If bookmark menus aren't enough for you, All Customized Links offers yet another tweak to speed your Firefox browsing.
A word of warning to privacy fanatics: you must register an account to use this, and your links are remotely hosted (there is no TOS that I could find). While not posting privacy terms isn't cool, your links following you wherever you install this addon is.
Adding new links is a breeze through the preferences menu. Enter a name, url, and choose where you want to open it: current tab, new background or foreground tab or window,
An interesting preview option is included, though it's not so much a preview as it is loading the whole page with it's opacity turned down. I was expecting maybe a pop-out thumbnail of a site, not the exact same thing I'd see if I clicked it's entry. You may want to turn previews off in your preferences, it's just not that useful.
All Customized Links' menu also features a quick option to add the current URL, which will save you a bit of typing over just entering everything from scratch by yourself.
This isn't the kind of addon that's going to revolutionize your browsing experience, but it's a nice option for those looking for additional bookmarking options.
If you're anything like us, you probably run across dozens of web pages, news articles, and blog posts every day that look interesting, but which you don't have time to read right away. There are hundreds of ways to bookmark pages for reviewing later. But we find that whether we're using browser bookmarking tools, online services like del.icio.us, or a combination like the Read it Later bookmarklet, we wind up getting buried in a pile of unread links after just a few days.
The problem is that most bookmarking methods either make it hard to organize your pages or include a rather cumbersome tagging scheme. Instapaper avoids these problems by offering simple one-click bookmarking. There's no real organization to speak of other than read and unread items. But if your goal is to save a handful of pages to read later today or over the weekend and don't need to save them for all eternity, Intapaper can be incredibly useful.
All you need to do is register for a free account (no password necessary, just enter a name or email address) and drag a bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. When you visit a site you want to read later, just click the bookmarklet and it will be added to your Instapaper page. When you want to see the list, just visit Instapaper.com. Every time you click on a link it will be marked as read. Or you can delete links you no longer need. That's it.
Instapaper probably won't win any awards for the largest number of features packed into a web site. But it does one thing and does it well.
If you spend a lot of time on the Internet then you've probably accumulated dozens hundreds of bookmarks. Here are a few Firefox extensions to help keep them -- and you -- organized.
Bookmark synchronizer Foxmarks is a must-have if you like to access your bookmarks from multiple locations. Install the Foxmarks extension on your laptop and your desktop PC, and whatever Web site you add to your bookmark manager on one machine will automatically show up on the other. You can also access your bookmarks via the Web from any computer with Internet access, no download required.
People who use the Opera Web browser often rave about its "Speed Dial" function, which allows you faster access to sites you visit regularly than searching through a long list of bookmarks. Though similar functionality isn't available natively in Firefox, there are a couple of extensions that get the job done. Speed Dial for Firefox places a button on your toolbar; click it to bring up thumbnails of up to nine Web pages whose addresses you've pre-programmed. Adding a Web site to the list is easy: simplfirefox; ffy right-click and select "Set as Speed Dial." Fast Dial does the same thing as Speed Dial, and also adds middle-click functionality and keyboard shortcuts.
If you like your browser's address bar to do your thinking for you, then take a look at Autocomplete Manager. This little extension checks what you type in the address bar for matching bookmarked Web sites; it even checks page titles and names you've assigned to the bookmarks in your folders.
Want to give your boring old bookmark folders a face-lift? Use Favicon Picker to decide what icon you want appearing next to each bookmarked Web site. Once installed, simply open Firefox's Bookmark Manager and right-click on a bookmark. Choose "Properties", then the "Browse" button in the Icon section. Select a .jpg to replace the existing default icon and click "OK".
New to the whole concept of bookmarks? Then make sure this is the first site you save to your Bookmark Manager.
Ever come across an interesting headline that you just don't have the time to read? If you're using Google Reader, you can just star an item to come back to it later. But if you're just browsing the web, you might want to mark a page for coming back to without going so far as to create a bookmark. Read it Later is a Firefox add-on that lets you create a reading list from interesting links. Once it's installed, you can right-click on any web site or link to save it to your reading list.
The add-on also installs two buttons in your Firefox toolbar. You can click Read Later to save the page you're currently on. And when you click on Reading List you'll cycle through saved pages. Clicking the little black arrow next to it will bring up a list of saved stories.
When you're reading a saved page, the Read Later button turns into a Mark as Read button which you can use to remove pages from your list.
Sure, you could always save pages as bookmarks, add them to del.icio.us, or use Google Notebook to save pages for later. But we like the clean and easy to use interface of Read it Later. Of course, if your Firefox Toolbar is already overloaded with add-ons, Read it Later might add more clutter to your life, which kind of defeats the purpose.
First there was the web browser bookmark. Then there was the web-based bookmark. Now HYPERiGO wants to go one step further with an online bookmarking site that includes site screenshots and an attractive, easy to navigate interface.
Overall, it reminds us of the speed dial feature in the Opera web browser. But HYPERiGO isn't confined to a single web browser. You can access the site from any browser using any operating system.
When you first visit the site, you can view a demo version with a bunch of preselected bookmarks in categories like tech, online, email, news, and music. If you sign up for an account you can select your own sites for each category.
Our only complaint is that the site is a little sluggish. That's true when it comes to adding new bookmarks, or general site navigation. Hopefully this is something the developers will address soon because we love the idea, but it's a bit painful to use at the moment.
Deep in the redesign of their online bookmarking service, del.icio.us has found time to build a Facebook application. The new application allows Facebook users to log into their del.icio.us accounts from the social network and display their bookmarks.
With the bookmark integration users can choose to either show del.icio.us activity in their Facebook news feed, and/or show a del.icio.us summary of recent bookmarks in their user profile with recent bookmarks or tag clouds. There is however an annoying delays of up to 30 minutes for all changes and for content to appear. Only bookmarks that have been checked as shared will appear.
Apparently there are a few bugs reported by users, but these will surely be worked out by del.icio.us staff promptly.
Here's a neat little trick we picked up from Lifehacker. Since you can adjust a number of settings in Firefox by typing commands into the URL field, it turns out you can also adjust settings by saving those commands as bookmarks.
Say you want to create a bookmark or a bookmarklet for your toolbar that will let you resize your browser window. Just right click on your toolbar and select "New Bookmark."
A window will pop up allowing you to set a name, description, and location Just enter the following into the location field " javascript:window.resizeTo(800,600);" but leave out the quotation marks.
Change the numbers to set your default resolution. Now you can easily switch between full screen and windowed mode at the click of a button. If you want to see how a website looks at different screen resolutions, you can create a series of these bookmarks.
What other Firefox settings adjustments would you automate by creating a bookmark?
We certainly haven't heard a lot from the del.icio.us labs recently. As other social bookmarking sites announce exciting new features and designs, the one that started it all seemed to be lagging a tad. That's all about to change soon, apparently.
The del.icio.us team has been working their backsides off on building a new platform for the bookmarking site. Not only have they been doing that but they have also been looking at the current user interface and working out ways in which it could be easier to use, and more functional.
The usability tests have been in the works, and a dozen individuals have been working through the positives and negatives of the designs. So we think we can all breathe a sigh of relief as there should be a beta of the new design rolled out in the near future. Now if only we could nail that supposed date down.
Could Mister Wong hold the fortune cookie you've been waiting for in social bookmarking? European users think so.
Mister Wong is a social bookmarking site from Germany that's up against the strong del.icio.us, Furl, Sphere and Ma.gnolia. They have a lot of traffic hitting their European specific sites, but what could their recently launched English specific site offer that differentiates them from others currently on the market? Mister Wong has all of the things you would expect from an online bookmarking tool including a Firefox toolbar where bookmarks can be checked and submitted. They also have some interesting features like the ability to make bookmarks private, groups, buddymatching bookmarks, and private messaging. Mister Wong is also accessible on mobile devices.
Mister Wong was hitting more than 2 million visitors in Europe alone, that tops what Furl and Blinklist currently have so it's growing, just not into del.ici.ous territory as of yet. That could change as Wong users can choose to import their bookmarks from del.icio.us. Mister Wong's English site is currently in closed beta, you can sign up on their site to be notified when it's open.
We're big fans of Backpack, the online PIM organizer with a pioneering KISS philosophy from the wildly successful 37signals. At times, however, Backpack can appear too simple, making it seem like the only way to interact with the service is through its pleasantly minimal web interface. Fortunately, this is entirely not so, and we just stumbled across two handy Firefox add-ons that bring quick navigation and easy clipping to this increasingly useful online info organizer.
First up is Backpack Pages, a simple toolbar button that acts as a simple drop-down bookmark menu for all your pages. As usually with any external Backpack tool, simply enter your username and private API key to get the ball rolling.
Second is a really useful add-on especially for users of Google Notebook or any other web clipping tool out there: Backpack Publish (pictured). Setup is again pretty standard, and now you can select text on any webpage and use this add-on's menu to create a List Item or Note to add to any of your pages without breaking your workflow.
Feel like partying in the DC area tonight, but don't know what's going on? dclicio.us is going to help.
dclicio.us is built with the lovely Ruby on Rails and aggregates events for the Washington DC area. Users sign up for a free account and add their favorite artists, or import them from iTunes, so they can be monitored and notified of the events arrival in the city. dclicio.us Show aggregation shows a listing of events in the DC area, where users can click off and bookmark shows of interest that get added to a special My Shows category. Events can then be read through an RSS feed, and imported and updated through iCal or Google Calendar.
This type of site has a lot of potential for other markets as well, but no word as of yet if dclicio.us plans to expand beyond the beltway.
Our favorite online bookmarking tool, del.icio.us, has just announced the release of a hot new Firefox add-on. Ok, so it's not too hot, apparently del.icio.us quietly released this one to the public a little while ago but just decided now to update it and let everyone know about it now.
The del.icio.us Firefox add-on allows users to create, manage, and search all bookmarks right in the browser bar. The big noticeable change is the speed. del.icio.us has bumped up the power and greatly increased the rate at which bookmarks can be made, read and accessed. Users now have full control over their synced del.icio.us accounts with tagging abilities inside Firefox.
del.icio.us is a great way to store all of you bookmarks in one location that can be accessed anywhere you are. This is a great improvement that old users are going to be thankful for, and will hopefully encourage more people to try their great bookmarking service out. Check out the tour of the new features here.
Do you have something to share? Maybe a little tip about something? A trick of some sort? Tipstrs wants you to leave it on their website and share it with the world.
Tipstrs is pegged as a hybrid social bookmarking site. The whole idea behind the site lays on special tips and advice about specific topics that people can offer other visitors to the site. People simply post their tips complete with a Title, Description, Link, and Categories, no logging in necessary. Others can than search and read on the site, or be linked out to external information on what they are looking for. Topics on the site range from "Save power using compact fluorescent bulbs" to "Pimp your firefox browser". Currently there aren't a ton of tips on the site, but there are quite a few interesting ones in many different topic categories. Check out Tipstrs and drop a tip or trick about your expertise.
Creating a new secure password for websites you visit everyday and having to remember them is such a pain, but it doesn't have to be. Do you use the same password for every website you visit? Thats not a very secure thing to do, a unique password for each site you visit is the most reliable way to keep yourself safe. SuperGenPass is a browser bookmarklet that will use your master password to create secure passwords for each different website you use throughout the day, and you don't even have to remember them.
SuperGenPass is a snippet of JavaScript code that is stored in your browser as a bookmark, no install necessary. How does it work? When you are signing up for a new service, enter your master password into the password field on the website. Select the SuperGenPass bookmarklet and follow the instructions to show or populate the new secure password generated from the JavaScript code. The process is simple, but is it secure? The code isn't sitting on any website, it's in your browser as a JavaScript string.Trusting this code is another issue, what happens if for some odd reason the bookmarklet becomes corrupt? Bye Bye secure password. It does come up with secure looking alphanumeric passwords based on what I typed in for my password, so as far as that goes its secur-ish. I would prefer to write it down, for that extra precaution.
The team at del.icio.us made a quiet announcement last week--so quiet that Download Squad didn't even hear it. It seems that the beginning of February saw the 1.5 millionth user register on the social bookmarking site. Apparently since the Yahoo! buyout the team is bursting at the seams trying to integrate with Yahoo!'s user base. The del.icio.us team hasn't made a post on their official blog since December 2006 to inform us as to what they have been up to or give us possible hints at what's to come with the service, but del.icio.us creator Joshua Schachter ensures us that they have a lot going on and a lot more changes are in store for the future. To start with, del.icio.us is working to improve the UI and flush out any hidden design issues from way back in the day. del.icio.us is still trying hard to figure out what the future of the tool is, but I'm sure it will make any bookmarker happy. I use del.icio.us every single day to store, manage, archive and share bookmarks. It's a powerful yet simple tool that, after reading Schachter's comments, I'm sure will grow to new heights this year.
