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.

[via CyberNotes]

The world of web browsers is a very unfair place. Internet Explorer isn't the best, yet everyone's using it, and it seems like Firefox gets all the cool add-ons and customizations. The Opera web browser is popular, but primarily with the mobile crowd, and as for Safari, well, it's nice. Safari add-ons aren't exactly the latest craze, but the few that exist are fairly useful.

Introducing: Safari AdBlock, the open source way to avoid internet ads. It's free and (like someone we know on too much rum) easy. To install, simply point your browser to the Safari AdBlock page at SourceForge and hit "Download." The rest is pretty self explanatory. Safari AdBlock should successfully block most ads, although one may get through on occasion. Theoretically, this should decrease a page's load time since you'll no longer have to load ads, but there's a lot that goes into load times so you may not see any increase in performance at all.

Safari AdBlock works with Safari 3 and runs on Leopard (not Tiger and Windows). Those looking for a paid option should check out Pith Helmet, which costs $10 and works with both Tiger and Leopard. If you'd like to further customize your Safari, check out Pimp My Safari.

[via tuaw]

SnipIT allows users to email selected pieces of text in Internet Explorer. Email clients that are currently supported with SnipIT are Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. Microsoft released this little IE add-on last week, and sites like Download.com have it rated pretty popular already. I always find myself doing the copy and paste thing from websites into multiple text files that sit on my desktop. If they were contained in my inbox by a tool like SnipIT, I would be forced to act on them immediately. Too bad it only works in IE on a PC, because this seems like a useful little plug-in for all web users.

[via Neowin]

A new feature here at Download Squad, I will be highlighting Firefox add-ons on a somewhat daily basis. Add-ons, of course, can be any extension, theme or plugin available on any of the Mozilla products. I will be starting this daily excursion off with one of my favorite Firefox (FF) extensions, Public Fox.

Public Fox is a great FF extension that allows you to take control over you entire FF environment when it is in use by others. Public Fox allows you to lock downloads, so no one can download anything while you are away, lock add-ons, so that no one can tamper with your extensions (mainly this one that is preventing them from doing anything fun), lock the FF options, the "about:config" page and the addition/removal/options of bookmarks, to prevent completely messing up your browser. There is also a filter for the file extensions that you do not want downloaded (.exe, .avi ...). In order for you to use any of the locked features, all you have to do is enter the password that you set in the Public Fox options. The only thing that you can really do with this extension activated is to remove all of the search engines that reside in the search bar in the top right-hand corner.

There is a bit of a bug, however. If you try to install a new extension while FF is locked down, it seems that it is not installed if you do not know the password. But, after a restart of FF, you will see that it is, in fact, installed. You just cannot configure the extension outside of its default settings. But this extension is still a great one for anyone from an average FF user to even public libraries or schools. I highly recommend this extension for anyone.

On a side note, I welcome your reviews of this add-on as well as any suggestions for other add-ons that deserve a mention here at Download Squad. Please leave such things in the comments below and you might just see your suggestion on the main page of Download Squad!