Crenk » firefox

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Early Beta

Augusto Alvarez — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:03:58 +0000

Even though all the rumors said that we were going to have an official beta of Firefox 3.6, as we’ve discussed earlier, Mozilla will be releasing a 3.6 build, but as an early beta.

This “test build”, that should contain several bugs, will be a small preview of the real 3.6 beta that will be available to the public on October 21^st (yes, one day before Windows 7 official release to the public). To take a nice preview of what’s coming in 3.6, you can access Mozilla FTP and download the build.

As we’ve said earlier, Firefox 3.6 (codename Namoroka) won’t bring us big changes, the features that you’ll find here:

Lightweight themes with Vista-like interface.
Improvements in TraceMonkey JavaScript engine
Bookmark synchronization
Optimized session restore feature.
Enhanced page rendering.
New additions for CSS.
Previews of tabs

We’ll have to wait for 3.7 to expect major differences.

Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon?

Augusto Alvarez — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:52:03 +0000

Mozilla team is working really hard on brainstorming the idea and design of Firefox 3.7 (currently in 3.5, 3.6 it’s just around the corner). What’s the main idea? Hide the Menu bar and use a very similar look-n-feel of Office 2007/Office 2010 Ribbon.

They are using their Wiki to give us some of the advances made so far, the ideas floating in the air and of course receive feedback from most of the Mozilla lovers (and non-lovers as well, why not?). And here are the ideas that they have so far:

Embracing Glass: Toolbar and Tabs using Glass. Raised translucent buttons that are slightly glossy to meld with the toolbar. Raised 3D look to achieve tactile “feel”.
Neutral Tones: Overall neutral color scheme that can transition among platforms. Can remain attractive and slick without fighting for focus from web content.
Hiding the Menu Bar: Hiding the menubar by default (on Vista/7) allows us to use Glass, free up vertical space and retain platform consistency.
Page and Tools Buttons: Condense and trim existing menu structure into two buttons “Page” and “Tools”. Similar to Safari and Chrome.
Combine Stop/Reload: Combine Stop and Reload into one button. Reduces visual “clutter” and combines two buttons that have mutually exclusive functionality.
Home Button/Tab: Remove “Home” Button from default toolbar. Move functionality to a “Home Tab” containing your homepage.

More info: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Sprints/Windows_Theme_Revamp/Direction_and_Feedback

Personally I think those are very nice and significant changes. Office, Vista and 7 seems that they are setting the standards of any UI (no surprise there, Windows will still be the world’s main OS for a few years more). But the good news is that Mozilla it is also trying to establish browsers standards, like the “Page and Tools Buttons” that is a common feature in Safari and Chrome.

And also the “Combine Stop/Reload” feature it is something that I’ve been waiting to see in Firefox for a long time. I know, it’s a very tiny thing, but don’t you love having the same functionality in different browsers?

And what are the other changes that you would include?

Appnr: Easily Install Ubuntu Applications from your Firefox Browser

Steven Finch — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:50:36 +0000

Ubuntu has quickly become one of the best Operating Systems around and with this it has become easier and easier to add applications.

Appnr is a new web based tool where you can search and install applications directly on your Firefox within Ubuntu.

Appnr makes use of the apturl protocol to initiate the installation process. Since apturl was included as a dependency for Firefox since Ubuntu 7.10, if you are using a later version than Gutsy, you can simply click and install applications directly from Appnr.com. For other debian based distro, you will have to install apturl:

sudo apt-get install apturl

The navigation in Appnr is easy. On the left are the categories and the respective applications on the right. There is an “Install” button on every application entry and you just click on it to install the particular application.

Top Thunderbird Email Addons

Steven Finch — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:38:19 +0000

Thunderbird is an Outlook like email client that is free to download and is made by Mozilla, the same company that makes Firefox. The best thing about Thunderbird is that developers from all over the world are able to make addon tools to use, unlike Microsoft and Outlook. Thunderbird is multi-platform and multi-lingual. Here is our list of the top 10 Thunderbird addons.

(1) Contacts Sidebar – handy addon that lets you display all available address books in Thunderbird sidebar. This lets you easily access all your contacts from the main window, quickly edit contact details, drag’n drop files on top of a contact to send it as an attachment and more… (Thunderbird: 1.5b – 2.0.0.*)

(2) QuoteCollapse – automatically collapses all the quotes within any message, making it look neat and less cluttered. To expand quotes back to standard view just click inserted ‘+’ button. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

(3) QuickMove – must-have addon letting you quickly file messages to your frequently used folders using keyboard shortcuts. (Thunderbird: 0.5 – 2.0+)

(4) Signature Switch – allows you to create multiple email signatures (Private, Business, etc.) and quickly switch between them right from the main toolbar. Also provides configurable signature auto-switch option based on the email recipients. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

(5) Remove Duplicate Messages – helps you quickly locate and remove duplicate messages from the selected folders (and its subfolders). (Thunderbird: 1.0 – 1.5.0.*)

(6) Nostalgy – lets you assign single-key keyboard shortcuts to common thunderbird operations i.e., move/copy/delete messages, change folder, add/remove/view tags, add attachment, scroll the message while keeping the focus on the thread pane and lots more. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(7) GMailUI – adds Gmail-like mail archiving and powerful message search (i.e. ‘from:Makeuseof to:Aibek’) functionalities into Thunderbird. Makes excellent addition to already existing ‘Saved Searches’ feature. (Thunderbird: 0.8 – 2.0.0.*)

(8) Attachment Extractor – integrates one-click attachment extract option from selected messages. Once attachments have been extracted it can delete, detach or mark messages as ‘read’. Way easier than going through messages one-by-one. (Thunderbird: 2.0 – 2.0.0.*)

(9) Auto Zip Attachments – adds an ‘AutoZip’ button to the compose toolbar allowing you to compress all attached files to a single ‘zip’ file. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(10) Send Later – integrates extra ‘Send Later At’ (’Ctrl+Shift+Return’) feature to the message compose window, allowing you to send messages on a particular future date and time. It can be a contract cancellation notice, a ‘Happy Birthday’ or a friendly ‘Don’t Forget’ note. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0)

Firefox – the final security update?

Dean — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:16:33 +0000

It’s all about security this week in the tech world. Google are under the spotlight concerning security in their upcoming Google Chrome OS and Norton 2010 is turning heads. Now, Mozilla Firefox is to receive an update (3.0.12) which will close several major security loop holes in their popular browser.

“We strongly recommend that all Firefox 3.0.x users upgrade to this latest release,” Mozilla said on its developer blog. “If you already have Firefox 3, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting ‘Check for Updates…’ from the Help menu.”

It is recommended that users download the update so that they remain secure online. Using credit cards and even just keeping your browsing habits safe is a difficult task these days so the last thing you want is a browser that lets unsavoury programs or people peer into your bank account.

However, this will be one of the last, if not the last update for the browser. As of January 2010, no more updates will be made available to users of the 3.0.’X’ series as Mozilla try to pedal their newest browser, Firefox 3.5 to users.

Download Firefox 3.5 Now

Steven Finch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:23:48 +0000

A couple of days ago we reported that Firefox 3.5 will be released on June 30th. Here is the official release!

Windows: http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.5&os=win&lang=en-US

Mac OS X: http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.5&os=osx&lang=en-US

Linux: http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.5&os=linux&lang=en-US

Looking for more Firefox Add-Ons?

Augusto Alvarez — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:01:21 +0000

Besides the Firefox Add-On official site, where anyone can download/upload the add-ons and share it with the community; you can also find Mozdev.org where there are over 250 projects related to Mozilla that are actively in motion by several developers in the mission to “establish Mozilla as a viable application development platform”.

Within the site, you will find several very interesting add-ons and plug-ins to use with Mozilla Firefox. Including the Top-50 most viewed and downloaded projects.

On this list you’ll find very, very useful tools that you can install to improve your browsing experience: Integration with Thunderbird, FTP client, autocopy highlighted text, proxy configurations, RSS reader, etc etc.

Again, another open source project that shows a lot of maturity, adding value and constant improvement. Cheers to that

Firefox 3.5 RC2

Augusto Alvarez — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:49:10 +0000

We’ve announced earlier the release for Firefox 3.5 RC1, but the Mozilla development team already prepared a new build: Firefox 3.5 RC2. This new version has no bigger differences with the RC1, mostly fixing some bugs before making it the final version.

Company’s strategy it is quite interesting actually, releasing two RC versions in one week. They sure are very confident about the beta and RC stability, I can’t imagine Microsoft releasing release candidates versions of the same product in such short period of time.

That definitive version for Mozilla Firefox 3.5 it is expected in a few days more, ending June. You can check the release notes and improvements about the RC2 version here.

And you can download it from here.

Firefox 3.5 RC1 Available for Download

Augusto Alvarez — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:53:12 +0000

The second most used browser has released the Release Candidate version for the upcoming Firefox 3.5. If you are wondering what kind of versions are the “release candidates”, those represents the first and most acceptable beta release that are very stable and with no big issues involved; but it doesn’t mean that this version will be the exact one used as a final version. This one is the seventh milestone (meaning build) that the development team prepared for Firefox 3.5.

Some of the improvements that Firefox 3.5 will include that appear in this RC1:

Based in Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform.
Support for HTML 5, JavaScript query selectors, SVG transforms and others.
Improved performance with TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
Private Browsing Mode for private data management.
Support native JSON and web worker threads.
Providing Location Aware Browsing to enhance web sites to display information according your geographical location.

You can download Firefox 3.5 RC1 from this link.

Consider that installing this version will overwrite your previous version of Firefox, your bookmarks and browsing history will be maintain, but do not expect that all your add-ons working properly.

Download it, enjoy it and give them your feedback!

Firefox Add-on: Page Speed

Augusto Alvarez — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:18:08 +0000

Inside Google Code the company shares multiple applications and projects for all those interested. And for those webmasters also has very interesting tools, like Page Speed that I’m sure that you are going to find it quite useful.

Page Speed is an Firefox add-on that uses Firebug that runs several tests to measure performance on your site. Using several tests this particular scan gets the most important information from your front-end code and gives you all the hints necessary to improve the performance, having also different type of recommendations that can help you be more proactive on improving your site.

Resources for this tool, you’ll find plenty, “Using Page Speed” and even “Page Speed Community“. The Google Code it’s a great iniciative, Google shares a lot of code that is released completely as open source and you use it and modified it as you please. Cheers to that.

Top 10 Must Have Thunderbird Addons

Steven Finch — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:11:40 +0000

Most people know about Outlook competitor from Mozilla, Thunderbird. Unlike Outlook it is completely free, it’s multi-platform, it’s multi-lingual and most importantly, it’s highly customizable featuring lots of useful addons and themes. Therefore, if you are using Thunderbird we have put together a great list of the top 10 addons you should be using.

Contacts Sidebar – handy addon that lets you display all available address books in Thunderbird sidebar. This lets you easily access all your contacts from the main window, quickly edit contact details, drag’n drop files on top of a contact to send it as an attachment and more… (Thunderbird: 1.5b – 2.0.0.*)

QuoteCollapse – automatically collapses all the quotes within any message, making it look neat and less cluttered. To expand quotes back to standard view just click inserted ‘+’ button. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

QuickMove – must-have addon letting you quickly file messages to your frequently used folders using keyboard shortcuts. (Thunderbird: 0.5 – 2.0+)

Signature Switch – allows you to create multiple email signatures (Private, Business, etc.) and quickly switch between them right from the main toolbar. Also provides configurable signature auto-switch option based on the email recipients. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

Remove Duplicate Messages – helps you quickly locate and remove duplicate messages from the selected folders (and its subfolders). (Thunderbird: 1.0 – 1.5.0.*)

Nostalgy – lets you assign single-key keyboard shortcuts to common thunderbird operations i.e., move/copy/delete messages, change folder, add/remove/view tags, add attachment, scroll the message while keeping the focus on the thread pane and lots more. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

GMailUI – adds Gmail-like mail archiving and powerful message search (i.e. ‘from:Makeuseof to:Aibek’) functionalities into Thunderbird. Makes excellent addition to already existing ‘Saved Searches’ feature. (Thunderbird: 0.8 – 2.0.0.*)

Attachment Extractor – integrates one-click attachment extract option from selected messages. Once attachments have been extracted it can delete, detach or mark messages as ‘read’. Way easier than going through messages one-by-one. (Thunderbird: 2.0 – 2.0.0.*)

Auto Zip Attachments – adds an ‘AutoZip’ button to the compose toolbar allowing you to compress all attached files to a single ‘zip’ file. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

Send Later – integrates extra ‘Send Later At’ (’Ctrl+Shift+Return’) feature to the message compose window, allowing you to send messages on a particular future date and time. It can be a contract cancellation notice, a ‘Happy Birthday’ or a friendly ‘Don’t Forget’ note. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0)

Download Internet Explorer 8 from Microsoft Today for Free

Steven Finch — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:32:47 +0000

Microsoft has released the latest version of their web browser for Windows, and you can download Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) now. Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 claims to block upto four times more malware attacks than other browsers and reduces time to complete common tasks on the Web such as searching, mapping and sharing.

Some new features worth looking out for are

Accelerators - make it faster to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, or share it.
Web Slices – makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available when you go online.
Instant search – The Instant Search Box enables real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information.

Download Internet Explorer 8 now in 25 languages.

Cmune: Great 3D Browser-based Multiplayer 3D Shooter Game

Steven Finch — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:57:22 +0000

The other day I came across a great new multiplayer 3D shooter game. The site is Cmune and they claim to have the first browser-based multiplayer 3D shooter built to be social.

Cmune allows users to play a 3D paintball shooter game within any web browser. Additionally you can play the game in either Windows, Mac or even within Facebook. The game itself is very simple, a user needs to just download a small plugin and then they can create or join in on a game. Paradise paintball has very simple controls and is easy to use and graphics are ok but nothing out of this world.

When the site first opens you are able to choose which game you want to join or even able to create a game and play against your friends. Cmune is a great time waster!!

Top 5 Multi-Search Tools for Find The Best Torrents

Steven Finch — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:00:12 +0000

Previously here on Crenk we have talked about the top torrent trackers on the web and this time I want to outline the top 5 multi-search torrent tools.

NowTorrents. Searches up to twelve sites at once. I like the file type tabs and health indicator, and they offer a Firefox and IE compatible search plugin.

uSniff. I wrote about uSniff before, and I use it quite often. I don’t really search a lot of different sites, usually just Pirate Bay and IsoHunt, and they’re both supported (along with six others). The interface is clean and responds quickly – the search box throws some people off, though. I don’t understand why, it’s giant, orange, and says “search” on it. They also have a search plugin for IE and Firefox.

ScrapeTorrent. Offers a nice preference page and searches nine sites at once. Piratebay, IsoHunt, Mininova, and Demonoid are included, and they’re my go-to sites anyways. I approve!

Speckly. I hate the way it displays results: gobs and gobs of text, Google style, and all on one page. There aren’t any sorting options, though you can at least view by file type.

Torrentz. Technically it searches multiple sites, but you’ll get a general results page first. Clicking one of the results will take you to a listing of all the individual torrents. I find it an annoying process, and don’t use Torrentz as a result.

Zemanta Now Available on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and ScribeFire

Luis Sandoval — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:19:52 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

In less than a year, Zemanta has made a name for itself in the blogosphere. By becoming the premier add-on to the FireFox browser, bloggers now had access to an amazing set of tools to provide further depth to their posts. With hundreds of thousands of downloads, it seemed like a surefire winner, and there was little doubt that Zemanta has room to expand, but where and when?

Zemanta late last year supported another FireFox add-on called ScribeFire, a simple blogging tool that opened up in your browser without having to log into any other site or leave the page you are on. This allowed for amazingly quick posting to the blog of your choice, but also provided the same depth that you had available to you from within most popular blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad.

Recently it was announced that Zemanta has made another move towards mass market exposure, it has integrated with Gmail and Yahoo Mail, offering users of those mail clients the ability to attached related articles, pictures, and keywords to their emails that the recipients might need to fully understand the topic. I personally can’t imagine a better mass exposure opportunity than attaching yourself to two of the largest mail clients on the internet today.

Zemanta is a key tool that I recommend all bloggers install, but now with mail enhancements, I’m happy to see them growing. I’ve always been a big supporter of their efforts as it’s nice to see innovative ways to breathe life into a long standing medium like blogging.

It’s apparent that Zemanta will continue to offer what it always has; by offering photo suggestions, article suggestions, and keyword suggestions, as you type, updating every 300 words, there is bound to be another leap into further integration.

Perhaps a jump into an office platform for document and presentation creation, like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Only time will tell!

Is YouTube Infected?

Luis Sandoval — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:24:41 +0000

: Image by via CrunchBase

It was reported over on Techcrunch and Crunchgear that there wa a virus that was running rampant across the YouTube network with the certain embedded videos. It was reported that Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox were targeted, later reports said it was just IE.

The virus was reportedly named Actns/Swif.T and contains a phishing scam that directs uses to a website with an embedded .SWF and then installs a program called “Antivirus 2009.” Users were warned of this potentially damaging malware by avoiding weird pop-ups, requests for personal information, or re-direction to unknown sites.

The story was later recanted as it appeared to be a YouTube specific situation. On the back end the virus protection service being used was returning false positives identifying code within certain embedded videos as malware. The entire incident is harmless, and there is no security breach on the YouTube network. Spokesperons from YouTube are handling the situation and ensure us that YouTube is currently safe and free of any malware problems.

Actns/Swif.T virus affecting embedded YouTube vids?

Top 6 Dark Firefox 3 Themes You Should Download Now

Steven Finch — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:56:59 +0000

If you are someone who loves a great dark Firefox 3 theme, then here is a amazing list for you. Mozillalinks has put together have put together a list of 6 great Firefox 3 themes you should download right now.

avant.garde.10011:nerom created by Rob Holian. (experimental)

Black Steel by Ben Griscom. (experimental)

Dark Revisited by Matthew Baerbock. (experimental)

Gradient iCool by Edward Mak.

Midnight Fox by TwisterMC.

Ruler Dark by dkgo. (experimental)

5 Google Reader Extensions for Firefox 3 That Are Worth Using

Steven Finch — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:01:30 +0000

Here at Crenk we really like talking about Firefox and extensions, as you can see from previous posts, but this time I wanted combined Firefox with the feed reader I use Google Reader. There are so many Google Reader Firefox extensions out there, but here are the top five I think are worth using.

As with any list of Firefox tools, please do not install all of these at once unless you’d like to slow down your browser. And, honestly, how many notifications do you need to show you that you have unread items in Reader?

AideRSS – Brings AideRSS to your Google Reader, allowing you to see ranks directly in your reader, as well as letting you group feeds by rank. Also allows you to add your own thoughts on each feed.

Better GReader – Combines several Greasemonkey scripts in one extension. Includes things such as skipping the iGoogle choice page, the ability to preview the item as it appears on the actual Web page, shows the favicon for each feed, and several other choices.

Google Reader Notifier – Shows you how many unread items there are, provides an itemized list, lets you customize where the information appears in your browser, different icon sets, and more.

Google Reader Watcher – Based on a Greasemonkey script by the same author, Google Reader Watcher will check your account at an interval you set and will show you how many unread items you have. It can show this broken down by feed and more.

IntenseDebate in Google Reader – This plugin will add a link to each item in your Google Reader to allow you to post comments directly to IntenseDebate.

Joost: Music, Television Shows, Films, All In Your Browser

Steven Finch — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:45:03 +0000

As Mashable has reported this morning, Joost has now moved to a web based version. If you don’t know what Joost is, it is basically a television streaming service but without the ads. There are hundred of channels to choose from and you are able to watch programs straight in your browser.

Joost has channels in a variety of sectors, old television programs, sports, news, music videos and more. It is totally free to watch and can be viewed from any country in the world, unlike Hulu.

When you head over to the site all you need to do is register and then download the plugin that launches the application within your browser, and thats it.

First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome

Mike Panic — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:04:49 +0000

Yesterday Google’s new browser, Chrome was announced so today I downloaded and installed it onto my work Windows XP box to see what all the fuss is about and check for cross compatibility on sites we work on. I spent about 5 minutes poking around, if I can’t figure out how to use a browser in 5 minutes, it’s too complicated for anyone but the most 733t 1337.

Download was very small; it then opens an applet and downloads the rest of the software. Installation requires Firefox to be shut down so Chrome can import all your bookmarks, favorites, history and passwords; this goes quickly and rather painlessly. Next you get a TOS about reporting options for crashes, I denied their request and the install was complete.

Upon launching Chrome for the first time an unusual question is asked, “Do you wish to keep Google as your default search engine?” It’s unusual in that, it’s a Google product and the first thing about this new killer app is to strip out Search, the one thing Google does very, very well. I selected to keep it.

All my bookmarks and history imported, what didn’t was my homepage. I’m a long time iGoogle user and rely on the RSS feeds to get me caught up quickly at a glance to what is going on with the sites I follow. Not there. Instead six white boxes stare at me. A little note tells you that these are your most visited sites. Nice idea, but not for me. I easily look at 50+ sites in six different tabs of iGoogle. There is no apparent way to set a traditional “homepage” only what Google wants you to see.

The other thing lacking is an option to show the status bar. I rely on the status bar while at work and home to see where any link will take my, by hovering over it. There are also several add-ons for Firefox that sit in my status bar that I’ve come to love, from what I can tell in Chrome, there is no status bar option.

On the plus side, it is fast. How fast? I don’t have scientific numbers or pretty pie charts, but it really feels fast. One site that I know uses a fairly common Java plugin to run an app wouldn’t work and there was no option to install it but everything else on the dozen or so sites I quickly browsed seem to work.

Is Chrome the next killer app? Hard to say now, Firefox has such a loyal, loving fan base to it, but I think this could compliment it very well.

Google to Launch Open Source Internet Browser in 100 Countries Today, Called Chrome

Steven Finch — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:22:19 +0000

Google to launch a web browser today to 100 countries, and it will be named Google Chrome. There is a lot of buzz already about this new product and Im sure you have probably already read about it on Techcrunch, AllthingsD, Sizlopedia and more.All of this was just a rumour until it was confirmed by the Official Google Blog.

For a long time now there have only really been 3 key players in the online browser market, IE, Firefox and Safari (MACs). I’m very interested to use this product today and see how it compares to all these other browsers.

For a long time also Google has been funding Mozilla by paying to have their search engine as default in the browser, so if Google Chrome becomes popular and out grows Firefox, will they still pay top dollar to be the default search in Firefox?

Cuil – The Google Killer?

Mike Panic — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:08:29 +0000

Searching is big business. Those listings on the right side of any Google search are there because someone paid money to advertise there. Same goes with the top 2 or 3 links. Google makes a lot of money off of these paid placements, which are there based on their dynamic search technology. Google has also come under fire for the way in which it ranks sites, called Page Rank, it is a top secret way they calculate what search results should be at the top for any given term, based on their algorithm that, some have suggested, is based on the number of in-bound and out-bound links from other sites.

Google is the killer app of this decade, no one is doubting that. It is so popular it has become a verb, people just say, “Can you Google this for me?” which is almost impossible to do with anything anymore. So what if a new search engine comes along and tries to flatten the playing field?

That is exactly what Cuil (pronounced Cool) is trying to do. They claim to index three times the number of sites Google does and display them in a three-across pattern. That alone is kind of unique for searches, as they have always gone vertically. They have also implemented tab searches, a kind of, well maybe if you were looking for camera you might also want to look for digital camera. The search engine works, that really isn’t a question, but why should I use it?

Google does so many things now, like simple and complex math problems, fast weather look-up, package tracking from UPS and other services, all the way to stock quotes and word definitions. For me, it has eliminated the need to go to specialized sites if I can just put a special query in the Google search bar in Firefox. Cuil is also missing an image search function, something even Microsoft and Yahoo have worked into their site.

Cuil has some cool features, like roll overs, drill-down menu’s and the tabbed feature mentioned earlier. They are taking on the proverbial 800 pound gorilla by going after Google too. My two cents say that Cuil will have a small cult following for a while but ultimately, this will only make Google stronger.

4 Firefox Plugins to Stop Time Wasting

Luis Sandoval — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:33:05 +0000

For those us who desk jockey, day in and day out, it’s tough to stay focused on work all day long. A few of us get sidetracked to read personal email or do personal web searches in order to break the monotony of the daily grind.

Here are a 4 Firefox plug-ins to keep track of that time and stay on task. Nothing is worse than realizing that you just blew an entire day on surfing rather than working. Keep these tools close at hand to prevent any effects on your job performance.

1. MeeTimer
MeeTimer is probably one of the most effective plug-ins for tracking time that I have found. MeeTimer will not only time your time wasting, but also can provide you a report where you spend your time to give you a better idea of how to properly make corrections. The thoroughness of this plug-in can truly assist in correcting time wasting habits. Warnings have also been placed to warn you prior to going to a new address or loading a new tab.

2. TimeTracker
TimeTracker is a comparable plug-in to MeeTimer in terms of usefulness. TimeTracker is much simpler, and focuses more on tracking your time, as opposed to providing direct reports. Still this plug-in offers some attractive additions. TimeTracker allows you to input “work” sites that should not count towards the tracking, so your clock will actually stop as long as you are on those listed sties. Time also pauses when you are taking a break from surfing, and the clock will provide you a daily report as to where you are spending your time. You can reset your clock daily or track an entire work week, depending on your needs.

3. LeechBlock
The LeechBlock plug-in comes at you with an interesting approach. It asks you to type in all the sites you want blocked. That’s right, it will block from sites, and it even allows you to designate days and times to keep them blocked from you. An interesting approach, but I would have far too many sites to include on that list. I like the approach of TimeTracker much better by adding the sites that you actually need for work, as those are sure to be fewer and easier to remember. It also tracks your time to provide you with an accurate view of where you spend your time.

4. Procrastato
This plug-in cuts to the chase! No fancy reports, no time tracking, it doesn’t even care if you like the way it works or not. Procrastato does one thing, and one thing very well. Once you input the sites you spend most time on, the plugin will monitor you very effectively. Spending more time than you should on any of the listed sites and you get smacked down with a massive alert informing you that you are wasting time and they are watching (not literally watching you but the eyes they show you are creepy). If that does not disrupt your time wasting, then you are doomed to waste time forever!

Photo Credit, sugu

5 Firefox To-Do Plug-ins

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:38:40 +0000

ReminderFox

This neat little plug-in goes for simplicity. While not necessarily an official “to-do” application, I find it almost necessary for those that seem to forget the important dates. People that forget birthdays, anniversaries, parties, and other date based events, ReminderFox will send out an alarm or an alert to remind you of what’s coming up. This plug-in has no aspirations to be a full calendar application, but rather makes its home at the bottom right of your browser ready to announce the days you NEED to remember!

ToDo Cue (experimental)
ToDo Cue unfortunately was very buggy in my use of this plug-in. It relies on the user creating simple, let me stress that again…simple, to-do lists. Once installed a side bar will appear in both your Gmail and Gcal accounts with the lists of things to-do in priority order. I was only able to get sustainable functionality with the older version of Gmail, which did me little good as I have updated it. There are a lot of other tools that do the same with better results. This plug-in needs more work, but remember, it is still labeled experimental, just not sure if it will ever be ready.

Todo Reminder
I found this to be the plug-in with the most potential. Currently the plug-in is very effective with event reminders. Things like parties, birthdays, get togethers, anniversaries, etc. What I loved about it is that alerts not only come via email, but you can set yourself up with SMS alerts. If more than one person is involved, take it further by setting up group alerts. This will make sure everyone is on task and aware of what is coming up. I especially found the one mouse click addition through emails and pages very effective when needing to list something quickly. The site says further development is needed, but I think this little plug-in has a great future in the productivity field.

Delegate to Remember the Milk
A lot of you have heard of Remember the Milk. If you’ve not, no worries, Remember the Milk (RtM) is simply another way to create your to-do lists with functionality with both web apps and mobile apps. There are a great number of power users for RtM, and as such, this plug-in is very popular. For starters, if you follow the GTD (Getting Things Done) philosophy, then this plug-in will be very effective. A “remember” button is added to all of your emails for quick task managing directly from you email. No bothering with cut and paste, simply click and the message is tasked into your RtM account. Yes, it’s that simple!

GTD Inbox
GTD Inbox is a plug-in that tries to do a whole lot. Unfortunately in this endeavor it tends to fail on a lot of fronts. This plug-in completely changes the face of your Gmail inbox by adding the functionality of GTD (mentioned above). For hardcore GTD’ers, the layout will be very familiar with intuitive clicks to productively manage all of your information. Similar to the RtM plug-in, you have a button that will take your emails and place them into your task list. You have the ability to create labels, ticklers, and build the productivity method that best suits your needs. This productivity juggaurnaut is definitely not an entry level “to-do” plug-in and may confuse first time users of GTD. A little buggy with newer versions of Gmail, but useful if you can understand it.

There are more I am sure, and even more being created for Firefox 3, but share your favorite To-Do Plug-ins here and let’s all get more done.

Jing: Desktop Capture – Photo & Video

Luis Sandoval — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:28:51 +0000

Not that long ago I wrote a review for Firefox’s Fireshot, and downloadable plug-in for the Fire fox browser. It’s a great tool while surfing online to capture and save items that interest you, but most effective with sharing with others. Jing is similar in that it will do screen captures, but this capture software lies outside the Firefox browser, so you can capture items from your desktop.

Jing was created by TechSmith, creators of SnagIt and Camtasia. I found the name a little awkward, but the application proved it’s worthiness by being able to capture screen shots AND video from your computer, and even share them directly from the same interface with little to no problems at all.

To start off Jing installs and appears as a yellow half circle at the top of your screen, this is your interface. The options show up as tentacled spheres extending from the main half circle. Whether you’re surfing the net, trying to record motions on your computer, or remember how to do something, Jing will capture it. A grid will appear with an x&y axis being where your pointer is. Once you’ve selected a start point you simply drag and highlight the area you want captured. It’s that easy, and you’ll always know what you’ve captured. Once you’ve made your selection, you have editing options to the side that will allow you to markup your capture similar to the tools that FireShot offers with their app.

Capturing video is just as easy, only you don’t get a grid. What you do see is a play/pause button and the time elapsing. You can mute volume if need be, but the more you record, the longer it will take to share with others, due to file size.

Overall Jing was a decent application with it’s uses. If you don’t already like the settings, too bad, because changing settings is pretty sparse when it comes to the program. Other than making selections on the functions you want Jing to have, there is not much altering you can do.

Jing offers online storage, and in celebration of their one year birthday, they are now offering up to 2 GB of storage plus 2 GB of transfer. Premium versions of the application will be coming soon!