Tag Archives | extentions

Challenge Issued to Extend Firefox 3.5

Jun/20 in Firefox News

Extend Firefox 3.5 Coming back after a one year hiatus, the Extend Firefox contest is ready to make you into the next great Firefox extender?  A personal favorite of mine, the global developer contest for Firefox always brings in a lot of cool, unique and fun extensions for people like me to use and review.  

What are the prizes this time around?  Here are just a few:

  • Development gear, including a brand new 15" MacBook Pro
  • A license for the TextMate IDE by MacroMates
  • A license for the Versions SVN client by Sofa
  • A license for ExpanDrive by ExpanDrive
  • Firefox Ogio Metro Backpack stuffed with t-shirts, stickers, and more

Sure, I got passed up for being a judge again this year, but hey… can’t argue the fact they do have a nice selection of judges to choose from.

Last year’s contest received over 100 add-on submissions, which will be a hard record to beat.  However, with some hard work I think that record can be broken.  Extend Firefox 3.5 is open now and runs through October 2nd, 2009.  Good luck to all that enter!

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Text Area Resizer and Mover

Aug/25 in Add-ons Reviews, Usability

1 Isn’t there already a text area resizer add-on for Firefox?  Yes, there is. Text Area Resizer & Mover however adds some more functionality and class to an already great Firefox add-on idea.

To use the add-on, just resize by right-clicking anywhere inside of the text area.  With this, dragging becomes an really easy task and the often sensible site layout remains untouched.  Here is more help on how to use this extension from the author.

Additionally you can move whole text areas to another place. Double click inside of an area and all areas will get unlocked and movable. The repositioned area will stay fixed on the place of your choice even if you are scrolling the page. Double click once more to lock the areas again. The extension’s options allow some manual adjustments (e.g. use context menu item instead of double click or additional key modifiers for mouse gesture users).

You can pickup Text Area Resizer & Mover at the Firefox Add-ons site or the extension’s official home page.

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Tell JavaScript What it Can and Can Not Do

Jun/04 in Add-ons Reviews, Usability

Controle de Scripts is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to control what JavaScript on a web site can (or can not) do to your browser.  Here is a little more about the extension from the developer:

control-javascript-firefox

Besides the well-known basic permissions, like hiding toolbars or raise or lower windows, with Controle de Scripts you can set what functions or properties each site can access or modify, thanks to its Security Policies implementation.

Think of it as the regular permissions for JavaScript (setup by going to Tools > Options > Content and then the “Advanced” button next to “Enable JavaScript”) on steroids.  Some say these are the tools Firefox should provide by default – and now you can at least add them on for good measure.

Pickup Controle de Scripts via Mozilla Add-ons Site or the official site for this awesome JavaScript controlling addition to the browser.

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Add-on Cage Match, Mahalo Share vs Shareaholic!

May/22 in Usability

Time to have us a good old extension cage match. In one corner you have the Hawaiian punch of the link sharing world – Mahalo Share. In the other, weighing in with way too many link sharing resources is Shareaholic. Here is what each brings to the table…

Mahalo Share – Share and recommend Web pages across many different services; recommend a link once and have it automatically posted to any of Twitter, del.icio.us, MySpace, Ma.gnolia, Jaiku, your Tumblr blog, Facebook, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Mahalo, Faves, or Google Bookmarks.

Shareaholic – Found something awesome online and can’t wait to pass it on? Tired of copying and pasting endless URLs? Shareaholic allows you to share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages quickly via a wide array of web 2.0 social websites without cluttering up your browser!

For those looking for a smaller addon, that is simple and get the job done, I would recommend Mahalo Share. Fore the people wanting an add-on that does a little ‘bit of everything in one spot, then for you we have Shareaholic. Both have their advantages so I am afraid I would have to call this one a draw.

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Auto Right-Click Highlighted Text

May/12 in Usability

firefox-auto-context-addon Isn’t it about time you gave your right button on your mouse a break?

Starting of the week with a simple, yet effective addon for anybody in the Firefox user base.  The Auto Context extension for Firefox will automatically right-click any text that you highlight. 

The fun doesn’t stop there though.  This add-on also lets you customize that right-click context menu with what you want, need and love.  Also, no need to worry about if it works with your current context menu changing extensions.  Here are some of them that it should work with:

Plain Text to Link, Open-Tran, BabelZilla Glossary Extension, SearchWith, Organize Search Engines, Add to Search Bar, Nuke Anything Enhanced, DownThemAll! and Define Word

Auto Context will save your right mouse button a lot of work through the day.

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New Firefox Add-ons Site Goes Live

Mar/27 in Firefox News

I shared a preview of it with you a few weeks back, and it looks like the Mozilla team has flipped the switch on the new Firefox add-ons web site.  All your old favorite features are still there, the categories the search and the recommended extensions.  They are all just displayed in an updated and prettier fashion. 

New Firefox Add-ons Site

At first glance, it didn’t really give me any shock and awe feeling or emotion but after navigating around it for a while it is an improvement over the older styled web site.

So What is New to Love?

reviews-for-firefox-addonsThey have made the "review and rate" box easier to reach when checking out add-ons one by one, which will encourage more feedback to be given.  Also there are a few more related links on each add-on’s web page to give you that, "Well, if you like this then go check out that!" sort of feeling.

The larger search box at the top of all the pages is a welcome addition too.  Not only does it give it that Web 2.0 feeling but it is handy to have it bold and in my face when looking where to search for more extensions.  

Also when you are doing a search, you now have the option to "Add to Firefox" right from the search results.  You no longer have to search, pull up the addon’s profile, and then add it to your browser.  There are a lot of little things that just make this a really welcomed update I think for many Firefox users out there.

To get some more inside information about the back end of things be sure to check out Basil’s Bodacious Blog. 

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Best of the URL Shorteners for Firefox

Mar/19 in Best of Firefox, Usability

One fad that has caught on in the past few years is the art of shortening those really long URLs, as you would find in a search result or on Amazon for a product listing. When you try to share just the long link, it often gets broken or just will not fit in the message you are sending. That is where these tools come in handy to have.

The winner (and best URL link shortener) would have to be Shrinkify.

Shrink Your Links

It not only shrinks your URLs via Firefox, Shrinkify also gives you a pretty interface when doing so. Out of all the URL shrinking extensions, this one is the best, hands down.

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Shrinkify Your URLs

Feb/26 in Usability

There are a lot of URL shortener services out there.  They take that really super long URL from a place like Amazon.com and make it into something that is easy to cut and paste into a blog post or a Twitter even.  Shrinkify is another awesome answer to this problem that gives you that ability to shrink URLs right from Firefox.

Here is a little more about the Shrinkify extension from the developers:

The Shinkify Firefox extension makes long, unwieldy URLs shorter with the Shrinkify.com web service. Using either a toolbar button, right-click menu item, or tools menu item, you can submit your current url to the Shrinkify web service. The shrinkified URL will then be copied into your clipboard.

Shrinkified Screenshot

Also might be worth noting that the Shrinkify extension came in 8th in this year’s extend Firefox competition.  So if you are looking for a simple way to shrink your URLs built right into the browser, Shrinkify is your best solution.

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Firefox’s Best Map Extensions

Feb/05 in Best of Firefox, Usability

Firefox Map ToolsI dare you – no I triple Firefox dare you to find a better list of map related extentions and tools for any browser out there. Thanks to Firefox and some creative map loving developers there is no way you could ever get lost as long as you had a laptop, an internet connection and that lovable Firefox.

Map+ – View the Yahoo Map of any address without having to open a new tab or window.

Get directions from Google Maps – Highlight any address on the web and get directions.

PackageMapping.com Extension – Track your shipments via a map to see where exactly that electric toothbrush you ordered is.

Map This – Launch a Google Map for any address you select on the Web.

All Your Maps Are Belong To Us – convert any mapping service URL or address to Google Maps. Good one for the Google Map fan boys.

Mini Map Sidebar – Mapping sidebar suite for Mozilla Firefox.

GDirections – Find where your going or where you have been on Google and Yahoo Maps based on your selected text and one of various home addresses.

Shazou – A unique Japanese mapping service and tool that enables the user with one-click to map and geo-locate any website they are currently viewing.

GeoLocateFox – Find where any web site’s HQ is with this tool. It tells you the location if contains GeoLocation metadata within the HTML on the web page.

GMiF – An addon for Flickr that will tell you exactly where those photos were taken via Google Maps.

Locator – Finds any location via Google Maps.

Geo – Another extension that opens a Google Map for a web site’s location if it contains GeoLocation meta data or is geographically marked with ICBM.

Know of another I might have missed? Leave a comment and share!

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Quick TransLation

Feb/02 in Add-ons Reviews, Usability

I have spoken the English language all of my life, (some may debate how well I write it though) so the Web is not that scary of a place for me. I could see however that for somebody who has not mastered English – it might not seem so welcoming. The Quick TransLation extension for Firefox gives us a tool to all bridge the language barrier we share.

Here is what Quick TransLation looks like in action:

Quick TransLation in Action

Of course that is the English translation of an English word. The highlight is you can select from the status bar flag that is added the language you would like to read that definition in. If you spend your time reading a lot of content on the Web that is from another country, this extension would be a handy addon to make use of.

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