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Filed under: Browsers, Humor

One big reason people didn't upgrade from Firefox 2 to 3? Hiding porn bookmarks.

Generally, improvements in software are a good thing. Improving something means making it better, right? In the case of Firefox 3's enhanced Awesome Bar, maybe not so much.

The Firefox security team has been analyzing data collected from users who declined to upgrade from version 2 to 3 back in May when Mozilla issued a friendly nudge. Those users were given the chance to fill out a questionnaire to explain their decision. One big sticking point: the suped-up address bar's ability to match text you enter with your bookmarks.

Here's how the Firefox crew describes a common scenario:
"In some cases users had intentionally hidden these bookmarks in deep hierarchies of folders, somewhat similar to how one might hide a physical object. Having something from your previous browsing displayed to someone else who is using your computer (or even worse) to a large audience of people as you are giving a presentation, is really one of the most embarrassing things that Firefox can do to you."
Translation: I hid all my bookmarks to NSFW cosplay sites in My Bookmarks\Harmless\Totally Harmless\No Really\Why are you still drilling down\Nothing to see here\Get out of my chair already\Sandwiches and I don't want them popping up accidentally when I start typing.

Having hot-girls-in-panda-costumes.org pop up when you start typing a URL during a demonstration could definitely make things slightly uncomfortable.

You could, of course, just upgrade and follow Digital Inspiration's tips for disabling this behavior. You'll also be able to use dirty old man private browsing mode in your new Firefox 3.5 install.

[via PC Pro]

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Experimental addon shifts Firefox's awesome bar into overdrive

If you use Firefox and want to get a taste of what might be coming in future versions, one addon worth installing is Shawn Wilsher's Asynchronous Location Bar Searches.

Mozilla's thinking is that Firefox will never be fast enough, and this addon takes aim at improving the performance of your awesome bar. I didn't include this one in my three must-haves, but it's a close fourth now that I've spent some time using it. Coupled with my search bookmarks, this has become one of my favorite browser productivity boosters.

While there was an initial glitch that cause some excessive resource use, that has been addressed in more recent builds. The addon has been working very well on my two systems running Firefox 3.5b4.

If you're the daring type and always looking for new ways to speed up Firefox, give the Async addon a try.

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Browsers

UrlbarExt makes the Firefox awesome bar even more so

UrlbarExt
The Firefox "awesome bar" in Firefox 3.0 is a location bar, search box, and history box all one package. But if that's not enough for you, UrlbarExt is a add-on that adds even more features to the awesome bar.

The plugin adds a bunch of icons to the right side of the bar, which let you do things like copy the URL of the site you're on with a single click, shorten the URL using TinyURL or a similar service, go up one level or all the way back to the root web page, tag or bookmark a page, or use a proxy server to surf anonymously. You can also search the page using Google or another search engine.

There are a bunch of customization options allowing you to change your default search engine, URL shortener, or adjust which icons show up in the awesome bar.

On the other hand, if you think the awesome bar is less than awesome and you just want an old fashioned URL bar, you can always disable it.

[via Lifehacker]

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers, Mobile

Firefox Mobile browser hits Alpha 2, still doesn't work on your phone

Fennec Alpha 2
Mozilla has released Alpha 2 of its mobile web browser called Fennec. When Fennec grows up, it will probably be called something like Firefox Mobile and it will run on your cellphone. For now it runs on Nokia Internet Tablets. You can also take it for a test spin on Windows, OS X , and Linux computers.

Fennec Alpha 2 looks a lot like Alpha 1. But there are a few changes under the hood. The browser features faster panning and zooming, and it's more responsive when pages are loaded. Fennec also now features a Firefox 3-like "awsome bar" which will search your browser history as you start to type, making the process of finding the pages you're looking for much faster. That's a handy feature on a desktop feature, but cutting down on keystrokes could make it a killer feature in the mobile version of Fennec.

There's also a new popup blocker, password manager, and option to clear private data. Fennec Alpha 2 also lets you search your download manager, much the way you can in Firefox 3.

[via Lifehacker]

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