Looking for a way to make the social networking web site, Facebook, even better? If some things annoy you about Facebook, or you are just an addict (don’t worry, your secret is safe with me) check out the Better Facebook add-on for Firefox.
From head to toe, this add-on for Firefox will give you a lot of new toys, options and more to play with on your Facebook account, to make the Facebook experience even better for you.
Want to hide all the stuff you do not really need on your personalized iGoogle homepage? Thanks Super iGoogle, a handy Greasemonkey script, you can simplify iGoogle to only show you the content you need to see.
Get more control over your tabbed browsing experience in Firefox with Tabberwocky. This add-on for the browser will give you dozens upon dozens of ways to customize the way you work with tabs.
Some of the features of this Firefox extension include:
Plus many more. It would take me four or five posts to go into all the control this Firefox add-on gives to your tabs. You can pick up Tabberwocky over at the Firefox Add-ons web site. (kudos to Lifehacker) It will give you more tabbed browsing controls than you can shake a… well, than you can shake a tab at.
Want to hide what it is you have been looking for? Not the perfect solution, but perfect for nit-picky peeps is the Clear Search add-on for Firefox.
What does this browser extension do? It does one job, and it does it really well. Once installed, it automatically clears the search bar after performing a search. So if you have a nosey roommate or family member, they won’t accidently see you have been searching for the top 10 horror villains of all time.
While this add-on for the browser isn’t enough to prevent somebody who is really nosey from going through your history, and doing a full scale investigation – it does serve the simple task or clearing out your search box after a search very well. You can pick up the Clear Search extension on the Firefox add-ons web site.
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!)
Firefox 3.5’s new tab button has already been established as a feature some people like and some people could do without. However, what if you could tweak it visually to meet your needs? That is what some people have done, and here are the eight most popular new tab button hacks out there today.
Please Note: To use any of these, you will need to have the Firefox add-on Stylish installed.
No Icon Image Until Click – New tab button icon does not appear until you CLICK on it instead of when you hover because there is another style that produces that effect.
Tiny + 3D(Special Effects) – New Tab Button on the tab bar is tiny and when you click on it, it changes.
Left Side New Tab Button – Move the new tab button to the left of the tab bar, instead of the far right of the tab bar.
Want to increase your privacy on your PC? With the release of Firefox 3.5, our favorite browser now has a Private Browsing mode. Usually your browser remembers the web sites you have visited, your user names and passwords, your browsing history and more. However, with this newest addition to the Firefox 3.5 feature list, you can now go incognito on the Internet.
To turn on Private Browsing mode, go to Tools (in the menu bar) and then select Start Private Browsing. You will then get a popup menu asking you if you would really like to start Private Browsing mode. Hit the “Start Private Browsing” button to continue.
To be able to tell that you are in Private Browsing mode, the Firefox window title will show (Private Browsing) after the page title you are looking at. When you are privately browsing, the browser will not remember:
If you create a new bookmark while in Private Browsing mode, you will keep it after turning Private Browsing mode off. Also, if you save or download any files to your PC, those files will not be removed when you stop Private Browsing mode either (they will not though show up in the Downloads window).
To turn Private Browsing mode off, you will want to click on Tools in the menu bar, and the select Stop Private Browsing. To confirm you have done this correctly, check the Firefox window’s title bar to make sure (Private Browsing) is no longer showing.
Quickly Turn Private Browsing On (or Off)
One tweak or suggestion for this new mode is to give the user a toolbar button to turn it on or off. The Toggle Private Browsing add-on for Firefox does that. It gives you the ability to switch between private browsing and regular browsing by adding a button to either the toolbar or status bar.
I hope that helps when it comes to learning the basics about the Private Browsing mode in Firefox. How do you like it thus far, and how do you think this benefits the browser?
Firefox’s find bars (yes, there are two of them) are often classified as the good one that is hard to remember, and the not so good one that is easy to remember.
The good one nobody remembers, is hitting the “/” key while browsing a page. If you hit Ctrl+F you get the not so good one that is easy to remember. This is the one that we all use most often. The Hide Find Bar add-on for Firefox merges the greatness of these two searches into one.
How does it do that? It is very simple. It allows you to hide the find bar after a certain interval of inactivity has elapsed. So, when activity in the find bar has been idle for a certain interval it will automatically disappear.
You can try it out for yourself, all you need to do is download the Hide Find Bar extension from the Firefox Add-ons site.
