Tabs, with this new theme, will seem to fade into the background a ‘bit more.  You get a much more glass-like interface – especially if you are a Windows Vista or Windows 7 user. This theme is the fourth most popular theme on the Firefox Add-ons website, so it must have something going for it.  However, there are a few too many odd graphical bugs that might keep me from using it all the time.  For example, the new tab button seems to overlay on top of the last tab.  Little things like that might not bug some – but they do bug me.

Want to give it a shot? You can download the Shine Bright Skin for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

The add-on looks to enhance the way you interact with content from your favorite website services.  Check out this quick video tour to learn more:

For people with plenty of screen real estate, this really is a great tool to add to the browser.  Your searches, social link sharing and much more are just pulled up in a popup window that comes from the right of the screen.  You might think this would get in the way of things – but it also does a good job at hiding itself when you don’t need it front and center.

KwiClick can display the results of your searches from the Firefox search box, which makes finding the right site easier than ever. This is an option that can be turned on/off whenever you like.

Want to give it a shot? Go download KwiClick for Firefox over at the Firefox add-ons website.

We all have questions about how Firefox works and how we can tweak it to make it better.  That is the single greatest aspect of this fantastic browser. So, with the end of the year coming up quick I thought it was about time we took a look back at the 25 most popular browser tweaking tips, customizations and tutorials I have posted on Firefox Facts over the years.  These 25 posts you see are the most visited topics from all of the support related articles I have written.

You voted for these with your mouse clicks over the past year, so let us check out the most popular Firefox support posts of 2010.

Change Default Search in Firefox

Tired of having Google as the default search engine in Firefox? Maybe it is another search engine’s turn to be on top?! If you feel the urge to dethrone Google as the default search engine for your Firefox search box – this is how you can get it done.

How to Backup Firefox Bookmarks

Backing up your bookmarks is one of those chores you have on your to-do list but never get around to it.  Then when they are lost, you say – I wish I would have.  Here are a few Firefox bookmark backup techniques to help you out.

Firefox Private Browsing Mode Help and FAQ

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.

about:robots – Firefox 3 Secret!

For those of you playing with Firefox 3 – Beta 5, try typing about:robots into your address bar and hit enter.

Firefox 3.6 Fix – Open New Tabs in Far Right

New to Firefox 3.6, when you are on a page, and you want to open a link in a new tab – rather than opening the link in the far right of the tab bar, Firefox will now open the link right next to the tab you are in.  Now, while this might be convenient for some, it is a feature I don’t really need.  So here is how you can disable the new “Insert Related Tab After Current” tweak in Firefox 3.6.

Ever wonder what parts of the Firefox browser navigation get used the most? Mozilla has released a heat map detailing the information they were able to get from Test Pilot submissions back in May of 2010.  Here are the top ten more popular spots in the interface.

Did your favorite part of the Firefox interface make it onto the list?

• 95.6% – Location Bar

• 93.1% – Back

• 89% – Scroll Vertical Bar

• 73.2% – Reload

• 67.9% – Search Bar

• 58.4% – Bookmarks Bar Item

• 54.1% – Forward

• 42.8% – Scroll Horizontal Bar

• 39.2% – Stop

• 37.6% – Home

To check out the full list and more pictures/details about the data they collected, be sure to check out the Mozilla Labs page.

With Firefox 4 coming soon, we will be finding a lot of new hacks, interface customizations and more we can do to make Firefox more personalized to our own needs.  So, with that said, I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the most popular hacks for Firefox 3.5 and up to give you all one last chance to try them out before Firefox 4 changes the game again.

How to Disable the New Tab Button

For some people out there, the new tab button on the tab toolbar was a waste of space.  By editing your userChrome.css file, you can easily remove it.

Speed Up Flash Videos (like YouTube)

Want to speed up your flash video watching?  By default, Firefox takes a sort of “snapshot” of whatever you are doing every ten seconds.  Why?  It is so that the browser can restore itself, just in case of a crash. With a little about:config tweak you can speed up the videos you are watching on YouTube and other video sharing websites.

Quicker Route to Private Browsing

Yes, we did finally get a way to enable private browsing in Firefox.  The problem is, it is a pain to enable!  Well, to save you a few clicks, I figured out a way you can start private browsing mode in Firefox from within the awesome address bar.

Move the Close Tab Button

In an effort to simplify the Firefox interface, did you know you can make a few changes in the about:config page to move the close tab buttons around?  I’ll show you how to move it to the far right of the browser, in just six easy steps.

Enable the Visual Tab Switcher

With Firefox 3.6’s release, we can all do a quick about:config tweak that will enable the prettier tab switching.  By default, when you hit the keyboard keys Ctrl + Tab you just rotate through your tabs.  By making some quick adjustments though, you can pull up the new tab switcher that you see in the picture above.

Make New Tab Pages Open in the Far Right of the Tab Bar

New to Firefox 3.6, when you are on a page, and you want to open a link in a new tab – rather than opening the link in the far right of the tab bar, Firefox will now open the link right next to the tab you are in.  Now, while this might be convenient for some, it is a feature I don’t really need.  Now, let us put things back the way they were.

Change the Firefox Spell Check Font Format

Want to make your misspelled words stand out a ‘bit more when composing a message in Firefox?  It is easy to do with this quick about:config tweak.  You can select no highlighting, a dotted line, long dots, a single straight line, a double underline or the default squiggly line.

I hope you enjoyed this collection of classic Firefox 3.5+ interface hacks and tweaks you can do to make the browser a little more customized to your own browsing needs.  Have another favorite customization tip I might have missed?  Leave it in the comments!

There are both bad and good Firefox Personas out there.  This simple way to re-skin the Firefox browser has given designers a new way to support their favorite products and really get creative with their support.  With that said, there are some really great Firefox Personas using the Firefox logo.

Here are some of the best Firefox Personas using the iconic Firefox image:

Firefox Tail Twister

Dark Fox

Gray Fox

CartoonFox

Fox in the Clouds

Firefox Football

Big Firefox Logo

Firefox 3.6 Unleashed

Bubble Bay

Mozilla Firefox

Hope you enjoy this collection of great (useable) Firefox Personas.  If you have another Firefox related Firefox Persona you’d like to share – be sure to leave it in the comments.

This is one of the few dark Firefox themes I could see myself using on a regular basis.

BlackFox is a very nice looking dark theme, with just a hint of red to help highlight your selected browser elements.  The entire them has been designed to be focused, compact, and easy on the eyes.

The theme’s author also promises that it is compatible with a long list of popular extensions too.

You can pick up BlackFox via the Firefox Add-ons web site or check out the theme’s official web site, at zigboom.com.

Now I know I went on a ‘bit of a rant the other day about how some Personas just are not worth the time of day, however some really do fit in well with the Firefox browser too.  Here are 10 of the most popular abstract Personas I found usable and beautiful.

Groovy Blue

Abstract Black

Gray and Black

Abstract splash

Arcane Green Horizon

Windows 7

Aurora Australis

Firefox Saucers

Bright Blue Abstract

Abstract Electric

There you have 10 of the most popular abstract Personas out there today.  Which is your favorite?  Do you have an alternative abstract Persona that should have made the list?

Here are the most popular add-on collections for the Firefox browser:

Windows 7 Theme for Firefox 3.5

32430 subscribers – This collection of add-ons were gathered to help you make Firefox 3 more seamless in the Windows 7 operating system.  Not only do you get the nice theme and tweaking add-ons, but you also get some great time conserving tools too!

Web Developer’s Toolbox

7934 subscribers – Speed up the development process by using add-ons to troubleshoot, edit, and debug web projects without ever clicking away from Firefox.

Reference Desk

5033 subscribers – Make the librarian jealous with add-ons that help students, researchers or anyone with a tough question find and document all the answers.

Lifehacker’s Must-Have Extensions

3849 subscribers – Then of the must-have add-ons for Firefox, as picked by the brilliant minds over at Lifehacker.com. Included are ten of the best add-ons for Firefox out there today.

Better Pack

2564 subscribers – Lifehacker’s “Better” add-ons, compiling multiple Greasemonkey tweaks for YouTube, Reader, Gmail, Google Calendar, Flickr, and other sites.

Power User Pack

1537 subscribers – Collection of Add-ons for power user, sys admin, developer, surfer, and more.  Most powerful add-ons which would change interface to better and tidy, add some cool functionality.

Traveler’s Pack

1270 subscribers – When the travel bug bites, these add-ons make it easy to plan, book and document your trip — without getting lost along the way.

Family Organizer

1211 subscribers – Create a safe and fun online experience while planning everything the family does offline with add-ons that keep the family cooking.

Social Circuit

1176 subscribers – Whether it’s LOLing with a BFF, finding a job or staying connected with old classmates, social networking add-ons keep the most popular sites front and center.

Icon-Only Perma-Tabs for Gmail and Google Reader

592 subscribers – Keep your Gmail and Google Reader tabs open at all times, but shrink them down to show the favicon only and add your unread count on the icon.

Know of an add-on collection that can get the proverbial job done better than the ones I listed above?  Leave a comment and share it with the group.  Also, if you have pulled together your own unique collection – share those with me too in the comments.

Since Facebook is the king of the hill when it comes to social networks, there have been a lot of add-ons dedicated to making it better.  Facebook is great, but is not without flaws.  Thankfully, these Firefox add-on developers have worked out some of the kinks and have masterminded some of the best add-ons for Firefox to date.

Here are my top five Facebook add-ons you can add to Firefox.

Friendbar

Facebook and Twitter are now easier than ever to use. Friendbar displays a running stream of text and photo updates right on the toolbar, and allows you to post updates, to like, comment, update, retweet, dm, and reply from the toolbar itself.

Facebook Toolbar

Facebook seems to quickly be outgrowing the other social networks by leaps and bounds.  It is hard to find a friend that hasn’t switched over to it from the other social networks like MySpace and the like.  So with that said, why not grab a toolbar that will help you get a little more out of your Facebook usage and help you stay connected with your friends even better?

Facebook Photo Album Downloader

In need of a way to download all the images you may have uploaded to your Facebook photo album?  Sure you could go through each image, click by click and download each one individually.  Why do that though, when you have FacePAD.  This extension will let you grab all the photos from any album you need on Facebook.

Facebook Video

The popular Greasemonkey Facebook video script is now a full-fledged Firefox addon that lets users download or convert Facebook videos, and embed videos outside of Facebook.

Facebook Dislike

You can “like” things on Facebook, so why can you not “dislike” things too? If you use Facebook, and you have Firefox – you can now add the feature some have really been wanting. You get the ability to dislike things that your friends have posted.

There are my top five, which one is your favorite?  I would have to say that the Facebook Photo Album Downloader is probably the most functional, so in turn – my favorite of the favorites.  What also would be the Facebook flaw you wish you could fix?  You might just be the inspiration for some Firefox add-on developer’s next creation.