Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, Open Source
Who needs IE8? Get Activities and WebSlices in Firefox
by Brad Linder Mar 11th 2008
Firefox might not always be the first web browser to get cool new features. But pretty much any time a competitor launches something cool you'll find a Firefox plugin with the same features thanks to the open-source web browser's plugin system and enthusiastic developer base. When Opera launched a "speed dial" system for accessing your most frequently used web pages, Firefox developers released a plugin. And now that Microsoft has launched Internet Explorer 8 beta 1, Firefox developers have released a series of plugins that emulate IE8's coolest features.
Activities is an IE8 feature that lets you select web services to add to your right-click context menu. Just select a snippet of text and you can search for it on eBay, plot it on a map, or translate it with Windows Live Translator. Developer Michael Kaply has created a Firefox version of Activities that works exactly the same way. In fact, in order to add services, you download them directly from Microsoft's web page.
Meanwhile Daniel Glazman has created WebChunks, a port of IE8's WebSlices feature. When you add a WebSlice to your browser toolbar, you can essentially see up to date information from a web site without clicking through to the site. For example, weather updates, movie showtimes, or article headlines. WebChunks is designed for Firefox 3 beta, and will not work with Firefox 2.
[via Mozilla Links]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh said 4:32PM on 3-11-2008
Is Webslices/Webchunks pretty much the same thing that was introduced into Safari 3 for Leopard?
Reply
michael said 5:50PM on 3-11-2008
Well who needs Firefox? I can find many off the same add-ons FF users use in IE. Doesn't mean anything about the browser.
I guess we also shouldn't give MS some points for originality with Activities and WebSlices, can we? So lets let a developer copy what another company did, and gloat the so-called superiority your favorite browser has over the other guy. Even if it's not included by default and it wasn't original.
Reply
Mondo Apero said 11:32PM on 3-11-2008
"I can find many off the same add-ons FF users use in IE."
"I can find a tiny fraction off the same add-ons FF users use in IE."
There, corrected it for you.
michael said 11:34PM on 3-11-2008
@Mondo Apero : Let me fix your correction:
"I can find a ton of the same add-ons for IE7".
There, double corrected that for you.
alex dante said 11:14PM on 3-11-2008
I'm not entirely sure what problem WebSlices is trying to resolve, given its similarity to what is currently provided by RSS.
As for credit-where-its-due, WebSlices is based upon the microformat hAtom, which is in turn based on Atom (and again, what does this provide over current RSS handling?). So kudos to MS for actually paying attention to existing formats, sure, maybe it'll even work straight away with hAtom microformats elsewhere, but given how badly IE7 handled RSS initially, I'm not going to get too carried away with the MS back-patting.
Reply
michael said 11:14PM on 3-11-2008
What's wrong with IE7 RSS feeds? I thought they displayed pretty well, compared to the way they're displayed in Firefox. They updated pretty good for me.
I only wish you could update feeds all at once, instead of one by one. That's about it.
Sean said 4:02PM on 3-12-2008
@Michael:
To refresh all of your feeds in IE7, right-click on a feed and click "Refresh All".
RP said 8:26AM on 3-12-2008
Nice that Firefox can copy IE8 so easily, but will the average non-technical user know that these add-ons even exist? And how to install them?
Don't get me wrong -- I love Firefox. But IE8 is jumping ahead on this one. Watch out -- Microsoft may be back in the game!
Reply
steve said 8:48AM on 3-12-2008
I have to agree. Average people do not want to install extensions and search for features. They want them packaged in a big bundle.
I started using Firefox because the desktop security group at the place I worked many moons ago locked down IE so tight it was un-usable.
I am very happy with FF and like playing with the extensions, but I must say that if I hadn't been forced over I would probably have stayed with IE, despite all the problems.
Rocketboy said 10:02AM on 3-12-2008
Once again, Firefox copies someone else's work.
Reply
Spencer said 10:03AM on 3-12-2008
Yeah, Firefox Addons are great...except when you get to the point where every third startup you get a nag screen to update one or another, any and all speed increases we get from FF are lost when you constantly have to restart to make the browser usable.
don't get me wrong, I use FF and love it, but it's just momentum at this point.
IE7 is about par for me in everything that matters (it runs quickly renders everything pretty well and works without thinking about it. I don't care about it's acid2 score or the fact that it uses a "huge" amount of extra CPU cycles to render a page. I don't notice it) and IE 8 seems like it's going to offer a lot of what i really like in FF2-3 in one package without the need for 3 months of tweaking and configuring to get it to the point where i like it
Reply
jdw242b said 12:35PM on 3-12-2008
@spencer:
http://www.longfocus.com/firefox/updatenotifier/
@rocketboy:
you think Microsoft made IE all on their own? I believe Netscape was the first commercial WWW browser; released in 1994.
Is being critical a pre-requesite when discussing things like this? Would I find a forum where Mac tool people are criticizing Sears for copying their designs? Honestly; if the tools are out there, use them. Save the bitching for Slashdot.
Reply
Rocketboy said 5:52PM on 3-12-2008
Sorry if stepped on your Firefox loving self. As someone that's been using Opera since, well, let's just say back when 56k modems were almost about to come out, it's kind of sad to see any small feature being given a standing ovation by the Firefox Fans. Everything is an innovation to the Firefox Fans, no matter who did it before.
what's this slashdot that you talk of?
jdw242b said 5:56PM on 3-12-2008
ahh, yes. I forget about Opera, even though I use it as well.
I stand corrected; I'm sure there is a way to make this 'feature' work in Opera, given the ability to make Greasemonkey scripts work I am positive someone can.
jdw242b said 6:01PM on 3-12-2008
@rocketboy:
slashdot is a myth.
Reply
Fred Thompson said 12:01AM on 3-13-2008
Isn't it akin to the mutant child of Koz and flashmobbing?
Good point above about the update nags and need to restart Firefox. FF is faster...except when it starts or it's been running a while... FF is more compliant...except you have to use IE Tab... Darn thing still won't properly launch .lnk or .url files from Windows.
FF does have better free methods to block ads and things like Download Statusbar and DownloadHelper are great. I do tend to use it far more often.
FF and IE are like having a butter knife and a hammer when you really need a powerdriver.
Samuel Lago said 2:35PM on 3-14-2008
The one thing that IE does do better is when providing an alert at the top of the reading pane, the faded yellow strip that goes strait accorss. Both FF and IE have this (IE first I think) but only IE allows for any part of the bar to be clicked upon -- I would like to see that mimicked in FF.
Reply