Move Tabs to the Sidebar

Comments (1) · July 15, 2008 at 6:37 am · Tabbed Browsing

The Tab Sidebar add-on for Firefox does a simple change, but after I can promise you you’ll get a whole new perspective for the way Firefox works.  It acts more like a replacement for the tab bar and includes an always visible thumbnail preview of all the tabs you may have loaded up.

Here are some of the other Tab Sidebar features:

• Provides navigation options for each tab including history, stop and reload
• Allows you to move tabs around with drag and drop
• You can drop links, local files and bookmarks anywhere you like
• Displays the security status of tabs
• Automatically refreshes the tab preview whenever the page changes

To activate the extension, just go to View and then Tab Sidebar to see it.  On the down side, some have complained that CPU usage goes way up when using this addition.  On the good side though, hey - you get pretty thumbnails for all of your tabs!  In the “what would I like to see” I would like to see if work flawlessly with the scroll wheel on your mouse. 

There is a lot of promise and a lot to already love, so give Tab Sidebar a download either via the Firefox Add-ons site or the official web page for the extension.

Interclue for Firefox

Comments (2) · February 14, 2008 at 7:20 am · Firefox Usability

Interclue for Firefox kind of excites me because I think they are trying to do a good job with a browsing idea that really hasn’t been my cup of tea yet, the “thumbnail preview”. One positive is that they say it stays out of your way when you do not need it - which is my argument against other extensions like this. As you can see in the preview, they offer more than just your standard screenshot of the next page too.

Here is how the developers of the extension describe it:

Interclue displays useful information and relevant next actions for almost any link on the web. Clueview tooltips are not like other previews, they show you only the most relevant content straight from the page, rather than relying on small cached snapshots or large scrolling windows.

This could either be a really helpful tool or an annoying clutter feature that drives me batty after 3 minutes of use. I think different people may take different things away from it. if you enjoy the idea of having a sort of “picture in picture” preview with some other handy links give Interclue for Firefox a shot.

Mozilla Addons - Updated Thumbnail Preview

Comments (1) · December 27, 2007 at 7:17 am · Firefox News

Not sure how long this update has been out there, but Mozilla has done something really neat with their addons web site. Right now, when your looking at an extension, you know you can click on the screen shot to see it a little bigger and by itself - right?

Well now when you click on a thumbnail, and the extension has more than one preview you can browse through them using the right arrow button or the thumbnails underneath.

For an example, try checking out the entry for Flagfox on their web site, and click where it says “See all preview images”. I wonder if this is just something out of the blue - or maybe a update preview to the Mozilla addons site getting ready for Firefox 3?

Add Thumbnails to Your Bookmarks

Comments (1) · August 30, 2007 at 7:04 am · Bookmark Help

With the new Visual Bookmarks Firefox extension you have a quick and painless way of adding thumbnail images to your bookmarks.

The extension lets you capture a part of a web page as an image, then add labels and tags to make a visual bookmark. You can then turn around and arrange them by that label or tag you added. Now if this comes in handy anywhere - it is for when you bookmark videos or image galleries that you want to come back to later.

It should also be noted that this uses a separate system from the existing Firefox bookmarks setup. Hopefully in future releases they will figure out a way to tie it in better.

I really like the look and feel of Visual Bookmarks. Not sure if it is helping me browse any faster, but it is nice to see those pages in one way, shape or form instead of having to say.. “Yeah, I think that was the one I wanted to click on”.

Firefox Themes Directory

Comments (2) · June 20, 2007 at 7:00 am · Resources

Need to find a new Firefox theme, but don’t want a new way to browse through them all? There is no doubt that there are a lot of themes out there to pick from - and the folks at Learn Firefox have put together a really nice way for you to navigate through them.

Welcome to Firefox Themes presented by Learn Firefox! Here you will find screenshots of all themes that are compatible with Firefox 2.0. The link located above each screenshot will take you to the download page on the Official Firefox Addons site.

The new theme directory on the Web site gives you screenshots of each theme and a link to get to the Firefox Addons page about that said theme. This takes a really simple idea and just makes it that much better. Browse through the selections yourself and be sure to let them know you appreciate the time it took to get this all put together!

ThumbStrips - New Way to Tab

Comments (1) · June 18, 2007 at 7:02 am · Tabbed Browsing

Ever think of your browsing as a movie? Instead of getting big explosions are awesome fight sequences, you get pictures of web sites as your staring roll. Ok, nobody said your browsing would ever make an exciting movie.

ThumbStrips is an extension that lets you view your history in the form of a filmstrip of screenshots. You can save and share filmstrips on innovation.intuit.com as well.

This is a really neat and new way to look at your browsing habits. Give it a shot, and let me know what you think.

Turn Off Snap Thumbnail Previews

Comments off · February 1, 2007 at 9:05 am · Firefox Hacks

Often mistaken as ads, Snap’s obnoxious link previews are quickly becoming something you either really love or really hate. Well now you have the option to opt in or opt out of having them on the Web sites you visit.

All you need to do is visit this section of their FAQ and click a link. Disabling this on your own browser places a cookie on your system, but if you want a quick fix - this will do nicely. No extensions needed.

Really this should work - no matter what browser you are running. Since it is a nice tip though, I figured all the Firefox Facts fans should know about it.