons Homepage
Thanks to Yansky for the tip!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on April 16, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Sometimes it’s hard to grasp just how valuable something as simple as a screenshot can be. When we first started writing on CyberNet we didn’t always focus on providing screenshots of the things that we wrote about, but it didn’t take long for us to see that they often got our point across more than words ever could. And that is part of what’s made our site as successful as it is.

So what about taking screenshots yourself? Sure there are all kinds of applications out there to do it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the screenshots you want to take are only of websites. If that’s the case and you’re a Firefox user then this is the article for you! Today we’ve got two different Firefox extensions that will appeal to both novices and professionals alike.

–Abduction (Homepage)–

First up is Abduction. This extension is rather different from the other one below. It’s not geared towards the people who want a screenshot utility brimming with features. Instead it focuses on how it can make snapping screenshots as easy as possible.

To activate Abduction just go to the File menu or right-click anywhere on the current site, and then choose the Save Page as Image option. You’ll immediately be shown a window similar to this one:

 
(Click to Enlarge)

Immediately after snapping the screenshot the entire site will be highlighted. That means if you hit the Save button without making any changes you’ll be including everything on the page… even the areas you would have had to scroll to see. That can easily be changed by drawing a box around the area that you want the screenshot to capture.

Abduction also lets you choose whether to save the screenshot as a PNG or JPG depending on what filetype is your preference. That’s it. No fancy interface and nothing to confuse you. Just snap your screenshots and go!

–FireShot (Homepage)–

FireShot, on the other hand, takes a completely opposite approach to screenshots. It’s possible to grab snapshots of a website in mere seconds, but it comes with a lot of additional tools that some users may not want. In particular it has a built-in editor that is extremely handy should you decide that you want to annotate a screenshot.

Here’s a list of features that I assembled after using FireShot for a little while:

• You can take a screenshot of the entire site (including scrollable area) or just the area currently visible. And then:
  • Modify the screenshot using the built-in editor
  • Upload it to screenshot-program.com where it will be hosted completely free
  • Save it to your computer
  • Copy it to the clipboard
  • Open it in an external editor that you specify
• Built-in advanced editor
• Add shapes, drawings, lines, or text to any screenshot
• Crop, blur, convert to grayscale, invert colors, or add a glowing border to any area you select on the screenshot
• Color-picker available when selecting colors, which makes it easy to match any color on a screenshot
• One-click screenshots are available using the settings you specify in the options.
• You can automatically have a website URL added as a removable object to each screenshot

The editor aims to keep things simple, but it has a lot of different controls that take a little getting used to. Here is what the editor looks like:

(Click to Enlarge)

–Overview–

The Firefox extension that you choose to use for taking screenshot really depends on what you’re looking to accomplish. If you just want to share a screenshot with someone I recommend Abduction because I found it to be a fast and efficient way to save a screenshot. However, if you need to point things out and need some more advanced tools FireShot will better suit you. Whichever you choose you really can’t go wrong!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on February 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

This morning when I woke up I noticed that I had more than 20 tabs open in Firefox that I still needed to sort through and read. Most of them were articles that I found the previous day, but never got around to reading. Despite having a 24” monitor I still find that having 20 tabs open takes up a lot of room, and what I really needed was a folder-like structure for my tabs.

Some of you might be thinking that I should just bookmark the items into a temporary folder to read later on. That’s not a bad idea, but I’ve tried that before and I typically forget about reading them. So I did what every Firefox user does…went and searched Mozilla’s Firefox Extension page for something that would fulfill my needs.

I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t find anything. I then turned to Google trying to see if I could find something that would do what I was looking for. After about 30–minutes I came across an extension called Tab Groups that was just released three weeks ago. My initial thought was “why didn’t I see this on the Firefox Extension page?” which I later found out was because the developer has not yet submitted this to Mozilla.

It sounded like exactly what I needed so I went ahead and installed it. As you can see in the screenshot above it creates a new toolbar that essentially adds tabs to your tabs. Here are features it currently offers:

• Tab Groups: Grouping of tabs into groups with a tab bar to manage groups, only the browser tabs in the currently selected group are shown.
• New tabs are opened in current group
• Drag And Drop of tabs between groups
• Renaming of groups
• Support for Session Store (Firefox 2 built in session storage) and undo-close tab (again only the one built into FF2). In other words tab groups will be restored along with tabs with restored tabs being placed in the correct group.

This extension is only for Firefox 2 users which makes sense since it uses the built-in session restore to remember tab groupings. There are some known bugs that you should also consider before getting cozy with the extension, such as a lack of “group overflow” management. That means if you have too many groupings they will extend beyond the edge of your Firefox window and simply run off of the screen without allowing you to scroll and see them.

I also began thinking about some features that would be pretty cool to see in this extension, such as bookmarking a whole group of tabs. Then I noticed the Planned Features section for the extension which says that particular feature should be in version 0.05 which is currently three releases away (it’s currently at 0.02). Looking at the Planned Features page will make you realize that the developer has a lot of things he/she would like to do with the extension, and I can’t wait.

I’m currently using this on a Firefox 3 nightly and it is running great, except for a small gap between the grouping tabs and the Tabbar (pictured above), but that is something I can live with. I’m actually not sure if that problem is with Firefox 3 or if it is the visual properties of Vista that’s causing the problem…either way it doesn’t detract from the value that the extension adds.

Tab Groups Homepage
Here is a mirror of Tab Groups 0.2 (I recommend downloading from the homepage since it will probably be frequently updated).

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com