I've never been particularly put out by needing to click the "Next" button on a blog. Sure, there are always exceptions, like when I find sites that archive oddly or only have a few posts per page. And don't get me started on the "Next" buttons and surprise ads (do I want two free iPod Nanos? Only if I can beat the advertiser about the head and neck with them).
LifeHacker introduced me to the AutoPager add-on for Firefox. The idea behind AutoPager is a good one. It takes a web page with continuous content (such as a blog) and allows you to scroll through it all as if it were one page . So that you're not waiting for years for your page to appear, AutoPager allows you to choose the number of pages displayed at a time. It also has a few pre-configured web pages in its clutches, like Digg and Twitter.
The good news is that AutoPager can be set to scroll through just about any site with a next button. The bad news is, it's not really apparent how to do this. I was pointed to the Site Wizard, which worked just as well as many wizards I've encountered -- not at all. I couldn't select the "Next" link, and it kept aborting (and it's too early in the morning where I am to be doing that).
I know little about XPath (the underlying AutoPager mechanism) or how it works, but I did still get AutoPager to give me several pages of Download Squad at once. Truth be told, I'm still not sure what it was I did. I clicked the AutoPager icon on my toolbar, and got a sidebar that popped up in the browser and seemed to autodetect both the "Next" link and the content I wanted to see. I clicked the green checkmark on the sidebar (did I need to? no clue), and we were finally in business.
AutoPager is great for getting your eyes on a lot of information quickly. Once it's configured to the sites you want to see in this manner, it's really handy. But for the first few sites you configure, make sure to take frequent breaks for deep, cleansing breaths.
If you spend all day sitting at a computer with your web browser open, you might have an aversion to minimizing your browser to perform simple tasks like managing files on your hard drive. Fortunately there's a Firefox add-on that can help. Firefly adds a full-featured file manager to Firefox. And when we say full featured, we mean it. Firefly includes a bunch of features that you won't find in Windows Explorer. Here are just a few:
Split the window horizontally or vertically. Add as many windows as you'd like
Image previews for audio, video, PDF, and image docuements
Filter display using regular expressions or wildcards
Search the current folder and subfolders
Create keyboard shortcuts
Use the Firefox or Internet Explorer rendering engine (when using IETab)
You also get all the usual features you'd expect from a file manager including the ability to copy, cut, and paste files from one folder to another.
Firefox is already pretty amazing, but we're always looking for another add-on to make it even more kick-ass. Enter CyberSearch, an update of AwesomeSearch which adds tons of search functionality to your browser. It even displays results right in the Awesome Bar's drop-down.
Search results without Adsense ads? Oh, it's possible.
CyberSearch also lets you set up keyword or letter patterns that tell it to restrict sites to specific URLs - preface your search with 'techy' and you'll only get results from Lifehacker, CyberNetNews(go figure), and Download Squad (we had nothing to do with that, we swear!).
Since it's built on Google's API, you're still getting the same results you'd get if you went to Google first anyways. Hello, efficiency!
Anyone that blogs about websites and has tried before knows that getting a decent screencap of a web page can be tricky. Enter FireShot, a Firefox extension that makes quality captures child's play.
Install the add-on and you're given FireShot creates a tiny menu on your navigation toolbar that gives quick access to full-page and visible area capture functions. It does a great job at rendering pages, even those with Flash animations. Support for saving as PNG, JPEG, GIF, and BMP is built-in, as well as exporting to just about any editor.
What really sets FireShot apart, though, is the integrated upload feature. Select it, and you can resize your image on-the-fly and post it to FireShot's free image hosting repository with minimal effort. If there's one feature that helps sell a piece of software to us, it's how much time and effort we can save by using. FireShot makes putting browser screencap online so easy we almost feel lazy doing it. Almost.
Read it Later, a bookmarking plugin for Firefox that we first covered last year is now Firefox 3 compatible. The new version also adds a handful of new features that make it even more useful.
What makes Read it Later different from other bookmarking tools like the del.icio.us plugin for Firefox is the fact that Read it Later makes it easy to bookmark pages, but makes it just as easy to delete those bookmarks. While other services let you save pages forever, Read it Later is designed to let you come back to pages you just don't have time to read fully right now.
The latest version features:
Offline viewing
An RSS feed so you can subscribe to your bookmarked pages and keep track of them in a reader
Synchronize your saved pages with other computers
You can also activate a new "click to save" mode by hitting Alt+M. In this mode, any link you click on a web page will automatically be saved to your reading list. Hit Alt+M again to deactivate this feature if you actually want to open up pages by clicking on links.
iBreadcrumbs is a browser toolbar you can use to record the websites you visit while you're working on a particular project, so you can find your research again or share your sources with someone else. Sure, you could do this manually, by posting your finds to del.icio.us or a similar bookmarking service, and giving them all the same tag, but iBreadcrumbs makes that look like way too much work. All you have to do is click start, and everything gets saved automatically.
Your sessions (Breadcrumbs) each get saved to their own dedicated page, where you can organize them and add additional notes. You can combine a new Breadcrumb with an existing one, which makes the service useful for longer research projects. There's also a social aspect to the site: you can add friends for easy collaboration. iBreadcrumbs is flexible enough that we're sure it can be applied to all sorts of non-research functions. Don't be put off by the "University" field in the sign-up process - this service isn't just for academics.
Have you ever accidentally visited MySpace? Yeah, we probably have too, though, it was never a noticeable problem. In fact, we can't even remember it happening, but it seems like it has to have happened... right?
Well, this Firefox add-on promises to detect MySpace in Firefox, and provide a pop-up menu to stop unsuspecting web-browsers from hitting up the social network. The plug-in is obviously a joke, but we found a great use for it anyway -- avoiding phishing.
It's called AmIOnMySpace.com? and it can be used to detect the real MySpace site. If for any reason the message doesn't pop-up upon first visiting the social network, you're not on the real site. The biggest problem with using this as a way of avoiding phishing sites is that it doesn't alert users when leaving MySpace, so it's still possible to get attacked from within.
If you've just started using Ubuntu and you're the sort of person who likes to have 911 and poison control on speed dial, you might want to check out the Ubuntu Forums Menu extension for Firefox.
While Ubuntu is one of the easiest Linux distributions for new users to learn, we can pretty much guaranty that you're eventually going to run into an issue while trying to enable support for your hardware or when you're trying to install some application. Lucky for you, there's an enormous community of Ubuntu users and developers hanging out at the Ubuntu Forums who are more than happy to answer your questions. In fact, if you search the forums, there's a good chance you'll find out your questions have already been answered.
The Ubuntu Forums Menu extension adds an item to your Firefox menu bar to give you quick access to the forums. You can also access this menu via the right-click context menu.
Don't want to download a massive ZIP or RAR file just so you can extract one tiny file contained in the archive? ArchView is a Firefox add-on that will let you preview the contents of ZIP and RAR files posted online before you download them. And you can even download individual files from within the archive.
Archview hangs out in your status bar where you can click on it to enable or disable the plugin or change its settings. Future versions will add support for additional archive formats including ISO and 7z. Archview supports Firefox 2 and Firefox 3, but the version available at the official Firefox add-ons page claims that it isn't compatible with Firefox 3 beta 5 r Firefox 3 RC1. This isn't true, but you'll have to install the plugin from the developer's page if you're using anything newer than Firefox 3 beta 4.
Last year two services launched, giving bloggers easy access to threaded comments, spam control, avatars, and other advanced features. Disqus and Intense Debate also let you create a single profile which you can use to leave comments on any participating blog or web site. No need to register for each individual blog.
And since last year, thousands of web sites have adopted these two commenting systems. Considering there are millions of blogs out there, that's just a drop in the bucket. But every filled bucket starts with a single drop. Or something like that. Anyway, if any of the blogs you follow use Disqus, gReader Comments is a pretty nifty Firefox plugin that will let you see comments in Google Reader without clicking through to the blog.
Once you install gReader Comments, you should notice a new box in your Google Reader post windows that says Comments. Click on this box and a Disqus window will pop up showing you the comments left on the post and offering you the chance to leave your own comments.
The plugin still needs some work. We tested it with Firefox 2.0.0.14 and Firefox 3 beta 5, and in both browsers gReader Comments failed to accurately show how many comments each post had. At first it would show no comments, and then when you click the box on a post that actually has, say 3 comments, all the boxes may say 3 comments whether here are actually comments or not. But with a little more work, this could be an extraordinarily useful plugin for anyone who spends most of their time online in Google Reader.
Apparently social browser plugins are the next big thing. The other day we told you about Yoono, a Firefox add-on that brings FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking features to your web browser. Today it's Minggl's turn.
Minggl is a browser toolbar that works with Firefox or Internet Explorer. Every few minutes Minggl will scan your social networking accounts and display the latest updates. You can pull up a list of your friends or view an actvity stream in your sidebar.
The nice thing about toolbars like Minggl is that they let you keep up with the activity on your social networks without constantly opening a half dozen web pages and hitting the refresh button. On the other hand, the toolbar takes up some valuable screen real estate and provides a constant source of distraction.
The Minggl toolbar is currently in public beta, and supports Facebook, Twitter, Digg, MySpace, and LinkedIn, with more services cming soon.
Like the idea of having a web browser with Twitter, Facebook, and instant messenger integration, but don't want to install a whole new browser to get those features? Yoono is a browser plugin that makes Firefox behave a bit more like Flock, the social web browser built from the same Mozilla code. But instead of downloading and installing a whole new browser, all you need to do to start using Yoono is install a 2MB Firefox add-on. An Internet Explorer version is in the works.
So what exactly does Yoono do? It adds a sidebar to Firefox that gives you quick access to your instant messenger, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Piczo, and Friendfeed contacts. You can send messages, update your social feeds, or just see what all of your friends are up to from within Firefox. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. You can also leave notes about the web sites you're visiting, rate pages, and share your bookmarks.
You can also add several widgets to your sidebar that will let you view web sites or pictures related to the page you're currently viewing. There's also a YouTube widget that will show you related videos, the day's top rated videos, or videos from your contacts.
Yoono is in private beta, but we've got 200 invites to give away to Download Squad readers on a first come, first served basis. Please don't leave comments asking us for invites, just follow the link after the jump.
One of the nice things about modern desktop browsers is that there are tons of third party add-ons. These plugins let you do everything from change the way web pages look to making it easy to save web pages to social bookmarking services like del.icio.us.
Mobile web browsers haven't gotten nearly as much love from third party developers. That's why we're excited to see that Dale Lane has written a Post to del.icio.us plugin for Pocket Internet Explorer, the stripped down web browser that Microsoft includes as part of the Windows Mobile operating system for cellphones and PDAs.
When you click the link from the Menu toolbar, the plugin will automatically submit the current web page to your del.icio.us bookmarks, taking the name of the page from Internet Explorer. You can also add tags before saving your page.
Post to del.icio.us is available as a free download. You can also get the source code from Lane's web site. The plugin requires Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.
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.
When you go to download a file from the web using Internet Explorer, you can choose to save the file or run it from its current location (which basically means download the file to a temporary directory to run it without cluttering up your default download directory). But when you go to download the same file using Firefox, you can only save. There's no option to run the file. OpenDownload is a Firefox add-on that adds a run option. When you select "Run," the file will be downloaded to a temp directory and then launched. 24 hours after the file is downloaded, it will be automatically deleted it.
Aside from keeping your download directory clean, the main benefit of the Run box is that you can now download and run files with a single click instead of two clicks, thus saving you a valuable fraction of a second.
iBreadcrumbs
