If you've ever installed a Firefox add-on, you've probably encountered a pop-up window like the one pictured here, which tells you to wait a few second before hitting the install button. For a long time, we thought the delay was because Firefox was busy downloading the file, but you know what? Most Firefox extensions are tiny. It doesn't take very long to download them.
All you have to do is type "about:config" into your address bar to bring up the advanced configuration screen, and search for the security.dialog_enable_delay setting. Then change the value to 0.
Again, keep in mind that Firefox implemented that delay to keep your computer safe. But if you're too busy to wait three seconds, this trick will help you regain a tiny fraction of your day.
For some reason when a page is loading in Firefox, it doesn't seem to respond to user interaction immediately. For example, say you're loading a very long page (maybe you're using a free Backpack account), and you know that the content you need is half way down the page. By default, Firefox will ignore user interaction in favor of giving all processing power to page rendering.
It may well be that Firefox's engineers made this decision for a very good reason, but what if it bugs you that Firefox ignores you when you know exactly what you want to be doing? Well, it turns out there's a hidden setting in Firefox that will allow you to bend it to your will.
Firefox uses two priority modes when rendering a page: a low-priority mode that often checks for user input, and a high-priority mode that prioritizes page rendering over user input. There is a timer that determines how long Firefox will wait for user input before switching to high-priority rendering mode.
The Geek at How-To-Geek researched this setting, and determined that switching the default value from 750000 to 1000000 is a good balance that allows for a more responsive feeling browser, while still giving an adequate amount of time to the high-priority mode.
To make this change yourself, type about:config into your Firefox address bar, then type content.switch.threshold into the Filter field. You will likely not have any results returned. If the setting already exists, simply switch the value from the default 750000 to 1000000. If it doesn't, right click anywhere in the window and choose New > Integer. Use the following setting:
Key Name: content.switch.threshold
Key Value: 1000000
To reverse this tip, simply right-click on the setting and choose Reset from the context menu.
Camino 1.6 is now out in the wild, and it looks to be the release a lot of people were waiting for. With many new features as well as many updated features, Camino 1.6 is an excellent and compelling alternative to Safari and Firefox on the Mac.
New to Camino 1.6:
Toolbar Search Improvements: The toolbar search in Camino can now be edited and customized, with the ability to delete, rename, and reorder search engines. Camino also supports OpenSearch plug-ins.
Streamlined Find Interface: No more Find panel in Camino 1.6. Instead, a simple Find toolbar will appear when you need it at the bottom of the browser window (this feature is very similar to Safari's inline search, though Safari's find toolbar appears on the top).
Tabbed Browsing Improvements: Camino 1.6 now includes a scrolling tab bar. If more tabs are open than can be displayed in the tab bar, you'll see arrows on the right and left edge that will allow you to scroll through the tabs.
Integrated Software Update: Using the "Sparkle" framework, Camino now has an auto-update feature.
There are also many improved features in Camino 1.6, including AppleScript support, feed detection, and spell checking.
The big improvement in Camino 1.6 for many users has to be the updated keychain support, which now stores information for multiple accounts in the Keychain. And, as always, Camino will automatically block pop-ups, ads, and animations.
You owe it to yourself to download Camino 1.6 and take it for a test run. It might just be the best browser on the Mac. Agree? Disagree? Spell it out in the comments.
Are you sick of having multiple tabs open at one time because you have numerous items that you want to read or research? The Taboo Firefox extension will help cure your "tabitis" (their term, not ours, so don't hate on it) and minimize the glut of tabs on your tab bar.
Once Taboo is installed, you'll have two new items on your toolbar. When you click the first button, Taboo will take a snapshot of any web page you are on, including session state information (such as the scroll location and any data you've entered into forms), and store it for later. You can do this with as many tabs as you need.
When you want access to one of your saved tabs, click on the other Taboo button, and Taboo will load thumbnails of your saved pages into a new tab. From there, all you need to do is click on a saved page, and it will automatically load, complete with scroll location and any text you may have entered.
The saved pages are kept through browsing sessions and shutdowns, and for as many days as you like. Taboo even has a calendar view of all your saved tabs, if you want to access pages from days or weeks ago. You can also search among your pages using the url or page title as a keyword.
Taboo requires Firefox 2, and isn't yet compatible with the Firefox 3 beta.
If you post regularly on Twitter, and have constantly felt constrained by the 140 character post limit, then Twitzer might be the Firefox extension for you.
Twitzer is a Firefox extension designed by the developers of the shortText website, which lets you post entries longer than 140 characters on Twitter. It's pretty simple to use: once installed, navigate to Twitter and type a post as you normally would (ignoring those big red warning numbers on the right hand side of the text box as you go over 140 characters).
When you're finished, right-click on the box, and choose "Twitzer text". That's it! Your entry is shortened to less than 140 characters.
Magic? No, simple web sleight-of-hand. When you "Twitzer" your text, the extension automatically shortens your entry to 140 characters, uploads the rest to the shortText website, and posts a link to that text at the end of your entry.
Also available from the right-click menu is the option to "De-Twitzer" your entry or someone else's, meaning the full entry is shown on the Twitter website as it is saved on shortText.
While this is a good execution of a nice idea, we're a bit confused; we thought Twitter was in the category of micro-blogging...this kind of defeats the purpose, nay, the definition of, a micro-blog.
What say you? Will this extension, and other items like it, cause Twitter to bloat into extinction? Or, if used with caution and prejudice, can this be a helpful way to post your rants that exceed 140 characters?
Safari always had an interesting and convenient way of searching for text: it dims the background and highlights text-matches throughout the page. It's too bad Firefox can't couldn't do that. It's now possible to easily add that functionality to everybody's favorite open-source browser thanks to a recent mozillaZine post.
The install process is pretty simple if you use the better set of instructions and files, and it shouldn't take more than a few minutes of copying, pasting, and mouse clicking to complete. The animation process in between "Next" clicks is also fun, and if you're still on the fence about it, you could check out a video or two on the custom feature.
Those folks at PortableApps are getting faster and faster. Just a few hours after Firefox 3 beta 5 was released, the portable version was available for download. Actually, it might have been available immediately, but we didn't think to look for it until a few hours had passed.
What exactly is a portable app? Well, in Windows, it basically means a version of an application that doesn't need to be installed to a particular folder, doesn't need to write entries to the Windows registry, and typically doesn't show up in the Add/Remove dialog. So you can install portable applications to a USB flash drive and take them with you to use on any computer.
But you can also install a portable application like Firefox 3 beta 5 portable edition to any folder on your hard drive. Why would you want to do that? Because then you can try out the latest test version of Firefox without overwriting any of your Firefox 2 settings. The down side is that Firefox portable edition will not import any of your Firefox 2 settings automatically. But you can use programs like the Firefox Environment Backup Extension to copy some of your settings.
Mozilla has released yet another beta version of the next generation Firefox web browser. Firefox 3 beta 5 doesn't have a ton of new features, but it fixes a lot of bugs and packs a bunch of under the hood tweaks that make the browser easier to use and more attractive.
Firefox 3 beta 5 features tighter integration with the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating system. That means you have native icons and interface widgets. The OS X version supports Growl notifications, and the Linux version uses the native GTK theme.
The Places organizer has been updated, making it easier to organize, search, tag, and browse through your bookmarks and browsing history.
And the JavaScript engine has been updated, meaning web applications like Gmail and Zoho Office run much faster in Firefox 3 beta 5 than in Firefox 2.
Keep in mind that this is still a beta, and you may experience problems. Extensions and add-ons that work in prior versions of Firefox might not be compatible with Firefox 3 beta 5. And for those of you who are tired of hearing Download Squad bloggers complain that Firefox 3 beta doesn't work well with the version of Flash used by Blogsmith, our blogging client, you're in luck. That problem has disappeared with this build, so we'll finally shut up about it!
RetailMeNot, an online coupon-sharing site from the founders of BugMeNot, has been around for a while, spreading the joy of savings both far and wide. Now, with the RetailMeNot Firefox extension, keeping informed of the latest coupons is as simple as browsing the web.
With the add-on installed, you are automatically informed of sites RetailMeNot users have shared discount coupon codes for. If you browse to the Amazon website, for example, a notification window will drop down from the menu bar signifying that there are coupons available. Clicking on the "View Coupons" button will open a new tab and take you right to the coupons for that particular site.
RetailMeNot assures us that no data is sent back to their website, and that the plugin will not adversely affect your browsing experience (though, if you read the user reviews, they are complaining of exactly that).
The RetailMeNot Firefox extension works with Firefox 2 (sorry, Firefox 3 beta users).
Odds are, if you're an avid user of craigslist, you've often asked this question: why can't I have the ability to see the images of each listing without having to click on each listing individually?
Download Squad reader "Mac" feels your pain, and has directed us to a new Firefox extension, Craigslist Image Preview. This neat and simple extension loads a thumbnail of the product images on the craigslist search page itself, eliminating the need to click on each individual listing to view an image.
Ah, Firefox, will thy extensibility never cease to amaze us?
The weird thing is, the only section of craigslist that has this functionality by default is the "bikes" section.
What's up with that?
Anyway, Craigslist Image Preview is a cinch to download (it installs like any other Firefox extension); once downloaded and installed, the next time you search craigslist, you'll see the first image of each listing load underneath its listing title. Obviously, the load time of the search page is much longer, but we think it's worth it.
For similar if not identical functionality, check out CLPicView version 1.0, also just released. Both extensions are free, and both seem to have an equal dislike of Firefox 3 beta 4.
We've been following the development of Firefox 3 pretty closely around here, because we're a software blog, and what else are we going to do? The beta versions of Firefox 3 have added a ton of cool new features like an improved location bar, better bookmark management, full page zoom and better memory management. But it's still beta software. And we're not quite ready to agree with Mozilla VP Mike Schroepfer when he tells Reuters that Firefox 3 beta 4 is ready for the masses.
Don't get us wrong, most of the time Firefox 3 beta 4 works perfectly. But as far as we here at Download Squad are concerned, there's at least one fatal flaw. It's not compatible with Blogsmith, the blogging client we use, which relies on some Flash features that aren't supported by Firefox 3 yet.
Schroepfer may be right when he says that Firefox 3 "is much more stable" than most other browsers. But if there's a web site you need to visit every day that's not supported, stability only takes you so far. What have your experiences with Firefox 3 been like? Anyone else having problems or is it just us? What other features, bug fixes would you like to see in the final version which should be out in a few months?
FireGestures is a new Firefox extension that enables mouse gestures in the Firefox web browser.
If you've never tried using mouse gestures with Firefox or any other program, FireGestures is a great place to start, offering out-of-the-box functionality along with accessible advanced options.
With FireGestures, you can perform various commands with five types of mouse gestures:
Mouse Gestures (Move mouse with holding right-click)
Wheel Gestures (Scroll wheel with holding right-click)
Rocker Gestures (Left-click with holding right-click and vice versa)
Keypress Gestures (Mouse gesture with holding Ctrl / Shift key)
Tab Wheel Gestures (Scrolling wheel on the tab bar)
A default set of gestures is activated upon installation of FireGestures, though you can remap any function to most any gesture. You can also add your own gesture with its own specific function through use of scripts.
We like the FireGestures extension, but we've also become accustomed to having system-wide mouse gestures with programs such as XGestures, and/or the Quicksilver plug-in Abacadabra (with functionality equal to the keypress gestures in FireGestures). Of course those programs are for the Mac only.
We're sure that someone out there has found a good Windows program to implement system-wide mouse gestures...or are we better off with program-specific solutions such as FireGestures?
Firefox has a ton of customization options. So many, in fact, that listing them all would make the Firefox Tools menu resemble War and Peace. So Mozilla hides some of the options you might not need to change as often away so that you can only access them by typing "about:config" into the location bar. The problem is that many users don't even know about about:config, and once you discover it, it's still not clear what all of the settings do. Configuration Mania is a Firefox add-on that organizes and displays many of the options that are normally only available through about:config. Here are just a few o the things you can change using Configuration Mania:
Location bar auto-complete behavior
Default domain guessing behavior (should Firefox add www or .com when you type a word into the location bar?)
Tab behavior (where to display the close button, default tab width, etc)
Hide the Go button next to location bar
Change your user agent
Adjust cache settings
Configuration Mania is available for Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 beta.
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.
Mozilla has released the 4th public beta version of Firefox 3. If it feels like the next generation of the Firefox web browser has been in beta for pretty much ever, that's because it has been. The first public alpha was released in 2006. But with each new test build, Firefox 3 gets a little more stable, and gets a few new features. Here are a few of the updates packed into Firefox 3 beta 4:
Full page zoom - Up until now, Firefox would let you make text larger or smaller, but there was no way to increase or decrease the size of all the content on a web site (something you've been able to do with Opera for years). Now you can choose whether the zoom feature works for text or full pages.
New download manager - The new download manager shows active time remaining, and the status of downloads. You can also search your downloads and see the site where your downloaded files are from.
Improved OS integration - Firefox 3 beta 4 includes specific icons and themes for Windows Vista, OS X, and Linux (using the native GTK theme).
Improved memory usage -
Firefox 3 beta 4 also includes a ton of other tweaks and bug fixes. The browser is also designed to use less memory, and there are major improvements to the JavaScript engine that should allow web based applications like Gmail and Zoho Office to run twice as fast in Firefox 3 as Firefox 2.
If you've ever installed a Firefox add-on, you've probably encountered a pop-up window like the one pictured here, which tells you to wait a few second before hitting the install button. For a long time, we thought the delay was because Firefox was busy downloading the file, but you know what? Most Firefox extensions are tiny. It doesn't take very long to download them. 
For some reason when a page is loading in Firefox, it doesn't seem to respond to user interaction immediately. For example, say you're loading a very long page (maybe you're using a free 
