Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

One of the my favorite things in Firefox and Opera is having the ability to perform searches right from the location bar using keywords. In fact I’ve always removed the search box from the browser simply because I never use it. But when I found out about the Peers extension I thought it was going to be the extension that would actually get me to use the search box once and for all. I was wrong.

Ghacks uncovered an incredible extension that could very well be the best one ever created. I know, a lot of extensions have passed through the golden gates of the add-ons site, but I don’t think any of them will save me as much time as this one does.

The extension is called AwesomeSearch, which is named after the new Firefox 3 location bar (pictured above) that’s dubbed the “Awesome Bar.” With it you’ll get Google and Amazon search results intermingled with the items from your browser’s history. Here’s a video demonstration put together by the author to show you how it works.

As you can see in my screenshot the search results that are pulled in are highlighted with a blue background, and that makes it easier to differentiate what’s a search result and what’s a site you’ve previously visited. The true power of the extension, however, will only be revealed if you’re familiar with some of Google’s advanced search operators. A good example of this is what I have typed into the location bar in my screenshot, where the “site:cybernetnews.com” is the advanced search operator. By including that as part of the query it only returns results from our site. This basically gives you a nearly instantaneous way to search specific sites. Another example would be using “site:en.wikipedia.org” to only show results from the English Wikipedia site. Now do you see why this is so cool?

I sent an email to the developer with some recommendations that would make the extension even better. One of the things that came to my mind was having the ability to create keyword searches so that you can force it to only show Google results, and not anything from your browser’s history. That can be taken even further by being able to automatically append text onto the query based upon which keyword you use. For example, typing “wiki [search text]” into the location bar would actually be like performing a Google search formatted like “[search text] site:en.wikipedia.org“. That’s just an idea, but it would give people the chance to add site-specific search capabilities without the developer working overtime trying to make it compatible with dozens of different services.

The extension is currently in the experimental stage, and you’ll have to login with your Mozilla account to install it. It’s also not officially compatible with the latest Firefox 3 release, which means you’ll also need to ignore extension compatibility checking before trying to grab it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten this excited about a Firefox extension! One thing that I do want to point out is that this does also search Amazon, and it uses affiliate links for the results it retrieves. It’s just an easy way to support the developer though.

Get the AwesomeSearch Extension for Firefox 3

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

With the Firefox 3 release right around the corner I thought this would be a good time to look over the extensions available, and see which ones haven’t been updated. There’s actually a descent amount that still need to be updated before they will work with the final release, but if you look around many have pre-release versions that they are getting ready to roll out.

So what we’ve got for you today are instructions on downloading/installing extensions that aren’t officially compatible, a list of extensions that currently have Beta versions that work with Firefox 3, and finally a few extensions that already appear to be extinct. The lists are by no means comprehensive, but I also figured that everyone can chime in below with your own findings.

–Forcing Compatibility–

Using the trick we’re about to show you it’s possible to bypass any compatibility checking, which means you’ll be able to install (not necessarily run) any extension. This is obviously not recommended for everyone, and you should only use this as a last-ditch effort.

1. In the Address Bar type about:config followed by the Enter key. Continue through the warning message if it’s shown.
2. Right-click in the main area, and select New -> Boolean
   
3. Enter extensions.checkCompatibility into the box that appears, and click the OK button.
   
4. Then choose false in the next window.
5. Now you can install any extension, but remember that they are not guaranteed to work. I’ve seemed to have pretty good results with this though.

One problem that you might notice is that when you go to install an extension that’s not compatible with your version of Firefox the “Add to Firefox” button will be grayed out. This is quickly remedied by going to the “All Versions” page, and you’ll find a link to that following the description of the add-on:

Once on that page you can download the most recent version of the add-on without the site checking what version of Firefox you’re running, but you’ll need to follow the steps outlined above before being able to actually install it.

–Currently in Development–

I know that some of you are waiting for certain extensions to get upgraded before you’ll make the jump to Firefox 3, and so I’ve assembled a list of eight rather popular ones that will definitely have new versions coming out. Each of these already have a pre-release version publicly available, which may persuade you to make the switch a little early.

• Sage [Homepage]
  This is the much beloved RSS feed reader, but it hasn’t been updated since January 2007. Someone else has begun reworking it to make it play nice with Firefox 3, and the new version can be downloaded here.
• FEBE [Homepage]
  You can use this to backup your extensions, and for some people it’s a rather critical extension to have. They are currently working on the next milestone release, and the Beta version is available which works with Firefox 3.
• FireFTP [Homepage]
  Ever want to have an FTP client in your browser? With FireFTP you can, but you’ll need to download the preview release if you want Firefox 3 compatibility.
• FoxyTunes [Homepage]
  Controlling your media player has never been so easy, but Firefox 3 users were starting to get worried that this add-on wasn’t going to be updated. Despite not having released a new version in almost a year they do have FoxyTunes 3 Beta publicly available, which includes Firefox 3 support.
• Firebug [Homepage]
  Most web developers absolutely love this extension, and the good news is that a version for Firefox 3 is right around the corner. If you’re a bit anxious you can hop on over and download Firebug 1.2 Beta.
• ColorfulTabs [Homepage]
  Make your tabs more identifiable with this extension, and Firefox 3 users will find a Beta version here.
• Tab Mix Plus [Homepage]
  It’s safe to say that this is the all-in-one solution for anything you want to do with tabs. And work for a Firefox 3 version is always going on.
• Smart Bookmarks Bar [Homepage]
  Save some room on the Bookmarks toolbar by only showing icons. The latest release, available from here, is compatible with Firefox 3.

–All Good Things Must Come to an End–

There are a handful of extensions that I have come across which you shouldn’t hold out too much hope for. These three look like they will become extinct:

• VideoDownloader [Homepage]
  With this extension you can download videos from 60+ movie sites, but it has been kicked back into the “experimental” stage (meaning you’ll need a Mozilla account to download it) even though it has an astounding 13 million downloads. It would likely be one of the most downloaded extensions right now, but it hasn’t seen an update in nearly 2 years. So don’t get your hopes up for this one.
• MinimizeToTray [Homepage]
  A lot of people are going to be disappointed to hear that the MinimizeToTray extension doesn’t work with Firefox 3, and it doesn’t look like there are any plans to fix it. The last update was in October 2006 just in time for Firefox 2, and there’s been no mention of a new version being worked on. Yikes!
• Tab Groups [Homepage]
  This project didn’t last very long, and that’s disappointing because it’s an extension that I really enjoyed. It’s only had one release, and there’s no sign that the developer is still working on it.

–Overview–

And now we turn the keyboard over to you, our trusty readers. Let us know in the comments below which extensions you’re holding out for, and which ones have pre-release versions that you’ve been tinkering with.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

This was surely a long time coming, but it looks like there is a real add-on available for users who want to download BitTorrent files in Firefox. Previously we had reviewed FoxTorrent that worked as expected, but it had to install an additional application that was used to do the dirty work. It basically just used Firefox as a Web interface for the application.

The new add-on, called FireTorrent, doesn’t install any additional applications on your computer. On my Vista machine I had some troubles getting it installed because the add-on does modify Firefox’s chrome located in the directory where you installed Firefox. For that reason I’m not sure if this should really be classified as an extension. This also means that it isn’t stored in your Firefox profile folder like other extensions, so you will need to reinstall this each time you wipe Firefox from you computer (even if you have your profile backed up).

With that being said the FireTorrent add-on works extremely well after you install it. I clicked on a link to a Torrent and I saw the exact same popup that I would see if I was downloading a normal file. It asked if I wanted to open or save the file, and after picking an option I was taken to the normal Firefox download manager except it had a new "Torrent" tab on it:

I like that it is so well integrated into Firefox because it now seems like a natural process to download Torrents, just like with the Opera browser.

Clicking on the "More Info" link next to a download will reveal things like how many sources you’re downloading from as well as how fast you’re uploading. I had almost though they forgot to include this essential information, but instead they just did a good job of keeping the interface free of clutter.

It also has several options available that lets you customize things like the upload/download speed limitations in addition to the port number that’s used. Here are two screenshots that show all of the settings it has to pick from:

Click to Enlarge

Graphically FireTorrent seems to be lacking a little bit as seen in the screenshots. The background color seems to be a little off, but that might be attributed to me using this on a Firefox 3 nightly build.

As far as download speeds go I would say that they are pretty good. Not quite what I get from a dedicated BitTorrent application, but I didn’t expect to get outstanding results. The entire point of having BitTorrent capabilities built-in to the browser is for the added convenience. If I had a huge file to download (several gigabytes) I would using a BitTorrent program to download it since I’ll get the best performance.

If you’re looking to add some BitTorrent goodness to your Firefox I would recommend checking FireTorrent out. Alternatively they also create a browser called Wyzo that is based on Firefox and has the BitTorrent integration already installed (and actually has a pretty cool skin).

Source: Mozilla Links

Thanks to netster007x for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Now that Firefox 3 is approaching the home stretch it is important that Mozilla starts to throw in performance improvements to really make the browser purr. Over in our forum xpgeek pointed out that a Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO) build of Firefox 3 had been created which greatly improved the performance of JavaScript in the browser. While PGO itself hasn’t yet landed in the nightly builds there have been some significant improvements to the JavaScript engine.

I’m sure what most of you care the most about are the facts, and so I’ve compiled the results of the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test for each of the different browsers. All of the tests below were performed on the same Windows machine, and the Firefox 3 nightly builds definitely came out on top. Here are the results sorted from best to worst (each one is hyperlinked to the full stats):

1. Firefox 3 Nightly (PGO Optimized): 7263.8ms
2. Firefox 3 Nightly (02/25/2008 build): 8219.4ms
3. Opera 9.5.9807 Beta: 10824.0ms
4. Firefox 3 Beta 3: 16080.6ms
5. Safari 3.0.4 Beta: 18012.6ms
6. Firefox 2.0.0.12: 29376.4ms
7. Internet Explorer 7: 72375.0ms

It’s important to know that every time you run the SunSpider Benchmark it conducts each test five times, and the result is the average of the five tests. So it is a rather thorough test, and definitely shows off the speed improvements that Firefox 3 is going to be bringing to the table.

What does this all mean for you? Depending on what browser you typically use you may not notice a huge speed difference, but the change will be the most noticeable on sites that use JavaScript heavily. With the Web 2.0 era upon us all JavaScript speed enhancements are welcomed with open arms.

Firefox 3 Beta 4 is expected to be released in the next few weeks, and you can expect to see these (and many more) improvements shining through!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

Click to Enlarge

Alright, many of us have been waiting for Mozilla to get Places into the Firefox Alpha releases and it has finally happened. Alpha 5 comes to us one-week late, but marks the beginning of Places which could end up being a beautiful thing. The only thing is that the user interface changes are still very minor so don’t expect to see any of the cool things, but as I previously mentioned Places is indeed working in the background to manage your bookmarks.

The password changes are also quite important for extension developers who leverage off of the current password system in Firefox. Justin Dolske said that "the new Login Manager has one downside… The interfaces for using it have changed, so extensions that might have been using the old interfaces will need to be updated to use the new ones instead." So this is probably the point where you will start to see more extensions fade into the sunset until developers get around to updating them.

Okay, so let’s take a look at the new stuff in this release:

• Bookmarks portion of Places has been enabled.
• New crash reporting system, Breakpad. It’s enabled by default on Mac OS X, on about 50% of Windows installations, and not yet available on Linux. You can also view crash reports at this site.
• New Javascript-based Password Manager. More details available here.
• Support for Growl notification under Mac OS X
• Support for native controls on Mac OS X
• Miscellaneous Gecko 1.9 bug fixes

If that sounds appetizing for you, then the English downloads are currently at your beckon call:

• Windows: Gran Paradiso Setup Alpha 5.exe
• Mac OS X: Gran Paradiso Alpha 5.dmg
• Linux: granparadiso-alpha5.tar.bz2

Looking ahead at Alpha 6 (scheduled for June 29) we should see a much more developed Places implemented. This will include a synchronization client, starring and tagging capabilities, and a unified organizer. Also in Alpha 6 should be a better download manager which I believe is very much needed.

Then comes the move into the Beta’s. The first Beta is scheduled for July 31, and by that time all of the features (including the user interface) should be in place. They’ll start working on fixing everything they have gotten implemented so that they can ship Firefox 3 the third quarter of 2007.

Also, development for Opera 9.5 is underway, which is also supposed to bring some nice things to the table. I haven’t seen any official mentioning of new features, but I’m sure the Opera team will thrown in some pretty cool surprises.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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