Need a way to easily highlight links you already have bookmarked while you are browsing the Web? The Bookmark Highlighter add-on for Firefox will get the job done.  This quick and easy add-on for Firefox will highlight links to any URLs on a webpage that are currently saved to your bookmarks.

The functionality of this add-on might be a little limited, but it does come in handy – should the situation ever arise.  For example, you could be going through your own website, making sure you had all your category pages bookmarked for quicker reference.  Also, it can act as a quick reminder of when you do have a page bookmarked – so you don’t feel the need to save it again.  That alone would help cut down on duplicate bookmarks a lot.

While it might not be functional for day to day use, I can see where Bookmark Highlighter might come in handy for a few special situations or projects. You can pick it up from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Backing up and restoring your bookmarks in Firefox is a pretty easy thing to do.  However, did you know that Firefox has a way you can rollback to a previous day’s bookmark backup?  This can save you a lot of heartache if you have accidently deleted a folder of useful bookmarks and you need to get them back in a hurry.

The first thing you will want to do is open up the Bookmark Library, by going to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks in Firefox’s menu toolbar.  You can also press Ctrl+Shift+B to bring it up too.

Next, click on Import and Backup. Move the mouse down to where it says "Restore" and you will see the collection of bookmark backups the Firefox has stored locally for you.  To roll your bookmarks back to one of these days, simply select the date you want to roll back to.

Now, the next time you are in a pinch with your bookmarks – and you need to quickly restore thing to the way they were, you can do so with this quick bookmark restoring tip.

This interesting extension for Firefox will give you customizable thumbnail previews for all of your favorite links.

The idea behind ViewMarks is a simple one.  It gives you an easy and alternative way to organize and use the bookmarks you might visit every single day.  Upon the creation of a bookmark, a preview image is captured and saved to the browser.  You can then use the webpage view of the add-on to navigate through them, organize them, copy them, edit them and more.  It gives you a better visual representation of all your saved links.

Here is a little more about the add-on from the developer:

You can open different bookmark folder in different tabs and directly link to them. Missing preview images are automatically captured when opening a bookmarked web page. All preview images can also be copied to the clipboard and loaded from file.

Give it a shot, if you are looking for a more visual way to navigate through your own collection of saved bookmarks.  You can pick up ViewMarks from the Firefox Add-ons website, or learn more about the project from codepad.de.

Xmarks may live? For those of you who were sad to see Xmarks close up shop, there might be one last thing you can do to try to save it.  Xmarks has launched a pledge campaign to stay alive.  So, what must you do?  If you want to show your support, all they are asking is for you to pledge $10 to $20.  This is not an actual donation, but instead is a vote of confidence saying that, "Yeah, I’d pay for Xmarks".

If 100,000 people express interest in seeing Xmarks stay alive, then Xmarks might get a second chance.  It is a pretty large goal to meet – however I do have to wish Xmarks the best of luck in chasing this new business model, and I do hope they are successful.

Would you like to have quick and easy access to everything Google with just one or two clicks of your mouse in Firefox?  That is what the Google Shortcuts add-on for Firefox promises to deliver.  The idea here is simple.  This extension will display any or all Google services as buttons next to your address bar or anywhere else you would like for it to show up.

One installed, you can quickly pull up Google Reader, Analytics, News, Notebook, Maps, Mail and anything else that is Google related.  Your shortcuts can also be displayed under a Google icon drop down box, to save on clutter too. 

Now, you might say you do not need access to every Google service out there.  You only need a few shortcuts.  You can easily customize and select which services you can see – and which will be hidden.

Overall, if you are a big Google fan – this is an add-on for Firefox you have to try out.  You can pick up the Google Shortcuts add-on for Firefox on the Firefox Add-ons web site. 

Firefox makes for an awesome instant search tool for any web site out there that has a search box enabled on it.  When you mix searching in the location bar with keywords for bookmarks, you will find yourself searching at least ten percent faster.  Join me today, as I show you how you too can master keyword searching in Firefox.

To create the smart keyword, follow these steps:

Visit the web page that has the search field on it that you would normally use to search the web site.

Now, right-click in the search box and select, "Add a Keyword for this Search".

Next, in the keyword text box, type in a keyword that you can quickly type out and remember.  I have used ff as an example to quickly search Firefox Facts. Once you are done, hit the Save button.

Now that your smart keyword is in place, let us try searching with it.  In the location/address bar – type in your keyword and what you are searching for.

If all goes well, you should be taken to the search results web page.  This comes in handy to have for web sites you search often, but you can not search via the search box in Firefox itself.

File this add-on under awesome.  The Places’ Tooltip add-on for Firefox adds more detailed information about the bookmarks and links you have saved to your browser. 

It shows you more than your standard name and address, as Firefox does by default.  Once installed, you can see:

the last visited date, the tags associated with the link, the description and the keywords

It shows the tooltip for and in:

all links, folders, bookmarks, RSS items in the bookmarks toolbar, bookmarks menu, history menu and sidebars

This is a great simple extension for those who just need to have a little more information handy about the links they have saved to the browser.  You can pick up the Places’ Tooltip add-on on the Firefox Add-ons web site.

How often do you still use bookmarks? 

Generally speaking, I find there are two types of browsing people.  You have those who still bookmark everything they find interesting, and then those who only bookmark what they need, and Google everything else.  A lot of the time, typing something into the search box might be a faster way to launch a web page, rather than searching through a bucket-full of saved links.

Take a stand, and leave you thoughts in the comments.  Are you pro-bookmark, anti-bookmark, or somewhere in between the two?

Mozilla has released a few new screenshots of their latest Firefox 3.7 theme and interface revisions.  I’m happy to see the bookmark toolbar is back, and the loading bar on top of the tabs is a very interesting idea. 

Here is the old Revision 01 version of Firefox 3.7’s interface:

Here is the brand new Revision 02 of the Firefox 3.7 interface:

In comparison, I do have to say I like the direction they are going with this.  Here are some of the features included and mentioned when discussing the Vista/Windows 7 version of the interface:

• Embracing Glass: Toolbar and Tabs using Glass. Buttons translucent and slightly glossy to meld with the toolbar. Raised 3D look to achieve tactile "feel".
• Page and Tools Buttons: Page and Tools on the Navigation Bar.
• Bookmark Bar: Bookmarks bar on by default. New Bookmarks "widget" containing the bookmarks menu contents.
• Home Tab: Home tab containing your homepage to start. Expanded functionality planned for 4.0.

To get more information and amazing screenshots, be sure to check out the Windows 3.7 theme mockups page on the Mozilla.org wiki.

The Awesome Bar (or address bar, as those “normal” browsers might call it) does a great job at matching a web site saved in your bookmarks or history when you start typing in the Awesome Bar.  By default, Firefox doesn’t give you a way of saying, “Don’t show these bookmarks there” so now somebody has written up an add-on to give you that ability. 

The NotAwesome add-on for Firefox will help you hide any bookmarks tagged with “notawesome” from awesome bar searches.  This way you can totally flag bookmarks you don’t want showing up in the Awesome Bar results.

You can pick up this great add-on via the Firefox Add-ons web site.  (credit for this find goes to Lifehacker, when in turn goes to gHacks too!)