Basing the Firefox Website History on the User’s Memory

This article was written on January 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox

This is one thing that I really hope makes it into Firefox 3: a new method for browsing your website history. The screenshot above shows a mockup that Alex Faaborg, a User Experience Designer working on Firefox 3, came up with. I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed with the amount of usability this would offer:

In this design, browsing history is chunked into segments by time, and specific events (like typing a search, or opening a new tab and entering a URL) will automatically create a new segment. Each browsing segment is grouped under the action that initiated the series of viewed web pages. These segments could be collapsed by default to reduce the amount of information initially presented.

The small thumbnails next to page titles are generated from the top half of the page. While my point about users remembering the visual appearance of sites probably sounded like I was heading towards full sized thumbnails, I believe all of the same visual cues that larger thumbnails would provide can be effectively packed into a smaller space.

As it stands right now I’m not a big fan of trudging the search history that Firefox currently offers (other browsers aren’t much better). They do break it up by day and have a nice find-as-you-type feature, but it can still be hard to dig up exactly what you’re looking for.

Actually, the thing that I find most useful is the Google Search History. Some people would argue that using this tool is a bad thing because Google has permission to store all of your searches, but I use it so much that I am willing to give that info to Google. The Google Search History, for those of you not familiar with it, stores your searches so that you can always go back and find that one particular website that you spent hours searching for. It breaks the results up by each day and will list the query that you made along with the search results that you clicked on. Of course, this is Google that we’re talking about so you can also search your Search History, duh!

The Google Search History is not only useful, but it can also be fun. In a few clicks you can pull up trends for when you search for information the most. I’ve been using the Google Search History since April 21, 2005 and have done 19,614 searches since that time. Here is how the trends breaks it down for me:

Google Search History  

Looking at the hourly search activity you can obviously see when I’m at my computer the most. :D

So how does this tie into the Firefox History? I just wanted to point out that keeping track of websites a user visits can be really useful if it is done right. I use the Google Search History on a daily basis to find sites that I’ve forgotten to bookmark or ones that I never thought I would use again. If Mozilla goes about redesigning the history in a way that makes it easier to navigate I think more people would be willing to use it. Judging from the mockup I would say that they are definitely on the right track…I just hope that it will be ready in time for Firefox 3.

Thanks to “Jack of all Trades” for the tip!

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Mozilla Firefox Security Bug Not Quite Fixed

This article was written on October 24, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firefox Security Crash An anonymous tipster sent in this bug that Mozilla fixed in Firefox 1.5.0.7 but it is supposed to crash your browser. It is interesting because the bug is still working and will crash your browser. I was intrigued so, like most of you probably will, I popped open the demonstration site (OPENING THAT SITE WILL MAKE YOUR BROWSER CRASH) in Firefox 2 and my browser crashed! The site, which is in the screenshot to the right, says to wait approximately 20 seconds but it took less than 5 for my browser to crash.

Update:
As Dave pointed out below you will need to have JavaScript enabled in order for this to affect you.

I haven’t tried it in Firefox 1.5.0.7 but the result should still be the same since the bug also says that it is fixed in Firefox 2. The Security Advisory page for this bug says “We have seen no demonstration that these crashes could be reliably exploited, but they do show evidence of memory corruption so we presume they could be.

So how many of you will be sending the demonstration link to your friends to see how many times they will try and open it before they give up?

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Firefox 4 Beta 5 brings GPU acceleration for Windows

Browser betas, like puberty, can be a confusing time. Sure, we’re eager to be getting new functionality, but all the crashes and compatibility breaks and unrequited crushes can be a bit tough to handle. Now Mozilla is giving us something big for all our blood, sweat and acne: Firefox 4 Beta 5 has Direct2D hardware acceleration on by default. We tested it out real quick, and it seemed to speed up most HTML5 tasks considerably while inexplicably slowing a couple down, but we’re sure all will be ironed out in time for the final version of Firefox 4 to go head to head with Microsoft’s own upcoming hardware accelerated contender, IE9. Unfortunately, the speedups only apply to Windows for now, Mac and Linux are being left out in the GPU-less cold, but we suppose they should be used to that by now. Other perks in the update include HSTS, a successor to HTTPS in secure surfing, and HTML5 Audio, which allows for all sorts of audio processing and analysis at the browser level. You can check out a quick demo of hardware acceleration after the break.

Continue reading Firefox 4 Beta 5 brings GPU acceleration for Windows

Firefox 4 Beta 5 brings GPU acceleration for Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox 3 Alpha 8 – Bookmark Tagging, App Preferences, and More

This article was written on September 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox 3 Alpha 8 Screenshot 

We weren’t exactly sure whether the next milestone in the Firefox 3 pre-release lifecycle was going to be an Alpha or a Beta, but we know now. Mozilla just released Firefox 3 Alpha 8 as another developer preview, and judging by the current state I would say that they will be ready to start the Beta builds soon.

According to the release notes here are all of the new features since Firefox 3 Alpha 7:

  • Basic and unpolished UI for starring and tagging pages has been added, as well as a richer Location Bar autocomplete algorithm that matches against page title. Here are possible mockups of upcoming features.
  • Prompt for remembering passwords is no longer a modal dialog
  • Built in malware protection (which you can test here)
  • Basic and unpolished UI for indicating richer website identity information has been added
  • A new Applications preference panel for configuring handlers for various content types has replaced the Download Actions dialog and the Feeds preference panel
    Firefox 3 Application Manager
  • All Firefox add-ons must now use a secure method for auto-updating
  • Firefox now quits properly (instead of just being killed) when Windows is shut down or restarted
  • You can also see the full list of all bugs fixed since Gran Paradiso Alpha 7

So the next milestone still hasn’t been classified as an Alpha or Beta build, but it should be released either way around the end of October. Despite having a lot of work to do on the Bookmark Organizer I still think that they can get all of the groundwork laid so that they can begin the Beta process. As always we’ll keep you informed of the new feature as they become available in the nightly builds.

Download Firefox 3 Alpha 8:
Microsoft Windows 2000 or later
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Linux

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Fennec (a.k.a. Firefox Mobile) goes alpha for Android and Nokia N900

Well, it looks like you can finally get rid of that less-than-stable pre-alpha release of Fennec (a.k.a. Firefox Mobile) for Android — Mozillla has just released the full alpha release for not only Android (2.0 and later), but the Nokia N900 as well. The big news with this release is an increase in “performance and responsiveness to user actions” (always a good thing), as well as two new features dubbed “Electrolysis” and “Layers,” the former of which lets the browser interface run in a separate process from the one rendering web content, while the latter promises to “greatly improve performance in graphic intensive actions like scrolling, zooming, animations and video.” You’ll also get full support for add-ons, and Firefox Sync built into the browser to let you have a continuous experience as you move between devices. Hit up the link below for the download link, and for a quick video overview of what’s in store.

Fennec (a.k.a. Firefox Mobile) goes alpha for Android and Nokia N900 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WrapUp: Windows 7 Relaxes CableCard Restrictions, Google Spreadsheets’ SQL-like Syntax, and More

This article was written on September 14, 2009 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

media center.jpgWindows 7 Relaxes CableCard Restrictions
Microsoft released information last week stating that Windows 7 would give all PC owners the ability to add CableCards to their machines. Prior to this you could only buy CableCards with select OEM PC’s. What does this mean? Basically with CableCards you’re able to record encrypted cable channels using Windows Media Center. This could prove to be some stiff competition for Tivo considering there are no monthly service fees associated with a Media Center PC.


ipod touch camera-1.jpgLeaked iPod Touch with Camera Photos were Real
Last week Apple released new iPod Nano’s with video recording capabilities, but many people were left puzzled when the same functionality was left out of their high-end iPod Touch product line. The internals of the new iPod Touch show striking similarities to the photos that were leaked prior to Apple’s announcements, and provide some solid evidence that the iPod Touch was indeed supposed to have a camera.


dropbox.jpgDropbox Adds More Functionality
Dropbox is an amazing way to keep files in sync between all your machines, but their web interface has always been a little lackluster. They’ve added some new functionality including keyboard shortcuts, interface and usability improvements, and true bulk operations that make their website a lot better.


drop.io yahoo mail.jpgAttach 100MB Files in Yahoo! Mail with Drop.io
Yahoo! only lets you attach files up to 20MB to your emails, but thanks to some third-party integration that limit is now five times larger. To use the service you’ll have to click the “Get Started” link on this page to enable the use of apps, and then you should see an option in your mail sidebar to “Attach Large Files.” It’s not as integrated as I’d like to see it, but it’s still nice being able to send 100MB attachments without leaving the Yahoo! Mail interface.


jump to google.jpgGoogle’s “Jump to” Option in Search Results
When performing certain searches on Google you may find a “jump to” option offered right before the description of the result. Clicking on this link will take you directly to the part of the page related to what you’re searching for. For this to work Google is looking for “internal bookmarks/links” on a page. That’s why you’ll often find that Wikipedia results will show up with this option since it uses internal links in their table of contents to jump to various parts of the page.


–News in Brief–

opera moble.jpgOpera to Unveil “the Next Generation in Mobile Browsing”
Opera has put together a teaser page for something they will be unveiling very soon.


chrome extensions.jpgChrome Turns Extensions on in Dev Channel
Google Chrome users running the developer version of the browser should be pleased to hear that you can now install extensions by default, which means this feature should be getting closer to prime time.


windows 7 background harmony.jpgWindows 7 RTM not Affected by Latest Flaw
A recently discovered vulnerability makes it possible for a hacker to remotely control a system, but only affects Windows Vista, Server 2008, and pre-release versions of Windows 7.


android logo.jpgAndroid has 10,000+ Applications Available
The Google Android mobile OS now has over 10,000 applications available for download, and 65% of those apps are free.


firefox warning.jpgFirefox 3.5.3 Introduces Flash Update Notifications
In an attempt to keep users safe, Mozilla will now display a notification for anyone running Firefox if they have an old version of the Flash plugin. In the future the browser will also look for updates to other common plugins.


facebook lite.jpgFacebook Lite Keeps Things Simple
Facebook users in the U.S. and India can now take advantage of a simpler Facebook interface that feels a bit Twitter-like.


live hotmail.jpgHotmail Getting More Improvements
Hotmail is rolling out some changes including auto-saving of drafts, keyboard shortcuts that closely match what’s used in Gmail, mobile improvements, and more.


opera unite beta.jpgOpera Unite Hits Beta Stage
The first Beta of Opera Unite has finally been released, and it’s significantly more stable than previous versions according to Download Squad.


hubble photo.jpgHubble Takes more Amazing Photos after Repair Mission
These are the first photos sent back from the Hubble Space Telescope after undergoing a rather extensive repair and service mission.


google earth.jpgGoogle Earth 5.1 Gets Faster
The newest Beta of Google Earth not only uses less memory than previous versions, but is also 25% faster at starting up.


–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

windows 7 login image changer.jpgWindows 7 Login Background Changer
Want to freshen up that background image you see when you login to Windows 7? This free and open source application will let you select an image you want to use when logging into your machine. What I really like about this WPF-based solution is that it doesn’t modify any system files on your machine.


itunes watched folder.jpgiTunes 9 Introduces a “Watched” Folder
iTunes 9 has finally added a highly requested feature: a watched folder. This folder resides in your music library, and any music added to it will automatically be imported into your library. Unfortunately this directory cannot be changed, and I suspect that Apple added it for the new “Home Sharing” features that let you automatically add music from other libraries on your network. It’s still nice to have though.


gmail down.jpgHow to Access Gmail when it’s Down
With the recent Gmail outages some people are trying more than ever to make sure that they’ll still be able to access their messages even when the service is down. Normally when Gmail’s web interface goes down the IMAP/POP3 is still functional, and that’s what most people turn to. This article provides a few other alternatives such as checking the mobile version, using the iGoogle gadget, and more.


postbox email app.jpgPostbox Email App Leaves Beta, Charges $40
Over the last few months Postbox has definitely been one of the most talked about desktop email clients. It was available for free when it was in the Beta stage, but now it will run you $40 for a license. It is definitely a nice email client, but they are in a tough spot. There are a lot of free desktop email clients out there, and I’d venture to guess that a majority of the money spent on desktop email clients goes towards Outlook. And then there’s also the fact that the web interfaces for email services like Gmail are evolving at a rather rapid pace.


google docs query.jpgGoogle Spreadsheets Gets SQL-like Syntax
Anyone familiar with SQL might enjoy the new “QUERY” function that was recently added to Google Spreadsheets. This function uses Gviz syntax to imitate SQL syntax right there in your document. It’s still a bit limited at this point… “SELECT” statements are the primary use, but you can add “ORDER BY,” “GROUP BY,” “LIMIT,” and more within your query. Hopefully it will branch out to become even more powerful.


–Tips in Brief–

itunes 9 windows 7.jpgiTunes 9 has Jump List Support in Windows 7
iTunes 9 was released last week, and anyone using Windows 7 can already take advantage of the included Jump List support. If you hover over the icon you can pause, play, or skip music, and you can receive additional options by right-clicking on the icon.


pause emails.jpgPause Incoming Emails
This Outlook 2007 add-on from Microsoft will let you pause incoming emails so that they are not shown until you are ready to read them. This keeps you from getting distracted while you’re trying to work, and can also keep things quiet while you’re giving a presentation.


coral ie tab.jpgCoral IE Tab for Firefox
This Firefox extension is based on the popular IE Tab add-on, but takes it one step further. It is able to save your cookies and also works with Adblock Plus, which are things the original extension can’t boast.


google voice sms.jpgGoogle Voice Adds Email Forwarding/Replies to SMS
Google will now let you view and reply to any SMS messages received through Google Voice right from your Inbox.


easeus backup.jpgAnother Free Backup Utility
As we’ve said in the past… there’s never a shortage of free backup utilities. What makes this one a bit different is that you can use it to backup and restore an entire partition or drive.


–Downloads–

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Firefox Extension Puts Personalized Homepage In Sidebar

This article was written on August 09, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firefox Extension Puts Personalized Homepage In SidebarIt looks like Google changed some things that prevented people from adding your Google Personalized Homepage to the Firefox sidebar. It still works but all of your modules will be compressed and virtually unreadable. The fix comes in the form of an extension called the IGoogle Sidebar.

The extension works quite simply by filling the sidebar with all the modules located in the far left column of your Personalized Homepage. It also removes the Google header, search box, footer, and margins making it fit really nicely. There are also plans to make the modules collapsible in a future release.

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CyberNotes: Google Maps Firefox Extensions

This article was written on August 06, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Web Browser Wednesday

Google Maps is hands down my favorite online mapping service because it has a simplistic design, which in the end makes it load extremely fast. Not only that but they offer features not found on other mapping services, including Street View, Wikipedia integration, and even walking directions.

Naturally when there is a great web service people will start making Firefox extensions that take full advantage of it, and that’s exactly what’s happened with Google Maps. Below we’ve got our top 5 Firefox extensions that push Google Maps (and some other mapping services) to the limits.

–CyberSearch (Homepage)–

CyberSearch is the advanced Google Search extension that we’ve created, and one of the services it supports is Google Maps. What this gives you is full access to the Google Maps database right from the Firefox 3 address bar. When searching for a location it will also provide the address and phone number right there in the title, and clicking on a result will take you to the Google Maps page.

cybersearch local.png

–GDirections (Homepage)–

This extension is pretty simple because all it does is provide a context menu entry to pull up a highlighted address on Google Maps. Just select an address on the screen, right-click on it, go to GDirections and choose the map option. You can also go into the preferences and customize up to three default home/from addresses so that you can get quick directions.

Note: This extension also works with Yahoo! Maps.

gdirections-1.png

–All Your Maps Are Belong To Us (Homepage)–

Not much to see here. This extension pretty much does everything in the background without you ever noticing. Anytime it recognizes a URL pointing to another mapping service (like Yahoo!) it will automatically reroute the links to point to Google Maps. There’s no list of what services it supports, but Yahoo is definitely one of them.

–Mini Map Sidebar (Homepage)–

Do all of your mapping right from the Firefox sidebar with the Mini Map extension. This has an incredible interface setup to navigate, search, and obtain directions all from the comfort of your Firefox sidebar. Plus mapping an address is as simple as dragging and dropping it into the dropzone located below the maps.

Note: This extension also works with Yahoo! Maps.

mini map.png

–Locator (Homepage)–

This is actually very similar to the Mini Map extension mentioned above, but instead of opening in the sidebar it opens in either a new tab or new window. I actually prefer to have the map open in a new tab so that I have a much larger viewing area available to me, and that’s the primary reason I’ve chosen to use this extension over Mini Map.

To get a map of an address all you have to do is highlight the address on the page, right-click, and then use the “Locate on Google Map” option to have it open a map for you.

locator.jpg

–Overview–

As you can see there are a variety of different extensions available that put the full power of Google Maps right at your fingertips. Plus the fact that they make getting a map just a click away can save you a ton of time.

If you’ve got a favorite Google Maps extension be sure to let us know in the comments!

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Firefox 2.0 Alpha Set For February

This article was written on January 16, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firefox 2.0 Alpha Set For February

The growing popularity of Firefox means the developers will work harder and push for quicker releases. With the final release of Firefox 1.5 just over a month ago, they are now pushing for a February release date of the 2.0 version of Firefox. The downside is that it will not be feature complete and I am sure it will lack extension compatibility for quite some time (just like Firefox 1.5 did). It will be, however, fun to see where they plan on taking the future of Firefox. I am sure they are also trying to compete with the March release of Internet Explorer 7.0 which many people seem to be anticipating.

Plans for Firefox 3.0 are being set for the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007. It is hard to imagine that they haven’t even finalized 2.0 and they are already making 3.0, but nothing will ever shock me when it comes to Firefox and their developers because they seem to think of everything.

News Source: BetaNews

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New Poll: Do You Use the Default Firefox Theme?

This article was written on September 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

Calling all Firefox users! If you’re a Firefox user, we are wondering if you stick with the default theme or if you venture out and find a custom theme. There are hundreds of themes out there that appeal to users for various reasons whether it be the colors or something else. Despite this, many people still stick to the plain’ ole Firefox theme which we should add, isn’t all that bad for those who like to keep things simple.

New Poll: Do you use the default Firefox theme?

  • Yes, I use the default Firefox theme
  • No, I use a custom Firefox theme
  • I don’t use Firefox

Cast your vote below if you have Flash enabled or vote in the sidebar to the right.

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

We had a great response for our previous poll where we asked how much your monthly cell-phone cost you. It looks like many of you try to keep your cell-phone costs to a minimum with 37% of you saying that your bill is under $50 each month. Next was 29% of you who said your bill ranged between $51-$100 per month. A good amount of you, 13% said you didn’t even have to worry about a cell phone bill!

cell phone bill poll results.png

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