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Find Similar Sites in a Sidebar

Mar/26 in Add-ons Reviews

SimilarWeb in Action for FirefoxWant to discover great web sites without the work of searching for them?  SimilarWeb, an add-on for Firefox, will do the searching for you.  Its job is to suggest similar web sites you might enjoy as you browse around the Web.

I am always looking for new ways to find new and interesting sites out there so this is an add-on I really enjoy.  There are several ways to customize the way you view the similar sites too, that are displayed as a sidebar on the left of whatever web site you might be browsing at the time.

Here is a rundown on the various cool features:

For more information on SimilarWeb be sure to check out their web site at SimilarWeb.com.  Right now the extension is available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

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Mashup Twitter Search with Google Search

Mar/11 in Greasemonkey, Hacks and Tweaks

Want to get real time Twitter search results on Google?  Depending on the topic you are searching for (especially if it is a newsworthy event) you might be surprised by the range of coverage that you get from Twitter.  Why not harness that and have it handy when searching Google?  Now with this userscript for Greasemonkey you can do it.

After installing Twitter Search Results on Google, here is an example of what your searches will look like:

Twitter results in Google Search

It displays the most recent 5 tweets for the query that you are search for, giving both real-time Twitter search results and Google results on the same page.

I have got to say, over the past few weeks I have been pretty happy with the Twitter searches I have done, so mixing these two into one could lead to some really good results.  You have the power of Google mixed with the social aspects of Twitter. 

Once you get Greasemonkey installed (of it it is already installed) then all you need to do is pick up the script for it here at UserScripts.org.  Big thanks to MT-Hacks for providing this to the public too, it is one of the best scripts I have seen for Greasemonkey in a long while.

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Learn to Manage Your Search Engines in Firefox

Feb/19 in Firefox Support

I got an e-mail from a reader of Firefox Facts, and they wanted to know  how can you re-organize your search engines in Firefox’s search box that lives in most people upper-right hand corner of Firefox.

This can easily be done via the built in search engine manager.

Manage Your Search Engines in Firefox

Click on Firefox’s search box, as if you were going to change search engines, and look at the bottom for a menu selection titled, “Manage Search Engines”.  Clicking it will bring up the Manage Search Engine List.  From here you can:

  • Edit Search Engine Keywords
  • Move Search Engines Up or Down
  • Remove a Search Engine
  • Restore the Default Search Engines
  • Get More Search Engines
  • Enable/Disable the “Show Search Suggestions”

There you have it.  Now Firefox has not always had this option.  Back in previous versions, you had to do some heavy duty hunting and pecking to really edit and organize your search engine selections.  This at least gives you a more user friendly interface, and I am all about the user friendly around here.

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Add a Cloud to Yahoo or Google Searches

Feb/17 in Add-ons Reviews

Is there much you can do to improve on the modern search engines?  They all do the same thing, so it comes down to who does it best – but is that the end of it?  Maybe not.  Inserting a cloud of search terms may help make even the best search engine out there even better.  Search Cloudlet inserts smart tag clouds into Google and Yahoo interface to help you search faster.

search-cloud

The way this add-on for Firefox works is that it contains the most relevant information about the search term in question.  The more important the word, the bigger it gets in the text link cloud.  Here is more about the add-on from the developers:

If you often use Google or Yahoo to search through news or blogs, then Search Cloudlet is exactly what you need. For News search there are Source Cloud and Location Cloud. These clouds can help you determine country, region or state of the found news and their publishers. For Blogs search there is also Author Cloud view. You can use these context-aware clouds to narrow your search the same way you would do it with tag clouds.

Overall, I found this extension very useful.  You can find out more about the project at GetCloudlet.com and pick up the extension via Firefox’s Add-on site.

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Hide Firefox’s Find Bar After the Job is Done

Feb/03 in Add-ons Reviews

1227892988 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.

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Add Live (Suggesting) Search to Firefox

Feb/02 in Add-ons Reviews

Ever wanted to add Microsoft’s Live Search to your Firefox browser?

No, me neither – but they have released and add-on to help you do just that. 

Live Search in Firefox

The Live Search add-on is a little late to the dance, however I am not going to totally shoot them down.  At least they are making the effort, right?  What does it do?  It gives you the “suggestion” feature for search terms when you search using Live search via the Firefox search box. 

Definitely, if you are a fan of Live search, give this a shot.  All three of you should be extremely happy.

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Searching Inline with Select-n-Go

Jan/30 in Add-ons Reviews

Want to be able to browser for information from a page without leaving that page to go to a new tab?  If you want to save space or have easy access to a slew of search tools – you may want to look into adding Select-n-Go by Cleeki to your own Firefox installation.

To use it, all you have to do is highlight some text on the screen.  Then you get this cool window in a window effect. The main purpose here is to:

  • Minimum annoyance: no change of web page appearance, no unwanted tab switching, no unpleasant popups, etc.
  • Maximum efficiency: minimum operations, seamless connection, easy activation/hiding, etc.

You can do Google, YouTube, eBay, and Amazon.  If that is not enough for you – you can extend it even further by adding your own channels to it.

Select-n-Go Preview

In a nutshell, the add-on launches a browser window inside of your browser window. 

Now I promise though, that is not as annoying as it might sound.  True, it might not be the most visually appealing thing, however it does reduce your tab switching (back and forth) when searching for information Online.  You can pick up Select-n-Go by Cleeki on the Firefox Add-ons web site.

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Add More Tools to the Awesome Bar

Jan/22 in Add-ons Reviews

Wish to extend your already awesome bar (otherwise known as the address or location bar) with some really neat tools?  By default you can check out an RSS feed from there, and bookmark a web page.  For those looking for a few more perks, you need to try UrlbarExt.

This add-on for Firefox extends your awesome bar with more commands, such as:UrlbarExt in Action

  • Make Tiny URL
  • Copy URL
  • Search Site
  • Go Up a Level
  • Easier Page Tagging
  • Navigate Sequential URL’s
  • View Cached Version of  the Web Page
  • Surf Anonymously Proxy Servers

That is definitely a lot to do in such a little space.  You also have the option to show or hide any icon you don’t need using the settings dialog.  The only negative I could find, is that the options for the add-on do look a little cluttered – so much in there to configure in such a small amount of space.

You can pick UrlbarExt up on the Firefox Add-ons site.

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Xoopit for Gmail

Jan/19 in Add-ons Reviews

Need a personal assistant for your Gmail account?  It might not make you coffee, but Xoopit is the next best thing.  Xoopit for Gmail gives you the ability to get a lot more out of your e-mail inbox.  For example, you can quickly browse photos, files and videos. 

Xoopit for Gmail

That is the only places where Xoopit for Gmail shines.  It also lets you:

  • Search your stuff, not your messages. Xoopit upgrades Gmail search to show you the photos, videos and files that match what you are looking for.
  • Browse photos and videos from YouTube, Flickr, Shutterfly, Kodak and Picasa. Links sent to your Gmail account are automatically collected, saving you the hassle of going to these sites.
  • Easily find and access your files in Gmail. Never misplace an attachment again.
  • Quick share to friends, Facebook or your blog.
  • Do a web search while composing a mail in Gmail and add results directly to your message.
  • Get information, contact details and more about the people in Gmail’s conversation view.

All this from your Gmail inbox.  In the long haul, this add-on will not only make your inbox more social, but will also make it more useful as well.  You can learn more about the service at xoopit.com or pick up the add-on directly on Firefox’s Add-on web site.

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WebMynd for Google

Jan/15 in Add-ons Reviews

WebMynd What is WebMynd?  It is all about personalizing your search – with colors.  Ok, now before you think this is some new age hippy thing, hear me out.  This add-on for Firefox will help find and keep track of information from a number of different sources.

What sources does it support?  We have:  YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, Twitter, Amazon, Economist, CNN, LinkedIn, TechCrunch, Hacker News, Digg, Reddit, Google Books, Fluther, Delicious, Yahoo! Shopping, Scribd, Backtype, and Youlicit.

The easiest way to explain WebMynd is that it makes Google better by personalizing it with information and resources that you value.

Here is a little more about how it works from the developers:

After installing the WebMynd plug-in just search and browse the web as you would regularly.

When you search on Google, WebMynd will add results from your own browsing history and the top sites that you visit. And you can configure it to search many of your favourite sources such as Twitter, Wikipedia and Flickr amongst many others. If you use Twitter, you can ask your Twitter network for help while searching, right from Google.

When you are using WebMynd to record your history, a copy of the sites you visit is kept on your computer’s hard drive and the text is sent to our servers so we can index the information to make it easier for you to retrieve later. You can turn WebMynd on and off with a single click and you can set it to never record particular sites, you have 100% control.

Here it is in action:

WebMynd currently supports Firefox 3 on Windows, Mac and Linux.  You can pick up the Firefox extension via the Firefox Add-ons site or WebMynd.com.

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