Wish the status bar in Firefox showed more? I’ve run across a great add-on for Firefox that will display all kinds of details in the bottom of your browser. The plugin you want to look for it called, Extended Statusbar. This makes the Firefox status bar much like the one you find in the Opera web browser.
Many people have been betting on the fact that Google Chrome might overtake Firefox as the dominate alternative browser to Internet Explorer. To those of you who like to follow this web browser soap opera – I’ve got another twist and/or turn that you will love. According to Net Applications, the overthrowing of Firefox might not happen at all.
Is it me or is there a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt going on surrounding the Firefox web browser? I think it all started from the news reports from last week saying that Google Chrome had barely surpassed Firefox market share. The real issue at hand here is that Firefox isn’t dying – it is the fact that everybody else has finally started to wise up and put out a better browser.
According to a recent Mozilla analyst report for the first quarter of 2010, Firefox is in control of 30% of the world’s internet browser landscape. How was this number reached? They combined several reliable sources, such as StatCounter, Quantcast, Net Applications, and Gemius. The only continent not highlighted was Antarctica, due to usage number for Firefox being somewhere in the 80s.
Want to know exactly how you are making use of the Firefox web browser? Here are six of the best add-ons for Firefox that will give you every statistic you would ever want from your own day to day usage. From cache, to download usage, and even easy cache status – we have something here for everybody to make use of.
Net Usage Item – Displays a progress bar of your Internet usage (grabbed from your ISP) on your Firefox Toolbar.
Usage Counter – Tells you how much time you have spent using Firefox and browsing sites.
StatusbarEx – Show some useful information on status bar of Firefox, such as the memory usage of system & Firefox itself, network speed, system power status, etc.
Minimeter – Monitor your provider’s upload/download usage meter.
DataFox – Check your BSNL DataOne and MTNL Triband bandwidth utilization in Firefox at the click of a button. A color coded progress bar and bandwidth usage tracking helps you stay within your monthly cap and efficiently utilize your bandwidth.
Cache Status – Easy cache status & management from the status bar.
Know of another favorite usage add-on that didn’t make it to the list? Be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments!
While checking out my Google Analytics stats for Firefox Facts, I thought it might be fun to look back and see what (so far) have been the top ten most popular items posted here on Firefox Facts. We have some classics here, so I hope you enjoy.
Have a favorite post of yours that didn’t make it on the list? Feel free to share it in the comments, and maybe we can put together a user’s list of some of the favorites we have had here over the years.
Ever want to become a test pilot? Mozilla Labs has announced a new project with that name that sounds very interesting. Test Pilot, still in the planning stages right now, will help give the Mozilla developers more information about how you use Firefox, so that they can learn from your feedback to make things better.
The opt-in project will give anonymous information about your Firefox usage.
After either a specified amount of time or upon completion of a specific action, Test Pilot will prompt the user for feedback. The feedback form will only ask a few questions selected from a much larger set. A link will be provided to provided more comprehensive unstructured feedback or bug reports.
The feedback question will be randomly distributed to make sure they reach a wide enough demographic as well. The information will then be posted automatically to the Test Pilot web site. What do participants get? They will receive a flight badge on their Test Pilot profile and will be able to embed this badge on their web site, social networking profile and more.
For more information on the project, check out the Mozilla Labs post on the topic and if you are interested in discussing it with others, be sure to check out the Mozilla Labs forum on the Test Pilot program.
Are you turned on by a hot girl who can tell you exactly how much data is currently loaded up in that browser of yours? Well, I can’t deliver on the hot girl – but I can give you a cool extension that gives you a lot of useless stats.
The Browser Statistics extension for Firefox will let you know the following:
- data currently loaded (KBytes)
- total data loaded (KBytes/MBytes) since last start of the browser
- number of visited pages
I am sure there might be a reason for knowing all of this, but I can’t really think of any that sound impressive. You’ll just become that annoying guy that sits at the dinner table and says, “Hey, you know how many megabytes I downloaded this morning Honey?”.
+ Download and Install the Browser Statistics Extension for Firefox!
The folks over at Lifehacker have put out a nice article about the extension for Firefox known as About This Site. They cover this little beauty from head to toe and let you know why you may or may not be interested in using it.
When you happen upon a new web site – or you’re just interested in finding more about one you frequent all the time – it’s difficult to get a sense of how popular it is, how long it’s been around, what people are saying about it and how much it’s been bookmarked. The About This Site Firefox extension offers one click access to web services that compile just that kind of information for you.
Want to know more about any Web site? This would be a good place to start.
Want a Firefox extension that helps you visualize your Internet usage? Look no further than the Net Usage Item extension. Here are a few more details about it.
The Net Usage Project is aimed at providing internet usage indicators for the Firefox browser. It works by fetching numbers from an XML feed or usage web page provided by the ISP. This project is targeted towards Australian Broadband Users whose broadband connections are encumbered with download (and sometimes upload) limits. However, this meter can be adapted for any country’s ISP who provides a XML usage data feed.
+ Download and Install the Net Usage Item Extension for Firefox!
