firefox-addons posts

Filed under: Business, Developer, Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

ASK DLS: What do you think about Mozilla passing the collection plate for add-on developers?

by Lee Mathews Jul 16th 2009

There are plenty of Mozilla add-ons already say "Brother, can you spare a dime (if you like me)?" Mozilla is looking to take things one step further with a new Add-ons Contributions Program.

Donations will be accepted through Paypal, who offer reduced fees on micropayments under $12. Developers wanting to push the contributions button can do so using the new options in their Developer Tools for their add-ons.

What's the motivation for Mozilla here? Why, to help developers out, of course. Though if you read the blog post, it's fairly clear that at some point they'll start asking for a "handling fee:"

For this pilot, Mozilla will not earn a percentage of any contributions made by users. Developers will receive all the proceeds from contributions minus the PayPal transaction fee. (emphasis added)

Contributions are, of course, completely optional and the project is totally experimental right now. How things shake out if this evolves beyond a pilot program remains to be seen.

What are your feelings about this? Share 'em in the comments!

Tags: contributions, donations, firefox-addons, money

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Mozilla, Search

Ubiquity gets better parser, some commands yet to be upgraded

by Grant Robertson Jun 23rd 2009

Mozilla's Ubiquity dazzlingly cool preview release promises to make commands a great deal easier to remember and use by removing those annoying hyphens. With a totally updated parser -- unimaginatively referred to as "Parser 2" Ubiquity also promises support for a ton of new languages.

"[The old parser] was based on a lot of assumptions about English that are not necessarily true in other languages", explains the preview release announcement. Spaces between words, or noun-verb ordering are more flexible under the new parser, opening Ubiquity to a non-English speaking audience and getting rid of those picky little hyphens for Anglophones.

Unfortunately, that also means a great many commands you might be used to are currently incompatible. The new version greeted me with a warning, notifying me that some commands -- known in Ubiquity parlance as "verbs" -- didn't load because of incompatibility with Parser 2. A quick look shows old verbs like "flip-page" and "desaturate-image" are in need of an upgrade.

Still, for fans of Ubiquity's slick hands-never-leave-the-keyboard workflow, this is an upgrade that's been a long time coming.

Tags: firefox-addons, mozilla, natural language, NaturalLanguage, productivity tools, ProductivityTools, ubiquity

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla wants to give you a free MacBook Pro for your killer add-on!

by Lee Mathews Jun 16th 2009

Add-ons have always been important to Mozilla, and they're one of the big reasons a lot of users decide to browse with Firefox.

We've seen a number of innovations recently, like Jetpack and the introduction of Collections (don't forget to check the Downloadsquad Collection out if you haven't already). Mozilla's never been content to sit still - which is why they're always encouraging the community to get involved.

Take the Extend Firefox 3.5 challenge, for example. If you can come up with a creative, innovative, or just plain cool, you could just win yourself a MacBook Pro - or one of several other kick-ass prizes.

Last year's winners included Pencil and Read It Later. Who knows, your creation could very well take the blue ribbon this year!

The contest runs through October 2nd, so get cracking!

Tags: contests, firefox-addons, mozilla, prizes

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

Downloadsquad Firefox Add-on Pack 2009 ready for subscription!

by Lee Mathews Jun 10th 2009

If you hadn't guessed from past posts, most of the bloggers here at Downloadsquad use Firefox - some of us more than others, of course, but it's still a trusted cross-platform tool.

Earlier today I showed you Mozilla's new Add-on Collector which makes it easy for anyone to do the whole "Fashion Your Firefox" thing. After going back to the comments you contributed to past Firefox add-on posts and firing off a few dozen mailing list messages to each other, we've put together our "inaugural collection," as it were.

The Downloadsquad Collection is now available for subscription!

What made the cut? Popular picks like AdBlock Plus, NoScript, Better Privacy, Greasemonkey,TabMix Plus, and DownThemAll, and some lesser-knowns like Amazon S3 Organizer, Textarea Cache, and Taboo.

Would it be too Google of us to slap a permanent Beta tag one this thing? You know, just in case you guys have a few hot additions we need to work in. But seriously...If we missed your favorite, tell us what it is and why we should add it!

Update: Thanks for the comments! Download Statusbar has been added, and we'll keep listening to your suggestions.

Remember, simply subscribing to a pack doesn't mean you'll end up with every single add-on. Just install the ones you like!

Tags: collections, firefox-addons

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Experimental addon shifts Firefox's awesome bar into overdrive

by Lee Mathews May 8th 2009

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.

Tags: awesome-bar, firefox-addons, shiretoko

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

Lee's three must-have Firefox addons

by Lee Mathews May 6th 2009

My browsing habits have changed quite a bit since I first switched to Firefox. I used to think I needed custommize it with a large compliment of addons. Now, not so much.

Plenty of the chores I used to leave up to addons can be done with Firefox itself. Search bookmarks, userchrome hacks, and about:config offer plenty of tweaks without adding any bloat to the browser.

However, there are still a handful of key addons that I just can't do without. Here are my top three - sound off with yours in the comments!

1. Weave - If you're running a compatible Firefox version, Weave is an amazing tool. Being able to keep my bookmarks, history, and tabs in sync between work and home really boosts my browsing efficiency. I don't use Weaeve for password syncing - that job goes to addon #2.

2. LastPass - I need secure, synchronized access to my passwords on two machines running Firefox and my iPod Touch. LastPass does that for me, thanks to their great Firefox addon and bookmarklet - which gives you access to your vault from just about any javascript capable browser. LastPass added a form filler a while back, and that, too, works via a bookmarklet.

3. Greasemonkey - There are just too many userscripts I enjoy using to leave out Greasemonkey. From customizing my GMail and YouTube layouts to auto-paging lengthy articles, I can't imagine Firefox without the little monkey on my status bar.

Tags: firefox-addons, greasemonkey, lastpass, weave

Filed under: Internet, Text, Mozilla, Social Software, Browsers

Turn Twitter links to Delicious bookmarks with Tweecious

by Lee Mathews Apr 2nd 2009

I'm a big fan of applications that take handles repetitive chores without any input from me whatsoever. Since I've been using Tweetdeck lately, sharing links on Twitter and bookmarking them has turned into a two-step process, and that's one step too many if you ask me.

Enter Tweecious, a Firefox addon that keeps an eye on your Twitter feed for any links you share and automatically adds them to your Delicious bookmarks (which you probably guessed from the name). It utilizes four different bits of internet Kung-Fu - Twitter, Delicious, Longurlplease, and Zemanta to monitor, sync, and tag links all without you ever lifting a finger.

Ok, you will lift a finger once - to set up and activate the service. Tweecious doesn't even store your passwords, which is a welcome feature. Just log in to Delicious before setting your preferences.

Tags: delicious, firefox-addons, twitter

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers, Windows x64

Four addons to combine Firefox UI elements and save space

by Lee Mathews Feb 26th 2009

I like to keep things in my Firefox UI to a minimum, though for some reason I don't like to utilize the full-screen view. What can I do? Why, go find some addons and combine, compress, and tidy things up a bit. Here are four handy addons that help get the job done - if you've got some others, share them with us in the comments!

Personal Menu

Nix that needless file-edit-view menu with this addon. Personal Menu can take the whole mess and cram it into three (or fewer, if you like) tiny icons on Firefox's navigation toolbar. I wrote about it recently, and it's become one of my must-install addons.

Stop-or-Reload

Combines the two buttons so that stop is displayed while a page loads and reload once it's fully displayed. This addon is old - it hasn't been updated since November 2006. Nevertheless, it works as well as or better than other FF addons designed to do the same thing, it's not experimental, and it works just fine in new versions.

Back to Close

Suppose you've backed up as far as you can go in a particular tab's history. A grayed-out back button really isn't that useful anyway, so why not replace it with a close button? That's precisely what this addon does, and it also works with mouse gestures and the alt + left arrow hotkey.

Fission

Firefox addon irony, thy name is Fission. Contrary to what the dictionary tells you about fission splitting things into smaller bits, this addon takes your Firefox status bar and merges it with the address bar. Fission also provides you with a few customization options like selectable color or background image. One downside: it may ugly up your theme a little bit by spilling outside the borders of the address bar.

Tags: firefox-addons, gui, minimalist

Filed under: Internet, Browsers

Find out how web sites are watching you with Ghostery

by Brad Linder Jan 27th 2009

Ghostery is a plugin for Firefox that alerts you when you visit a web site using "web bugs," which are basically scripts that track your information for one reason or another. Ghostery currently tracks more than 100 different types of web bugs, and alerts you if a web page is using scripts from sites like Sitemeter, Amazon, or PollDaddy by displaying a purple window with a list of bugs on top of the web page you're visiting.

The alert bubble disappears after about 15 seconds. Or if you'd rather not see the pop up every time you visit a new web site, you can right click on the Ghostery icon in the Firefox status bar and suspend the service until you want to use it again.

Not every item that's classified as a "web bug" is necessarily malicious. In fact, most are simply the tools that web publishers use to place advertising on their site, or enable other features like third party commenting system Disqus. But normally many of these scripts are hidden. And if you want to know what kind of scripts on any web page are tracking you, Ghostery can help you find out.

Tags: firefox-addons, ghostery

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Productivity, Mozilla, Freeware, Browsers

Mouseless for Firefox updates with better support for web apps

by Lee Mathews Jan 6th 2009

Mouseless has been mentioned on Downloadsquad before, and it's steadily improved since Jordan Running first posted about it.

The latest version offers improved support for dynamic web apps like GMail and Facebook. The number of "clickable" links has also been greatly increased and works amazingly well with complicated pages. On the Blogsmith post creation page where I'm writing this, for example, I've got 179 Mouseless links.

To "click" a link, just hold down your control key and type its number. Mouseless is smart enough to wait for additional digits if they might exist: if you've got a 110 available, it will give you time to enter a third number after 11. If not, the link is opened immediately.

You can also use Mouseless to create customizable navigation hotkeys. It's one of the best addons I haven't been using, and is definitely a productivity booster for anyone who uses a lot of web-based applications.

Tags: extensions, firefox-addons, keyboard, mouseless

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