Life Rocks 2.0 » Firefox

LongURL Expands Shortened URLs in Firefox

Nirmal — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:05:29 +0000

We have seen lots of URL shortening services in place now and these services mostly came into picture with micro blogging services like Twitter, Facebook etc. The problem with these shortened URLs is that you cannot actually find out where you are navigating, sometimes these links end you up in an embarrassing situation. LongURL Mobile Expander is a Firefox add-on which reveals shortened URLs. The add-on is based on the fact that you should always know where a link takes you before clicking on it.

Once you have installed the add-on it detects for any shortened URLs and displays the actual URL when you hover on top the URL. The add-on supports more than 200 shortening services (details here).

When you click the more link in the pop up, it shows you more details on the URL like keywords, meta description, conversations surrounding this URL etc.

LongURL is a pretty useful add-on if you are dealing with lots of shortened URLs.

Download LongURL

Tabberwocky is a Useful Tab Management for Firefox

Nirmal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:04:20 +0000

Are you a Firefox user, finding it difficult to manage open tabs or accidently closed a tab, then Tabberwocky is definitely an useful add-on. Tabberwocky is a Firefox add-on for tab management which is a light, fast tab browsing extension with features, including duplicate, protect, and lock tab, open selected links, multi row tab bar, tab progress bars, new & close tab buttons, tab clicking, tab opening & closing, menu items, and many more features.

right click on any tab and it provides you with the option of locking and protecting tab which prevents from accidental close. You can also reload a tab or all the tabs. In case you accidentally close a tab, then you can undo the action. When opening any link, you can prefer to open in background or foreground tab.

Tabberwocky options allows you to customize and change all the settings of the add-on.

Tabberwocky is a very useful add-on for all Firefox users. Features and options include;

Duplicate Tab, Protect Tab, Lock Tab (menu items and keyboard shortcuts)
Tab Progress Bars
Multiple-Row Tab Bar
Open in new tabs from Bookmarks, History, URL Bar, and/or Search Bar
Open Selected Links in New Tabs
Retain tab history when opening links in new tabs
Show/Hide New Tab button and Close Tab buttons
Highlight unread tabs
Set minimum/maximum tab width
Close tabs by double-clicking on them
Tab clicking options
Open tabs to the right of current tab
Open tabs from links to the right of current tabs (Firefox 3.6+)
Switch to last selected tab or tab on the left when closing a tab
Menu items for opening links in foreground/background tabs
Open script-generated windows in tabs instead

Download Taberwocky

Auto Shutdown PC using Firefox

Nirmal — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:04:04 +0000

If you are a Firefox user and if you leave computer idle for downloading large files from Internet, then Auto Shutdown add-on for Firefox might be able to save energy for you. Auto Shutdown is a Firefox extension developed by InBasic which monitors your active downloads and shuts down your computer when they are completed. More than this, it also helps you to execute any script (user scripts) after the specified time duration.

Auto Shutdown provides you with lots of options to configure the shutdown and also integrates with DownThemAll add-on which is a better download manager for Firefox.

Features:

Executing user scripts after all downloads are finished or computer is idle for specific time
Play sound after each/All downloads are finished
Restore Firefox from last session
Customizable shutdown/idle scripts
Supporting DownThemAll

The add-on has a quick access button on the Firefox status bar at the bottom and you can activate the add-on using the right click menu.

Download Auto Shutdown for Firefox

Auto Replay YouTube Videos in Firefox

Nirmal — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:02:28 +0000

YouTube is definitely an awesome site for all kinds of videos. Every time you finish watching a video in YouTube, you need to manually replay it in order to have a look at it again. Auto Replay is a Firefox add-on which allows users to automatically replay YouTube videos without having to manually replay the videos once it is completed. This add-on adds an auto replay checkbox in YouTube video page along with options to choose the portion of the video to be replayed.

Once you have installed the add-on, when you open any video in Firefox, you can Auto Replay option on the right hand corner of the video. Here you can also select the time frame of the video you want to replay.

The add-on works very well with videos and there is no delay in starting the videos once it is completed.

Download Auto Replay Add-on for Firefox

Download Firefox 4 Theme for Firefox 3

Nirmal — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:45:10 +0000

We have already seen the mock up theme for the upcoming version of Mozilla Firefox 4. This mock up theme for Firefox 4 can be enabled on Firefox 3 with an add-on. The Strata40 theme is designed to mimic the look and functionality of the Firefox 4 mock ups floating around the net. This theme for Firefox works with version 3.5 and above. Although the Strata40 theme gives the mock up effect, a combination of other add-ons and user scripts will give the complete look and feel of Firefox 4 mock up theme.

There are other recommended add-ons for complete effects like aero glass, tabs on top of the navigation bar.

Here is a list of add-ons required to get the full Firefox 4 experience:

StrataGlass :: Needed for aero glass effects- Download
Personal Menu :: Needed for tools and bookmarks toolbar buttons- Download
Omnibar :: Not essential but great for using the address bar for searching instead of the search bar- Download
Fission :: Needed for “progress line” feature. Shows the page’s loading progress as a small line below the address bar- Download
Tabs on Top :: The mock ups also include a tabs on top version. If you would like a tabs on top version install an add-on called Stylish- Download
Then install this user style : Download

Once these add-ons and styles are installed, you get the Firefox 4 mock up theme on Firefox 3.

Thanks to CyberNetNews for this tip.

Embedded IE Engine in Firefox with Coral IE Tab

Nirmal — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:27:48 +0000

Coral IE Tab is a Firefox extension which enables you to use the embedded IE engine within tabs of Mozilla Firefox. This add-on can be very useful for developers who want to check the rendering of pages in IE. This add-on enables you to easily switch to IE in tab view when you meet incorrectly rendered web pages in Firefox. This add-on is very similar IE Tab and also many parts are directly taken from IE Tab.

The most significant features of this add-on are the support for Ad block Plus (and other Adblock-like extension), supporting cookies (so you don’t need to re-login when you switch between Firefox and IE), etc.

Coral IE Tab is a very useful add-on for web developers.

Download Coral IE Tab

Enhance Search and Social Media Experience in Firefox with KwiClick

Nirmal — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:03:16 +0000

KwiClick is a Firefox add-on which helps you to get the better out of search and social media in Firefox. When you want to search something using Firefox, you open a new tab and search using the search box in Firefox. But with KwiClick, you can directly type in the search box and results from various favorite search engines are displayed in a separate pop up box without having to open new tab or opening in existing tab. KwiClick integrates social media into Firefox, so that you can share videos on Twitter and Facebook with easy clicks.

You can search in all your favorite sites with just a single click without opening any of these websites. These favorites can be customized using the options window.

Sharing videos on Facebook or Twitter or by email is now very much easier, whenever you play any video (from supported sites), a tool is automatically added to above the videos enabling you to share it.

You can even watch the video in separate pop out box so that you can view it even if you navigate away from the main tab. It detects embedded videos and images on any webpage, and provides tools for in depth information extraction.

KwiClick provides immediate results from popular websites including Google, YouTube, FriendFeed, Twitter, Google Maps, Flickr, Wikipedia, Amazon, Technorati, Veoh, Howcast, Live Video, Viddler, Yahoo, del.icio.us, and more.

When you want to search any term from a website content, select the term, right click and you can search using KwiClick. Check this video for more details and features of KwiClick.

KwiClick is a very useful and must have add-on for all social media users (Twitter and Facebook) to share content easily.

Download KwiClick

Speed up Firefox with SpeedyFox

Nirmal — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:00:55 +0000

Firefox is a pretty good browser with support for themes and thousands of add-ons for customizations. But with passage of time, Firefox starts slows down and takes more time to start and overall navigation becomes slow. SpeedyFox is a free and small utility that fixes the problem of Firefox slowing down. After you optimize your Firefox with this tool, you will get a fresh newly-installed feel because the speed indeed gets considerably faster. Speeyfox attributes this problem to fragmentation of database.

Once installed, it will automatically detect your Firefox’s default profile. If you have more than one profile, you can select the one you want to optimize from the drop-down menu. All you have to do is select the default profile that you want to optimize. Make sure that you have closed Firefox before using this tool.

The optimization process can take time based on your data available with Firefox. The whole optimization process is safe as it does not effect your history, bookmarks, passwords, etc.

Download SpeedyFox

How to Enable Private Browsing in Firefox 3.5

Nirmal — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:40:24 +0000

Firefox 3.5 comes with lots of new features and improvements and one such feature is private browsing. Many times if your friend or family member shares your computer, you would prefer for them not to be able to see what websites you’ve visited or what files you’ve downloaded. Firefox 3.5 “Private Browsing,” which allows you to browse the Internet without Firefox retaining any of data about which sites and pages you have visited.

In a Private Browsing session, Firefox won’t keep any browser history, search history, download history, web form history, cookies, or temporary internet files. However, files you download and bookmarks you make will be kept.

1. To enable Private Browsing in Firefox 3.5, click on the tools menu and select “Start Private Browsing” or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL +SHIFT+ P. You will be prompted with a warning message on whether you want to start private mode.

2. Once you have started Private browsing mode, it opens a new session of Firefox and your existing session will be automatically saved. You can see the private browsing mode enabled when you open any tab.

3. When you want to stop private browsing, click tools and select “Stop Private Browsing” or use the same keyboard shortcut CTRL +SHIFT+ P.

Once you have stopped private browsing, Firefox will restore your previous session of browsing.

Integrated Gmail Updates with New Features

Nirmal — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:30:09 +0000

Integrated Gmail is a Firefox Add-on for Gmail, which allows you to make the Inbox Collapsible and load your choice of Google Calendar, Reader, Notebook, Groups, etc, plus Custom URLs and Google Gadgets seamlessly into the Gmail interface. This add-on has been updated with new features and improvements over the previous version. Basically the use of this add-on is to have Google Reader, Calendar, Notebook etc loaded into your Gmail inbox as different collapsible tabs.

Integrated Gmail is a very useful add-on if you are using Gmail and Google reader, it brings the feature of even full screen reading of Google Reader inside Gmail without any interference from the inbox and also not having to open a new window.

New Features Added are;

Favicons in Titles
Unread Counts in Titles
Support for Splitting Multiple Inboxes
Collapsible Header and Sidebars for Gmail and Google Calendar
Drag and Drop Central Elements and Sidebars
Hotkeys to Show/Hide Sidebars and Expand/Collapse Central Elements
Hit ` to enter Macro Mode for 1 sec then press 1-9 or an Arrow Key
Import and Export of User Settings
Auto-Theme Detection
Auto-Resizing of Custom and Gadget Elements
Finer Control for Header Removal of Google Sites
https Controls for Supported Google Sites

You can add in Google Notebook, Site, Picasa, Google Maps, Google groups, Google News, custom elements and also gadgets.

Integrated Gmail is a very useful add-on for Gmail users or rather Google services users.

Download Integrated Gmail (Firefox Add-on)