Now that I have been using Firefox 4 (as a beta) I can take a look at some of the neat add-ons I might have missed because they were not updated to run with the current version of Firefox.  One of these neat additions to the browser is Instant Previews.  With this Mozilla Labs created add-on, your browser will start loading webpages found in the awesome bar – without the need of clicking on them.

The idea here is that when you are searching through the address bar (aka the awesome bar) the suggestions will automatically start loading.  So by the time you find the page you want, it should already be loaded up and ready to use. This is all about speeding up the surfing process.

Here is a little more information from the developers:

This restartless add-on makes it so results that get highlighted in the Awesome Bar suggestions will automatically start loading, so by the time you confirm that the first result is the one you want, the page might be all ready for you to use. To glance at pages to check up on some information, e.g., the weather, stocks, or comics, let the page load as a preview, and once you are done, hit <Esc> to get rid of the preview and return to where you left off.

This is definitely an interesting feature – and I am excited to see where the Mozilla Labs team takes it in the future.  You can pick up Instant Previews on the Firefox Add-ons website.

One of the most celebrated new features of Firefox 3.7 is the feature that will bring the progress bar out of the status bar and onto your current tab.  Did you know though that there is an add-on for Firefox that will let you add this functionality now? 

The Tab Progress Bar add-on for Firefox is the add-on you need.  Having the process bar on top of the tab really makes more sense, as far as functionality goes because you’ll have your eyes closer to the top of the browser (most of the time) than the bottom.  Now I won’t go into detail about how this will save your eyeballs stress, due to the fact that they don’t have to bounce up and down from the top of the page to the status bar bellow, but you get the general idea.

Also worth mentioning is that this add-on will not work with the Tab Mix Plus add-on.  So for the time being, you’ll need to pick to use one or the other.  You can pick up the Tab Progress bar add-on for Firefox at the Firefox Add-ons web site. 

I really hope that now Firefox has a decent market size that everybody doesn’t start to turn on them for the next “new great hope”. Then again, that’s how much of the media works and part of the reason for Firefox’s rise in the first place. Ah well, enjoy the links.

• Tutorial Ninja Teaches You The Ways of Firefox Keywords
• Deactivating The Pre-Loading Of Websites In Mozilla Fixefox
• Firefox faces Growing Pains (Insert 1st Alan Thicke Joke Here!)
• Disable Auto Play on YouTube With TubeStop
• NYT Firefox Growing Pans Story (Put 2nd Alan Thicke Joke Here!)
• What It Often Takes to Get Code into Mozilla

If you have any more interesting ones be sure to send them my way.

Web designer use Flash animation to attract visitor attention, too much flash animation will make people feel annoying. There is this firefox extension Flashblock which able to block flash animation from loading. I’m using this Flash block to block all flash animation.

+ Read More About Blocking Flash to Speed Up Firefox!

[Learn More About Throbber Button!]

[Learn More About AutoFormer!]