Need to tweak the Google search interface, and make it look the way you want it to look?  Maybe you want a few more columns of results? Maybe you don’t like the related searches? One great tool to use to tweak your Google search interface is GoogleMonkeyR.  This user script written for the Greasemonkey add-on will have you tweaking Google in just a few clicks.

One installed, the GoogleMonkeyR user script can be configured by clicking the link for it next your your email address at the top of any Google search result page. 

Here is a screenshot of the changes you can make with this fantastic Greasemonkey user script:

As you can see, there is a lot to love about this fantastic little script.  You can pick up GoogleMonkeyR from the userscripts.org website. To learn more about Greasemonkey and how to use it with Firefox, I highly recommend my guide on Greasemonkey usage in the Firefox Facts archive.

Tabs are a feature in Firefox we all take for granted some times.  It has become so normal for us to uses them, they just don’t seem that exciting anymore.  Well, if you feel like your tab bar has lost some of it’s specialness – be sure to check out these ten terrific tab tweaking tips.

Close Tab With Two Right Clicks

Rather than hunting down the X to close your current tab, what if all you had to do was wish upon a star, and then right click anywhere on the tab you wish to shut down?  I will let you know how to get that done, without the need of the “wishing upon a star”.

Tab Counter

Who doesn’t want a Firefox add-on that counts the number of tabs that are open? Tab Counter is the name, and counting tabs is its game.

How to Duplicate a Tab

Need to duplicate a tab in Firefox, so you can have the same content loaded up in two Firefox windows?  Not sure, you could just copy and paste the URL into both browsers – but who has the time?  I have an easier solution to fix this problem.

Save Your Memory and Organize Firefox Tabs

I can tell you from experience, having too many tabs open can be a real pain.  On occasion though, it is something you have to do, so you might as well find an add-on that will help you navigate through your tabs more effectively.  That is where TooManyTabs comes into play.

Tile Your Firefox Tabs in the Browser

We are all looking for ways to get more done in the browser visually, and at times I would like to look at two tabs at the same time.  Looking for a way to tile my tabs, I found a great add-on that does the job really well.  The Tile Tabs add-on for Firefox does [...]

Close All Tabs in Firefox

Sometimes we all go a little tab-happy when it comes to our Internet browsing ways.  You might be browsing around, one lazy Friday afternoon, and before you know it – you have twenty open tabs and then decide, "hey, maybe I should get back to work!".  Well, have no fear, because I can get all [...]

Tab Utilities

Looking for a Firefox tab extension that does a little ‘bit of everything?  Look no further than Tab Utilities. This add-on for Firefox really is your proverbial utility knife when it comes to controlling, editing or optimizing your browser tabs for better performance.

Firefox Tabs on Top

Tired of seeing your tabs under your navigation or bookmark toolbars? Maybe you just want to see how Firefox would look with tabs on the top?  With the Firefox extension, Tabs on Top – you can easily move your browser tabs to the top of the screen.

Tab Rotator

Have the need to rotate your tabs?  No, I do not mean to turn them upside down. Tab Rotator, an add-on for Firefox, will automatically switch between the open tabs in your browser after a certain amount of time.

Just Put It On My Bar Tab

When you load up a dozen or more tabs all at once, Firefox can slow down to a crawl.  Now, you can either choose to stop overwhelming Firefox with too many tabs or you can grab this helpful add-on for Firefox that will only load up the tab you need at the time, with multiple [...]

Have another tab tweak you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments!

How do you quickly scroll to the top or the bottom of a webpage?  While we might often think of the mouse’s scroll wheel as a pretty default “duh-like” answer – there are other and maybe better ways to get the job done in Firefox.

Keyboard Tip – The first scrolling tip I have to share with you is related to the pictures you see above.  You can hit the Home key on your keyboard to go to the top of a webpage, and the end key on your keyboard to navigate your way to the bottom of a webpage very quickly.

Now, for the super handy extension to save the day.

The Scroll to Top/Bottom add-on for Firefox gives you a few more ways to do this same task.  You can either do it from the buttons in Firefox’s navigation toolbar or you can go up and down from the right-click menu.

You can pick up the Scroll to Top/Bottom add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

So, now it is your turn.  Tell me how you quickly go from the top of a webpage to the bottom (or the other way around) in the comments.

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!

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.

Here is how you can make your spelling mistakes stand out more in Firefox.

1. Enter About:config in the Firefox address bar. If it pops up an alert, tell it that you know what you’re doing and proceed.
2. Search for ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineStyle. If you find anything, skip to step 5.
3. If your system is like mine, you found nothing. That means you have to add this configuration value. Right-click the main portion of the window and select New > Integer.
4. Now, enter ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineStyle to create a setting by this name.
5. Now you can set the value of this setting to one of several options: 0 for no highlighting, 1 for a dotted line, 2 for long dots, 3 for a single straight line, 4 for a double underline (like you see above – that’s my pick), and 5 for a squiggly line, which is the default.

Once you are done, you will be able to spell check like no other!  Well, ok – that might be a little dramatic, but you will have a more customized misspelled word notification.

Thanks goes to Download Squad for this amazing find!

Firefox makes for an awesome instant search tool for any web site out there that has a search box enabled on it.  When you mix searching in the location bar with keywords for bookmarks, you will find yourself searching at least ten percent faster.  Join me today, as I show you how you too can master keyword searching in Firefox.

To create the smart keyword, follow these steps:

Visit the web page that has the search field on it that you would normally use to search the web site.

Now, right-click in the search box and select, "Add a Keyword for this Search".

Next, in the keyword text box, type in a keyword that you can quickly type out and remember.  I have used ff as an example to quickly search Firefox Facts. Once you are done, hit the Save button.

Now that your smart keyword is in place, let us try searching with it.  In the location/address bar – type in your keyword and what you are searching for.

If all goes well, you should be taken to the search results web page.  This comes in handy to have for web sites you search often, but you can not search via the search box in Firefox itself.

There is a lot you can do with Firefox when it comes to the mouse.  Now, most of the time people focus on all the keyboard shortcuts you can do with Firefox – however, the mouse shortcuts are equally as cool. 

Here are six of my favorite Firefox mouse shortcuts for you to remember:

• Middle click on a link (will open in new tab)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling down (takes you to the previous page)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling up (takes you to the next page)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scrolling up (increases text size)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scroll down (decreases text size)
• Middle clicking on a tab (closes that tab)

Have any other Firefox mouse shortcuts you hold near and dear to your heart?  Leave them in the comments and let us know your favorites that you use in your everyday browsing.

With that in mind, I thought it might be handy to guide you through the process when it comes to adding a new Persona theme to your browser, removing a Persona theme from your browser, and how to chance through Persona themes – once you have several saved to your system.

How Do You Install a Firefox Persona?

If you are using Firefox 3.6 or above, the options for Personas should be built into the browser.  Here is how you can grab your own Firefox Persona to use in Firefox.

Go to the Personas page on the Firefox Add-ons web site or the Personas Gallery.

Next, browser around the web site until you find a Persona you would like to use in your own Firefox browser.  Notice that as you hover over the thumbnail previews, your Firefox browser will change to show you what that Persona would look like.

Click on the Persona you would like to use, and go check out the official page for that specific Persona.  For example, here is the page for the Superman logo Persona shown above:

• Superman Logo Firefox Persona

To install that specific Persona for Firefox, click the orange, “Wear this Persona” button.

Once you do so, the Persona will be installed – and you will get a message come up in the browser telling you it has been installed, and giving you the option to undo or go to your manage themes settings.

You are now done.  Your new Persona for Firefox has been installed and is ready to decorate your browser till you change it again.

How Can You Uninstall a Firefox Persona?

Uninstalling Firefox Personas is as easy as installing them.  From Firefox’s Menu Bar, select Tools and then Add-ons.  Once that comes up, you want to go to the “Themes” tab. Both Firefox themes and Personas will now be displayed here.

Click on the Firefox Persona you wish to uninstall, and click the “Uninstall” button. You will be asked to verify the uninstall, and then it will be gone for good.  You can also switch to a different Persona you have downloaded by clicking on that Persona from this screen, and selecting “Use Theme”.

Get More Personas Help: Other Personas Tips, Articles and Tutorials!

Oh undo function, what would I do without you? 

Well, I would probably be forced to do it again – but that is beside the point.  I love being able to reopen a closed tab or window in Firefox.  It has saved my rear end many times.  This is just one of those Firefox tips you really should memorize.

Tab Restore Shortcuts

If you accidently close a tab, you can bring it back by pressing the following keyboard combination:

Ctrl + Shift + T

The great thing about it, is the newly restored tab keeps all the surfing history too.  You can can keep doing it to, to browse backwards through all the tabs you have closed in your current browsing session.

You can also bring back closed Firefox tabs or windows by clicking on “History” in the menu bar.  At the very bottom, you should see selectable menus for:

• Recently Closed Tabs
• Recently Closed Windows

There you have it.  This tab and window restore tip will help you get out of a pinch more than a few times, so it is a good one to memorize.  This is one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts and Firefox browsing tips, second only to Ctrl + T to open a new Firefox tab.

All in all, 2009 was a great year for Firefox.  It grew by leaps and bounds, and continues to be the best alternative browser out there.  Firefox Facts did pretty well in it’s own right too – surpassing the 7,000+ RSS subscriber mark.  So with today being the last day of 2009, let us all sit back and revisit some of the best posts of the year.

Here are 10 of the most read stories, tips, tutorials and reviews I have posted here in 2009.  Hope you check out some classics you might have missed, or revisit a favorite post or two.

#10 – Love (or Disable) the New Tab Button in Firefox

Love it, or hate it – Firefox got one more addition to it’s browser that seems to have gotten a mixed reaction from the fans. The open new tab button rests at the end of your tab bar in Firefox 3.5 giving you an easier user interface to open a new tab.

• More Tab Fun – Move the Close Tab in Firefox

#9 – 10 Popular Web Designer Tools for Firefox

Thanks to Firefox and some of the great add-ons that have been developed for it, your browser is your best friend when it comes to web site design.  From CSS tools, to promoting your domain, here are 10 of the most popular web designer tools for Firefox.

• Top 10 Greatness – Top 10 Personas Backgrounds for Firefox

#8 – Add Another Bookmarks Toolbar to Firefox

Have more than a few bookmarks you want to keep handy on the bookmarks toolbar in Firefox but don’t have the room?  Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar, an extension for Firefox, will help you solve that issue by letting you add as many bookmark toolbars as you need.

• Popular Add-ons – Most Downloaded Bookmark Add-ons

#7 – 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.

• Firefox Tip – Easier Access to Private Browsing Mode

#6 – Convert YouTube Videos to MP3

The experimental add-on YouTube 2 MP3 will convert and download YouTube videos in the .mp3 audio format.  There is no doubt that YouTube has a large collection of music videos, so this type of service was bound to happen eventually.

• More YouTube Tips – 1-Click YouTube Video Downloader

#5 – Speed up Flash Videos in Firefox

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.  Now you might ask, what does this have to do with flash videos?  Well, the snapshot action is what is causing your ten second delay, at times, with watching flash videos on the Web.

• Firefox Hacks – More Fun Tips with About:Config

#4 – 10 Popular Themes That Are Firefox 3.5 Ready

One of the negative side effects of a new version of Firefox rolling out is the fact that some Firefox theme creators neglect to update their themes to the newest versions.  So, when updating our browser, that leaves some of us in the dark, when it comes to using the themes we know and love.  However, this time around many more popular themes have been updated to support Firefox 3.5 and here are my favorite ten for you to choose from.

• Skins Galore – All the Great Firefox Themes I’ve Reviewed

#3 – Skip to the Download on Rapidshare, Megaupload and More!

Want to skip the totally unnecessary “wait to download” pages on Rapidshare, Megaupload and more?  SkipScreen, and add-on for Firefox is here to help.

#2- All About Perspective – Firefox Wallpaper

Firefox wallpaper that I would actually see myself using is hard to find.  The main reason behind third is that I don’t really like text on my desktop, and I really don’t like feeling like a marketing campaign either.  So with that said, what type of Firefox wallpaper does make me happy?

• Desktop Decorations – Five Star Firefox Wallpaper

#1 – Beginner’s Guide to Greasemonkey

In a nutshell, Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to customize a web site’s look and function.  Now you don’t have to be a coder to use it though, because there are already hundreds of scripts out there available for free that you can use to help you do a number of different things.

• Another Great Guide: Beginner’s Manual to Stylish

I hope you have enjoyed reading all the Firefox Facts tips, tricks and more this year – and you’ll subscribe to the RSS feed, visit daily and be entertained and informed all the way though 2010 and beyond.  This site wouldn’t be a success without you, so thank you for making Firefox Facts on of the most popular Firefox tip related blogs out there today. Happy New Year!

BONUS – Check out the Best of Mitchelaneous (2009 Edition)