40Tech » Firefox

Which PC and Mac Browsers Are Fastest?

Evan Kline — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:00:00 +0000

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.

On OS X, “Safari 5.1.2 simply owns on its native platform,” according to Tom’s Hardware and its results. On the PC, and overall, Firefox 9 was crowned the winner. That might be surprising to some Chrome users, as speed is often extolled as one of the virtues of Google’s browser. Check out the article at the source to really dive into the numbers.

Admittedly, speed isn’t the only consideration when picking a browser. For example, I tried . . . really really tried . . . to like Safari on my Mac. I used it for a month as my main browser, and never stopped hating it. I went back to Chrome, and thereafter went all the back to my first love, Firefox, which I’ve found has improved dramatically since I had first switched away from it.

What is your browser of choice, and on what platform? Why do you like it?

Web Browser Grand Prix VIII: Chrome 16, Firefox 9, And Mac OS X [Tom's Hardware]

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How to Set a Keystroke to Open a Firefox Tab in Chrome – And Keep Flash Out of Firefox [Mac]

Evan Kline — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +0000

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.

The process relies on Keyboard Maestro, which is a commercial program that I’ve started to fall in love with. Keyboard Maestro is currently $36 from both the developer’s site, and in the Mac App Store. I got it in a Mac bundle for much less. It lets you create macros to automate repetitive tasks. I use a barely tweaked version of a macro from The Carton that lets me tap a key combination to open a Firefox tab in Chrome. Instead of writing out each step, here is what my macro looks like when setting it up:

Here is what the finished macro looks like:

The only difference between this and the macro at the Carton is that I swapped in Firefox for Safari. If you want to see the Safari version, check out the original, which can be found in the last image on that page.

Now, whenever I want to open my current Firefox tab in Chrome, I just hit CTRL-OPTION-CMD-C, and I’m taken right to it. Pretty nifty. Note, though, that this isn’t like the old “IE Tab” Firefox extension, which would open an Internet Explorer tab directly in Firefox. This method still opens up Chrome, but saves you from having to do any manual URL copying and pasting.

Do you have any tricks for avoiding Flash? How about some other cool Keyboard Maestro macros? If so, let us know in the comments.

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How to Combine Firefox’s Search Box and Location Bar, Just Like in Chrome

Evan Kline — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:00:20 +0000

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.

The Omnibar extension was a tool that I actively hunted down, knowing that there HAD to be a Firefox extension that combined the two toolbar boxes. The extension does just that, plus a bit more. It will show you search and url suggestions as you type. You can also change search engines on the fly, using keywords. For example, typing “keepass vs. lastpass @y” (without quotes) will perform the “keepass vs. lastpass” search in Yahoo. Thanks to the Omnibar extension, I’ve been able to save some serious screen real estate on my Air, getting all the various toolbars squeezed into two rows.

How have you hacked your Firefox installation, whether to get more space or to get some other awesomeness?

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Use Jolicloud for a Web App Dashboard in Firefox, Safari (or Chrome)

Bobby Travis — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 03:08:27 +0000

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 [see ChromeOS].

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.

Jolicloud started as a specialized Linux OS for netbooks, attempting to give those small screens an easy and visual user experience. Because netbooks are small and built mostly for web browsing, it made sense for Jolicloud to focus on web apps, and while they did offer native software installs, they were much more cloud-based (hence the name). They added a social component to their OS, allowing you to connect with and share your favourite web app recommendations with other users, and you could log in on any Jolicloud machine and sync your apps over to it, too! This might sound a lot like Google ChromeOS, but Jolicloud was doing all of this actively before ChromeOS was even out of the gate.

These days, Jolicloud still exists as an OS, but has changed its name to JoliOS. What Jolicloud is now is a very pretty web app itself that functions as a dashboard that can be opened in any Firefox 4 or Safari 5 browser. It can also be opened in Google Chrome — and is actually an app in the Google Web Store. Jolicloud has built up a decent list of web apps in its directory, and though it doesn’t have the ability to integrate its apps into your browser, it does a few things that the Google Chrome App Dashboard can’t do. Like look pretty — or be multi-page.

Jolicloud has many different wallpapers that can be applied to it, and has several pages for you to organize your apps. The pages function very much like iOS in that you can drag the app icons around and move them from page to page by pushing them against the right or left edge of the screen. Combined with the fact that the apps are always in the same position you left them in, no matter what computer you open them on — as opposed to Google Chrome missing some in syncs, or occasionally reordering them on you — and you end up with a very good experience.

Another thing that actually gives Jolicloud a leg up over Chrome’s App Dashboard is the ability to add whatever site you like by URL, using the Add New App button on the bottom of the web apps category list, which you get to by pressing the big green plus button. Essentially, you could use Jolicloud as your web app library and as your speed-dial to your favourite sites — very handy! If that’s not enough for you to give it a shot, then click on the folder tab in the top left — you can actually connect Dropbox and Google Docs right into the app, with available space reports, and in-app previews and editing, which makes for all kinds of convenience.

I’ve found only two annoying things about Jolicloud:

That the site has experienced the occasional weird 400 error, and made it seem that my apps were wiped out. That can usually be fixed by restarting the browser, sometimes with a clean cache, and logging in again.
That the sync with the actual OS will bring over apps — or offer apps in the list — that are actually for installed software. Generally, these are just greyed out if you are using them in JoliOS, but there are times they can be made to work. I got Skype to launch from Jolicloud, for example.

If you want to use Jolicloud with your Firefox 4 or Safari 5 install (Opera is not supported, and IE only works — sometimes — with Chrome Frame), just head to Jolicloud.com and create an account, then click on My Jolicloud. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Once you have your apps in place, either set Jolicloud as a pinned tab, or have it open as your start page. The are reports of the devs working to create a Firefox extension for Jolicloud to make it an even better experience for FF users. They are also apparently working on Android compatibility, and already have experimental iPad support.

If you like Jolicloud a bunch, you might want to go the whole way and install JoliOS — it can be installed and removed in Windows and configures your system for dual boot. You could also buy the cute little Jolibook computer, if you have some spare cash and are in the UK.

Have you tried Jolicloud? What did you think?

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Bring Sanity To Tabbed Browsing With Tabbed Groups [Firefox]

Evan Kline — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:00:36 +0000

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.

What are Tab Groups? Tab Groups are a way to visually group your tabs into clusters, and switch between them. So, let’s say you are researching ROMS for your Android phone, and that you’re also researching web-based productivity apps. You can easily end up with a jumble of open tabs, intermixed together . . . or you can use Tab Groups, and keep your Android ROM research in one group, and your productivity app research in another group.

To set up Tab Groups, click on the box to the right of the Tabs dropdown menu, as highlighted in yellow, below. You can also use the Tabs dropdown menu, and the first item listed will be “Tab Groups.” If you’re a keyboard shortcut fan, you can use CTRL-SHIFT-E.

You’ll then be presented with a screen that shows your tab groups. If you’re starting your browsing session from scratch, you won’t have any groups. In that case, simply drag one of your tabs out of the single tab group that is displayed, to an empty area of the screen, outside of the current grouping.

From this view, you can rearrange your tabs, create new groups, and move tabs between groups. When you have your tabs set up just right, click any tab in the grouping, and you’ll be taken to that tab. For an alternative way to add tabs to groups, or start a new group, you can right click on a tab, and select the “Move to Group” option.

There are other features as well. You can search within a tab group by clicking on the magnifying glass icon when within the tab group window, and entering your search in the box. Tabs that match your search will be highlighted. You can also resize, rearrange, and name tab groups.

What browser do you use? Are there any features in Firefox 4 that would get you to switch?

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8 Time-Saving Firefox Extensions

Guest Poster — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:00:31 +0000

Today, 40Tech is pleased to present a guest post by Neil Jones.

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:

Imacros: If you only ever add one plugin to Firefox then add this one, it can fill forms, auto-click buttons and do pretty much whatever else you need it to. I can’t stress enough how good this plugin is, but to help I’ll give you an example. The first thing that most people who own a website do when they sit down to start work is check their analytics for the previous day, I know it’s a little anal but I counted the amount of clicks and the time it takes, and you are talking between 4 and 5 clicks and 30 seconds to get to where you want to go. Imacros can do this for you while you go make a coffee. This is only one example of how this plugin helps and I know 30 seconds doesn’t sound like much, but they all add up!

Autocopy: As the name suggests this little plugin will automatically copy any highlighted text on a web page, with no longer a need for CTRL+C one hand is now freed to drink more coffee!

URL Fixer: If you’re a typo demon, this plugin will help you whenever you misspell a TLD ( Top Level Domain) like when you type .cm instead of .com. Maybe not a huge time saver but it definitely helps and saves on the number of clicks.

Adblockers: Though there are countless available they all do pretty much do the same thing, they prevent any flash banners or ads from being displayed, this saves on load time and it also removes any distractions from the page. GreaseMonkey in particular has some of the best adblockers.

For the addictive websites that you find you spend too much time on (mine is PassiveAggressiveNotes.com just can’t get enough) there are plugins that will either block the site completely during certain times (LeechBlock) or if you just want a friendly reminder of the amount of time you have spent on a certain site then use Procrastato. It can be scary to realize how much time can be wasted just on one site alone.

Following on from the idea of the addictive websites there are a couple of plugins that allow you to save a page so you can read when you have more time, the best is probably Read It Later. Essentially, it works in the same way as the bookmarking services but it’s quicker and stores the addresses locally.

Finally, Morning Coffee keeps track of the most visited sites on your browser, giving you quick and easy access to your most popular pages.

If you are looking for your working day to be revolutionized, where you will find yourself with all your work done and an hour to spare every evening, then maybe you are reading the wrong post (start looking for a Virtual Assistant…) but if you want things to work a little smoother, a little smarter, and a little faster, then any of these plugins are a pretty good place to start.

What are some of your favourite time saving plugins for your browser?

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Internet Explorer is Now Losing the Browser Wars? Magic 8-Ball Says: Doubtful

Bobby Travis — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 02:00:34 +0000

Internet Explorer has been slowly but steadily losing ground in the “browser wars” since the invention of that little hot little vulpine 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.

Yes, IE has finally hit a downward slide (thank you, powers that be!) — but even with the European ruling that dropped IE from Microsoft Windows installations, and the rise of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer still holds 49.87% of the browser market (as stated in the Mashable article). Another unfortunate truth is that a good percentage of that percentage still uses IE6. The fact that anyone is still using that piece of crap is proof positive that people aren’t as far advanced into the world of technology as we might have hoped. But I digress…

The point I am making here is that 49.87%, while still a hefty drop for IE when compared to the gains of other browsers, is still the largest segment of the market by nearly 20%. Internet Explorer 9 may be a bit late, but it is still going to compete soundly with the other browsers out there. IE9 may not win back Microsoft’s haters (count me in that batch), but it will win back some people — and it will keep even more. If Internet Explorer is going anywhere, I don’t think it will be anytime soon.

What do you think?

With Less than 50% Market Share, IE Is Now Losing the Browser Wars [Mashable]

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Remove Website Clutter With One Click Using iReader for Chrome and Firefox

Bobby Travis — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:46:01 +0000

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.

iReader is a near direct clone of Safari Reader. It installs a button into your browser’s address bar that appears when you are on an article-style page of a website.

When you click this handy little button, iReader strips out all of the ads and other extraneous layout elements of the web page, re-displaying it in a lightbox-style overlay that is incredibly easy to read. The fact that it doesn’t just reconfigure the page, as Readability does, but allows you to go back to the original look with just one click outside the article or press of escape, is a huge improvement. The easy scrolling and additional interaction buttons that appear when hovering the mouse over the bottom of the window are also an improvement over Readability’s UI.

Check out how iReader looks compared to Readability, below:

iReader

Readability

It’s in the interaction buttons that iReader improves even upon its progenitor. Safari Reader only offers the options to increase/decrease text size, and to email or print the article. iReader takes that a step further by offering Tweet This Page and Send to Facebook buttons, the ability to remove images completely, as well as additional options such as background opacity, hotkey assignment, mail articles from Gmail, smooth scroll, and article style control.

It’s unfortunate that iReader doesn’t integrate directly into Evernote, but using the email button and your Evernote account’s email address, solves that problem handily. iReader is a great addition to your Google Chrome or Firefox Browser. Check it out for Chrome here and Firefox here.

What are your thoughts on iReader? Let us know in the comments!

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Feedly is Dangerously Useful – Set an Alarm, You’ll Be In There Awhile . . .

Bobby Travis — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:15:35 +0000

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” (also available for Firefox). In a word, Feedly is awesome. In two words it is dangerously awesome, or, as the title states, dangerously useful– if you install it for either browser, make sure you set some time aside. You’re going to be there for a while.

I tried Feedly on a whim, as I have many extensions. It kept appearing in the Top-Rated section of the Google Chrome Extensions page and I was curious. As I was already logged in to both Twitter and my Google Account, I had very little to do in the realm of configuration — things simply appeared in a very easy-to-understand and navigate interface that was, as the slogan says, reminiscent of a very dean, functional, and pretty magazine. I then proceeded to scan the articles that appeared in the Digest page, clicked on a few and, when they opened in-line and allowed sharing with everything from Facebook to Twitter, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Posterous, email and more, I succumbed to several hours of feverishly reading and sharing articles from Lifehacker, Mashable, Problogger, and other sites I tend to interact with. By the time l was finally done, it was the wee hours and I felt like I had somewhat over-taxed my poor brain with information overload. Awesome!

I have been looking through the options a bit more today, and am pleasantly surprised at the amount of configuration available (and the fact that the configuration is painless and straightforward). For example, there are Amazon ads incorporated by default — don’t like them? Fine. In the preferences section you will find these words:

Amazon Module

Should Feedly include an amazon module in the side area? Value can be yes or no. Default value is yes.

Yes

No

Easy. There are similarly simple options for everything from managing your sources, to “Tweet Gallery”, to Flickr Images, filters, email control, showing matching FriendFeed conversations and more.

If you are not sure what sources to use for Feedly, or are just bored with what you generally read and are looking for something new, Feedly has an explore feature that is a fantastic way to see what is being read by your friends and people who you read. There is also a search feature that can search by topic, @twitter-name, and by #hashtag. All kinds of ways to keep you busy — did I mention you can even interact with and update your Twitter-feed right from Feedly?

I highly recommend giving Feedly a try! Download it for Firefox here and for Google Chrome here, or just visit their website. Be warned though, enter into the world of Feedly at the peril of your sleep (or any other) schedule! Make sure you have a spare moment or two, first.

One small note of annoyance with the Chrome Extension: It appears that Gmail sharing is not yet integrated. The button is there, but the message says very clearly that they are sorry, "Gmail integration is not available in this platform". Boo. (Oh, and if you hover over your email address on the toolbar at the top of the page, it invites you to restart Firefox to sync your profile… that’s just one of those little funny oversights that make life worth living. :D)

Have you tried Feedly? What are your thoughts?

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10 Firefox Extensions to Die For

Evan Kline — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:30:40 +0000

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 favorite Firefox extensions. We’ll call this the “Evan Kline edition” to leave the door open for Bobby to come up with his own list in the future. Also, please let us know in the comments which extensions you use, if you are a Firefox user.

Photo by laihiu

1. Faviconize Tab

If you’re like me, you’re a heavy tab user. One way to make tabs more accessible, and quicker to access, is to get other tabs out of the way. Tabs that you always access, such as Gmail, are perfect candidates for this, since you probably recognize them by their icons alone. The Faviconize Tab extension allows you to shrink a tag down to only its favicon, leaving more room for your less recognizable tabs. We previously discussed this extension on our Posterous site.

2. Smart Bookmarks Bar

Using the bookmarks toolbar to quickly access your favorite sites can be a huge time saver. The problem is that there isn’t space for many bookmarks on the bookmarks bar, since the bar displays a bookmark’s favicon and name. This extension helps you fit more bookmarks on your bookmarks bar by hiding a site’s name, and displaying only the favicon. We previously wrote about this extension, complete with screenshots.

3. Favicon Picker 3

The other extension that we previously discussed in conjunction with Smart Bookmarks Bar was Favicon Picker 3. While Smart Bookmarks Bar is great, not all sites have favicons. Favicon Picker solves that problem, allowing you to manually assign favicons to sites.

4. Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey is one of those extensions that makes you say, "now THAT is cool." The extension doesn’t do anything on its own. Instead, it allows you to change the way a webpage displays and functions by installing small bits of JavaScript called Greasemonkey scripts. For example, I use a Greasemonkey script that allows me to sort my Netflix queue in a number of ways, such as alphabetically. There are hundreds of other scripts available, including scripts that allow you to modify the functionality of Gmail, Google Reader, and Twitter.

5. Better Gmail 2

If you’re a Gmail user, then you can’t go wrong with the Better Gmail 2 extension. This extension compiles several Greasemonkey scripts, enhancing Gmail with such features as hierarchical labels, an unread message icon on your browser tab, and file attachment icons.

6. Evernote Web Clipper

We love Evernote here at 40Tech, and have written about it several times already. The Evernote Web Clipper Firefox extension adds a button to the toolbar, which, when clicked, will send selected portions of a web page, or an entire web page, into your Evernote account.

7. LastPass Password Manager

We’ve also previously expressed our love for LastPass. The LastPass Password Manager extension automates the entire LastPass experience, from autofilling passwords, to generating passwords, to providing easy access to your password vault. LastPass can be used with a bookmarklet instead, but it is SO much easier with this extension.

8. Firebug

I’m not much of a coder, but I often muck around in CSS to make changes to my websites. Firebug makes this much easier, splitting your screen in two. When you activate Firebug, the top half of your screen displays a page normally, allowing you to select different parts of the page. When you do so, the CSS, HTML, and Javascript of that selection appears in the bottom half of the screen (complete with file name and line number of any code). You can even modify those elements in the bottom half of the screen, to preview changes.

9. Xmarks

Xmarks, formerly known as Foxmarks, is a bookmarking tool. It allows you to sync all of your bookmarks between computers. It also gives you optional password syncing. Create an account, set up the extension, and then forget about it. It is that easy. It is also invaluable when moving to a new computer. Simply install the extension in Firefox, and your bookmarks follow you to your new machine.

10. Tab Mix Plus

Tab Mix Plus supercharges your tabbed browsing. It allows you to change the way tabs are highlighted, add a progress meter to tabs, add a close tab button to tabs, specify the width of tabs, and more. The number of options is almost overwhelming at first glance, but manageable with a bit of trial and error.

Honorable mentions: Forecastfox, NoScript, Adblock Plus, PriceAdvance, Download Statusbar, and Tiny Menu.

So, help me out- what extensions have I missed?