Archive | December, 2007

Bookmarklets and Link Helpers

Dec/31 in Resources, Usability

Thanks to some of the best bookmarklets out there on the Web, I feel like I have become a more organized and productive person. With the new year heading in, I figured this might be a good time to remind you to clean out the junk in your Firefox links bar and add some new things that might also help you become a better browser via your browser.

bookmark.png Toolbar-less StumbleUpon
I love StumbleUpon as much as the next guy, but the toolbar they provide is quickly becoming cluttered with stuff I don’t really care about viewing.

bookmark.png Gmail This!
If you find yourself as a user of Gmail sending a lot of stuff back and forth to friends, this is a bookmarklet that is as handy as any extension out there. Get a pop up window with an e-mail ready to go with the link of the web site you are on. You could use it right now to send this article over to Bob down the street. Go ahead and do it, I promise he won’t mind.

bookmark.png ShareThis
This service makes it super easy to get to sharing just about anything at just about all the biggest bookmarking and social link sharing web sites out there. Digg, delicious, and more. Continue Reading →

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Firefox Holiday Limbo Link List

Dec/29 in Resources

Might be a little shorter this week, but here are the Firefox and Mozilla links that caught my eye for this week. Remember, if you want more suggested reading from Firefox Facts, be sure to check out the resources section for more.

Have an interesting link to share or pass my way? Leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll be more than happy to share it with the masses.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Copy Your URLs in Every Open Tab

Dec/28 in Settings

Copy All URLsIf you are looking for an extension to copy all the URLs in the open tabs you have in Firefox, there is only one choice you have. Copy All URLs does the job and it does it well.

After installing – all you need to do is right click on any web site, then pick  Copy All URLs from the menu.  From there you can copy all the URLs for the open tabs, or paste them.  Simple enough, right?

After copying the URLs into any text area or document of your choice they will come out as URL, then title, URL, then title, URL.. well you get the idea.  This extension could come in really handy if you were wanting to send somebody a list of links or wanted a good way to start a super list on your own blog of some of your favorite web sites.

Be sure to pick it up over at the Mozilla Addons site, and let me know if you find any other copy and pasting tools you enjoy.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Mozilla Addons – Updated Thumbnail Preview

Dec/27 in Firefox News

Not sure how long this update has been out there, but Mozilla has done something really neat with their addons web site. Right now, when your looking at an extension, you know you can click on the screen shot to see it a little bigger and by itself – right?

Well now when you click on a thumbnail, and the extension has more than one preview you can browse through them using the right arrow button or the thumbnails underneath.

New Thumbnail Previews

For an example, try checking out the entry for Flagfox on their web site, and click where it says “See all preview images”. I wonder if this is just something out of the blue – or maybe a update preview to the Mozilla addons site getting ready for Firefox 3?

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Problem Solver: Opening Plain Text Links

Dec/26 in Usability

Your problem? Making none clickable links clickable again!

The solution? The Plain Text Links extension for Firefox solves a problem that many of us run into. With any text that can be treated as a URL, while using this extension you can right click on the text and select “Open this URL”.

This one simple tool will make Firefox smart enough to know what to do with that link when you want to click on it. Now if it doesn’t do what you need it to do – I have an alternative.

Another Fix! Plain Text to Link is a totally different extension, no matter how similar you think the name is. This handy helper is able to select plain text in a page and save it in a text file. It can also open links written in plain text.

Here are a few more suggestions that do pretty much the same job:

Hey Mitch, what about a non-extension fix? For that, give Linkrr a whirl.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Merry Christmas from Firefox Facts

Dec/25 in Firefox News

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hope you are all enjoying your time installing Firefox on the in-law’s PC. Just wanted to take a ‘bit of time to thank you all for reading day after day here on FirefoxFacts.com and wish you the best for the new year.

If you want, feel free to check out some of my other projects while your playing with new presents or enjoying seconds of that dressing. Download a few podcasts from the Web Hosting Show. It’s a weekly podcast on and about the web development and web hosting worlds. If you need a little more Mitch, with a little less Firefox – check out Mitchelaneous. It’s my general “blog about anything” place with tons of life lessons right from me to you. One post you might be interested in over there right this second would be the Ultimate List of Free Image Hosts (42+).

Feedback is always welcomed and needed here for Firefox Facts too, so if you want to see something or want to give your thoughts on my work here please feel free to drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com or drop in a fresh comment.

Here’s to a happy Firefox using new year as well.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Mozilla Weaves the Browser with the Web

Dec/24 in Firefox News

Mozilla Weave

Tis’ the season for holiday surprises, and I think Mozilla gave us all the best present of all with their new “lab” project, Weave. Best way I have found to describe it is to think of Google Browser Sync, but taken out of Google’s hands.

Here is some of the early hype about this new Firefox feature:

I am sure we’ll be hearing more about the project as time rolls on.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Ho, Ho, Firefox Links!

Dec/21 in Resources

Time to check out the old saved link bag of goodies to see who’s been naughty or nice? Oh no, we all know Firefox has been good this year for the most part. Here is your weekly linkage to check out before you do that last minute Christmas shopping.

Have any others to share? With this being the pre-holiday blitz I am amazed so much Firefox stuff has been going on the last few weeks.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Firefox 3 – More Beta 2 Goodies

Dec/20 in Firefox News

Firefox 3 Beta 2 just rolled out and I have to say things just keep looking better and better. I mean, I’m not really all that disappointed with Firefox now but with what is being done there are tons of improvements on the way.

This recent release includes approximately 900 improvements over the previous beta, including fixes for stability, performance, memory usage, platform enhancements and user interface improvements. Awesome news all around.

Here are a few more details worth mentioning:

Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.

Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches.

New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and displays where a file came from.

Are we we excited yet? How about the news that 300 individual memory leaks have been plugged, and a new XPCOM cycle collector completely eliminates many more.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

More Best of Firefox Awards

Dec/19 in Resources

Time to hand out a few more awards to those who have made using Firefox just a little ‘bit better over the past 12 months. Congratulations to all, and yes – I am sure a few more awards might be on the way…More Year End Awards

Best Firefox related project award?

iPox Remix – In TwisterMC’s own words, “iPox Remix is my way of letting the user customize the iPox Firefox theme to their liking.” Never have I seen a better guide on how to get a good looking theme going with a lot of hand holding along the way. By far – this multi-stepped article series deserves to be the best as far as the non-Mozilla owned projects go.

Best alternative guide to Firefox award?

Learn Firefox – It is a visual guide to help you learn more about the Firefox browser. With an original look and feel to the entire web site and project, Learn Firefox leaps above the rest when it comes to giving you a new and exciting way to learn more about everybody’s new favorite browser. Major props for Chris, Ryan and Ashley for putting this one together.

Mitch’s favorite Mozilla Firefox awareness program?

Operation Firefox – Sharing the Firefox love by placing huge stickers all over the place. Point to me where the part not to love is, because I ain’t seeing it. Winners were also recently announced, so might be time to take look back at this Mozilla project if you haven’t been there in a while.

Best Firefox Blog?

MozillaLinks.org – This is a good blog that even I like to subscribe to so I can stay ahead of the game with some really cool news and information coming out of Mozilla about Firefox. Percy does a great job and hopefully will keep up the great work. Two thumbs up from one blog to another.

Want more? Ok, here are a few quickies:

Favorite Mozilla Personality? Asa Dotzler

Best Use of the Firefox Community? Spread Firefox

Biggest Waste of Time? Why Firefox is Blocked

Have any other awards you’d like to see me hand out? It is your turn! Give me your choices and awards in comment form.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }