RSS is great technology, but one of its shortcomings is that it doesn't always represent all of a site's content stream. Many times there are parts of a news or content site that change either through an editorial hand, or with items chosen by users. A new Firefox add-on called AlertBox helps track these "scraps" of content, and can be used to keep an eye out for any changes. This includes things like price changes, edits or updates to a news story, and the top stories on content sites.
To make sure it's not looking for activity on an entire Web page, AlertBox is designed to let you grab bits and pieces of any site--not the entire thing. Once installed, you can summon it by clicking the little bell shape in the bottom corner of the browser, or using a keyboard combination. It then pops up with a selection screen that, similar to Apple's Web clips widget, lets you pick what part of the page you want it to track. You can then choose how often you want it to check for future changes in increments of two minutes, up to one day.
The AlertBox in-box lets you keep track of all your alerts, and delete ones you no longer use.
(Credit: CNET)AlertBox's way of tracking new content is an in-box-style counter down in the bottom of your browser. When clicked, it takes you to a page of Web clippings that are constantly updated with whatever the latest text is of the page elements you had selected. To be honest, this part of the add-on could use a little work, as it's just a text rip that loses all of the formatting on the page. And all of these alerts are housed not in the cloud, but on your local machine, which has two big downsides: One is that you need to have Firefox going at all times for it to alert you. The other is that you can only access those alerts on that particular machine.
Faults aside, I really like the idea of creating a simple in-box of changing content that does not rely on RSS. I think this, with a little bit of archiving to let you track changes in content throughout the day (like Web archiving service Iterasi does), would make for a very useful alternative to widget start pages and feed readers.
AlertBox lets you choose particular sections of a site to keep an eye on for updates.
(Credit: CNET)Here's a must-have Firefox add-on. Called Multi Links, this extension lets you simply right click and drag your mouse across the screen to select multiple links at once. It's just like selecting multiple files on your computer, and highly effective for tearing through a page of links you want to look at or save for later.
By default, selected links open up in new browser tabs, although you can go into the options to choose whether you want them to open up in new windows, or be bookmarked instead. You're also able to change the color scheme of the box, and the outlines of the selected links--just in case you're into that sort of thing.
Want to open up multiple URLs? Just drag your mouse over them with this handy extension.
(Credit: CNET)Advanced users can utilize keyboard shortcuts to limit mouse work. For instance, holding down the control or shift button while creating a box means you can hop around a page of results--selecting the items you want to open or save, while skipping over others. The extension is also coded to ignore extra links on search pages, which keeps you from unintentionally opening up the cached and similar links on each result. This worked fine on Google and Bing, but not on Yahoo or Ask.
This extension is definitely worth keeping around because it does not interfere with normal, right-click behavior. My one hope is that future versions will forgo the options menu in place of a small pop-up, or slide-out menu that asks what you want to do with links after selecting them.
See also: Snap Links (which does the same thing, but has not been updated since February) and Selection Links.
If you're the type of person who uses a lot of search engines and doesn't mind having a toolbar installed, you might want to check out Firefox Super Search. This Firefox-only add-on puts the power of 160 search engines in one toolbar, with about 70 that can be searched right from the toolbar itself.
If you're used to Firefox's built-in search box, this is a pretty big step up both from selecting one engine at a time and having to add additional engine tools from Mozilla's catalog. It's also laid out in a really straightforward manner, putting search engines with which you can search (from within the toolbar) in drop-down menus on the right side of the query box. There's also a directory of the other 90 or so engines that require a visit before beginning a new search.
Super Search is set up to let you search from nearly 70 search engines right from the blue options on the right of the search box. And the green button on the left is a directory of ones where you have to begin the search from that particular site. (Note, this screenshot has been edited to show off all of the toolbar's features at once).
(Credit: CNET)My only qualm is that you cannot reorganize the order of the engines or make a shortlist of your favorites. It's also missing out on modern search box niceties like auto-complete and search-as-you-type suggestions--two things that require the search box to know which engine you're searching with first. On the plus side, though, the curation and organization of the engines is spot-on.
Note: This add-on is experimental, which means that it may not work perfectly in your browser. We used Super Search on Firefox version 3.5.1 without issues.
Google Calendar has quickly become one of my favorite online tools. I can schedule meetings quickly and it integrates seamlessly into my workflow. It's a great service.
But I want more from it.
That's why I've been sifting through Mozilla's Firefox extension database trying to find some add-ons that take Google Calendar to the next level. Whether they enhance its usability or just improve its effectiveness, there are a handful of extensions that work quite well.
Google Calendar extensions
Better GCal After I installed Better GCal, I was extremely impressed by what it offered. From a new skin to little extras like week numbers and collapsible headers, it makes Google Calendar just a little better. The extension not only made me more organized, but the calendar became far more readable.
Better GCal has a great skin to try out.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)GCal Popup GCal Popup is a really neat idea. Instead of forcing you to open a new tab to add an event to your Google Calendar, you'll only need to open the extension and it will display your Google Calendar over your current Web page. Input the event you want to add to your calendar and once you're done, you can close the extension and go back to work.
GCal Popup is designed to make it convenient to add events to your Calendar and it succeeds. But beware that it's an "experimental" extension, so it might cause some instability issues. That said, I haven't experienced any such problems.
GCal Popup makes it easy to add events to your calendar.
(Credit: GCal Popup)Mozilla has introduced a new pilot program for Firefox developers to make a little money off add-ons they've created. Developers now have the option to place a "contribution" button on their add-on page, which lets users donate any amount they wish via PayPal.
CNET News Poll
Contributions are optional, meaning users can continue to download and use add-ons without having to pay anything. Mozilla is also letting developers pick their own suggested price, although users can choose to pay whatever they wish.
For the pilot program, add-on creators get the entire amount of the contribution, minus PayPal's transaction fee. However, in the future that could change with Mozilla taking a small cut. Mozilla is also encouraging developers to set up special PayPal accounts for contributions under $12, since PayPal's fees are less if set up for micropayments.
Mozilla is running the pilot with a limited number of developers, and will likely open it up to all if it's a success. It's definitely a smart way to attract add-on developers to host their creations on Mozilla's site, since there's now a simpler way for them to get paid. However, it will be interesting to see if users are willing to part with their money when they don't really have to.
How much would you be willing to pay a developer for their add-on? Vote in the poll to the right.
Update: Here's an example of what it looks like live as seen on the Download Statusbar extension:
(Credit:
CNET)
Selected Search is a new add-on for Firefox that makes it easier to start a search from any page you're on. It works by taking text you've highlighted with your mouse, and then bringing up a small pop-up list of all the search engines you have installed. From there you just pick the one you want and it opens up behind the scenes in a new tab.
Firefox has its own built-in contextual shortcut that does this with whatever search engine you've got set up as the primary. The big difference with this extension is that you can very quickly pick whatever engine you want to search with depending on what you've highlighted.
Selected Search lets you quickly do a search on any text you've highlighted with your mouse.
(Credit: CNET)What I really like about this tool is that you can continue to do all the normal things with highlighted text you'd normally do, including dragging it off into other programs or open windows, or using keyboard and contextual shortcuts to copy. It also does not always come up when highlighting text that's in a form, meaning you can keep it installed without interrupting your usual work flow, however this was hit or miss. It came up on certain form fields, but not in others.
Another tool that does the same thing with a little more visual flair is Drag and Drop Zones, which lets users drag highlighted text into a grid of search engines and keyboard shortcuts. It's a little more customizable, but may be a little harder to learn than this.
Facebook's built-in chat service is convenient, but where it lacks when compared to software-based chat tools is in letting users log past conversations. Facebook intentionally does not save full conversations, however it does keep a few lines from the last time you chatted with someone so you can pick up where you left off.
If you're looking for more though, there's a new Firefox add-on called Facebook Chat History Manager that saves all of your conversations locally. As long as you're using the browser with it installed, it saves everything and puts it into a log that can be filtered by friend or date. There is, however, no search function, so if you're looking for a specific word or phrase from a past chat, you'll have to view all your chats on one page, then use Firefox's built-in search tool. Hopefully a later version will add a way to search from the local index.
Since the extension saves all of your chats locally, you're totally hosed if your computer gets lost, stolen, or suffers failed hard drive. On the flip side of that, the chat log viewer is password protected, so there are no worries of someone else gaining access to your entire chat history.
If you're a heavy Facebook chat user who does not access the service through a software chat client, this extension is one of the easiest ways to log your chats, and definitely worth the download.
FB Chat History saves all your Facebook conversations as long as you're using the machine with the extension installed.
(Credit: CNET)
I am a regular user of Amazon.com, and one thing that's always irked me is the company's use of excessively-long URLs. In fact, they are so long that back in 2002 Google increased the number of URL characters it was indexing just to accommodate them.
Now there's a rhyme and reason to this system, but try to explain that to the person who you just dumped a 150-character URL on in your IM conversation.
Instead of using a third-party link shortening service that might not work if it goes down, you should check out AmazonLinks. This small Firefox extension will automatically change any Amazon product URL into one that's far smaller than the original. It does this by replacing all the gobbledygook after the Amazon.com with an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) that still lives under Amazon's domain, but is about 80 characters shorter.
So this book's URL goes from:
http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-America-Stupidity-Became-Virtue/dp/0767926145/ref=sr_1_1/184-1699140-4241306?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242146833&sr=8-1
to
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0767926145/
Now if you want to take this one step further, you can shorten Amazon's URLs by hand using the company's not-yet-announced internal shortening system. This was unearthed by Go2.Me's Mike Koss back in April, and involves dropping the Amazon item number after http://amzn.com/. What I like about this Firefox extension, however, is that you don't even need to worry about digging that information up--it just does it for you.
One thing to note is that this extension is experimental, which means you need to be registered with Mozilla's downloads directory to download it.
There are more than 7,000 Firefox extensions in Mozilla's official catalog, and a good portion of them can drastically improve how you browse the Web. Then there are the stinkers. These add-ons that actually make the browser slower, or harder to use. We've compiled a list of 20 that you should steer clear from, if only for their lack of basic utility.
It's worth noting I went through more than 7,000 extensions to come up with this list and it was incredibly tough to even come up with 20. It can also be argued that some of the ones on this list are, in fact, useful to a select few.
Nearly all of the ones on this list are up to date, but there are a few that won't work with the latest version of Firefox. We've noted that in the description. Also, for the respect of your mouse clicks I've pasted in the full list, with links to each one on Mozilla's add-ons site after the page break.
... Read more
Is there such a thing as too many Firefox extensions? Not as long as developers keep creating handy, gorgeous, or ingenious time-savers like the nine add-ons featured in our gallery. We leaned away from the usual, though always excellent, fare of McAfee Site Advisor, Google Preview, and these top five Firefox add-ons to bring you a new crop of favorites. Feel free to chime in with your own gems, too.
