40Tech

If you want to squeeze every last ounce of speed out of your browsing experience, then check out the latest browser speed tests at Tom’s Hardware. The site takes a look at several browsers on both the PC and on a Mac, and offers results in several different categories. The site then crowned a winner on each platform, as well as overall.

Lately, I’ve been seeing how well I can survive without Flash on my MacBook Air. I find my browsing experience to be faster without it, but every now and then I need Flash to use a site. We previously talked about how to watch many YouTube videos without having Flash installed on your system, but what about other sites that use Flash? My setup involves using Firefox as my main browser on my MacBook Air (I use Chrome on my iMac), and switching over to Chrome when I need Flash. Chrome has Flash built in. My setup lets me automatically open my Firefox tab in Chrome, which supports Flash by default, by using a keystroke. Here’s how.

I was a long time Firefox user, but moved to Chrome when Firefox started to feel bloated. With the release of Firefox 4, I’ve gone back to using Firefox as my primary browser (although I still use Chrome quite a bit, too). When I’m using Firefox, one feature that I miss from Chrome is the Omnibar, Chrome’s combined location box and search box. Firefox’s Awesome Bar has some nice features of its own, but if space is at a premium on your machine, you can get Chrome-like Omnibar goodness with the Omnibar extension for Firefox.

One of Google Chrome’s best features is the Apps Dashboard. With the current push toward cloud computing, it sometimes seems that a new web app surfaces almost daily. When used in conjunction with the Chrome Web Store, it’s easy to sort through the multitudes of services out there, get a quick review, and have your favourites at your fingertips. Sometimes the buttons are nothing more than spiffy bookmarks, and others integrate with the browser, adding context menu functionality and other things that make your life easier. The ability to sync your apps between machines is an added bonus, bringing us one step closer to Google’s dream of us all living in the almighty Browser [seeChromeOS].

Unfortunately, if you are a Firefox user, even with the recent leaps forward in Firefox 4, there is no native service that offers what the Apps Dashboard does in Chrome. You could use specialized start page plugins or services and put together your favourite quick-links, but you would still be missing out on the best feature: discoverability. Unless you use Jolicloud, that is.

I’m not very loyal when it comes to web browsers. For years, I used Firefox, but I made the switch over to Chrome when its extension ecosystem matured enough to be usable. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Firefox, though, and the release of Firefox 4 on March 22 prompted me to take it for a spin. The verdict? I like it. It feels faster than Chrome, although that might be because my Chrome installation has become bloated over time. I’ve also started playing around with Firefox’s Tab Groups, which are a big help in organizing tabs. Read on for a look at Tab Groups.

My Father has a saying; if you’re paid by the hour, take your time.  Sadly I’m not paid by the hour and I can’t afford to take my time. I guess I’m like most folks and every minute is precious – especially if you are in a job like mine where you are only paid on results, so the more you can get done in a day the better your wage will look at the end of the week. Automation and generally trying to increase your productivity throughout your working day is something that none of us can now overlook, and if any part of your job involves using the web, then, for a start, Firefox is a must .

Make no mistake Firefox will help you get more done, save time and generally help to remove or at least automate any mundane repetitive jobs you have to do. It can’t do it on its own though, it needs the help of these plugins:

Internet Explorer has been slowly but steadily losing ground in the “browser wars” since the invention of that little hot little canine browser, Firefox. Google Chrome shook up the market even more and is continuing what’s considered to be a fast upward climb. Safari is Safari, and Opera is largely underestimated.

In the article I read about IE’s plummet, on Mashable, the tone was very much in the negative for Internet Explorer, citing phrases such as “to little, to late” and “Hail Mary” in reference to the coming improvements of IE9. Now, I am no fan of Internet Explorer (my web-designer-self hates it with a furious feral fire), and no disrespect intended to the knowledgeable minds over at Mashable, but I think a little bit of perspective may be called for.

If you’re a Safari user, you probably like the built in ad-stripping, easy-reading feature, Safari Reader. If you’re not, and you’re using Firefox or Chrome (I’ll happily side-step IE on this one), then you may be either jealous of the Safari functionality, or using an extension or bookmarklet like Readability (check out our post on the Readability+Evernote combo-bookmarklet). While Readability is great, Safari Reader is a step up — and the iReader extension for Google Chrome and Firefox is even better.

As is apparent from my last article on 40Tech, I have been playing around with a multitude of Google Chrome Extensions since the official beta-door was opened, last week. Last night, I discovered Feedly, a social RSS extension based on Google Reader and Twitter that “organizes your favorite sites into a fun, magazine-like start page” [...]

The sheer number of extensions available for Firefox sets it apart from other browsers.  The number of extensions, though, means that it can be difficult to find the hidden gems.  For that reason, I’m always interested in seeing what Firefox extensions other people are using.  To get the ball rolling, here are ten of my [...]