Talkings of a Tyrant

Being that this site primarily deals with Firefox extensions, it isn’t suprising that nearly 80% of my viewers are Firefox users. However, while viewing Sitemeter Stats Page (I’m still waiting for that shiny Measure Map invitation), I’ve noticed another browser.

The second and third brosers on that list are : Google 4.X and Google 0.X When did Google get a browser? Is it just the Googlebot spidering my blog? What is it?

It could be the GBrowser: the domain for gBrowser.com is taken by Google. And Google is spending a lot of time with Mozilla Firefox, hiring several of Mozilla’s employees and a few of IE’s team. Google seems to have several deals with Firefox, such as being the default search engine, offering adsense ads to promote switching to Firefox, as well as hosting the home page of Firefox.

What does this mean? We’ll just have to wait and find out.

All-In-One Gestures is a powerful and flexible extension for Firefox. It enables mouse gestures, rocker navigation, and some other features.

For me, the most important feature of this extension is mouse gesturing. Mouse gestures are pretty self-explanatory. You right-click, and drag in a pattern of directions and you get a result. Seems pretty boring, when I put it like that.

However, mouse gestures are so much more than that. Mouse gestures are highly customizable. There are over 80 different actions you can do with mouse gestures, and you can easily set the mouse gesture you want to each action. You don’t have to, though. Only about 35 of the actions are set to a gesture for me, and I use an even smaller number of gestures than that.

Another useful feature is rocker navigation. This is where you press the right mouse button, then the left mouse button to go back, and vice-versa to go forward. Simple, easy to remember, and quick.

There are several other features in All-In-One Gestures, but I don’t really use them. I don’t like autoscroll, so nearly all of them are pointless. They would be useful if you liked autoscoll though, so don’t let me hold you back.

However, there is one more feature I like. That is grab-and-drag.

I’ve previously reviewed Grab and Drag, but it has some bugs. For some reason (I can’t find out why) it doesn’t work on certain sites (like mine). It isn’t a extension incompatibility (I’m pretty sure) because disabling all but the Grab and Drag extension doesn’t help, and the bug is still there on a new profile.

So I’m discontinuing my recommendation of the Grab and Drag extension, and instead recommending that you enable a similar feature in All-In-One Gestures.

Update: Grab and Drag 0.9.6 fixed this bug. I hereby recontinue my recommendation.

To do so, go to: Extensions > All-In-One-Gestures > Options (or, if you took my advice to get All-In-One Sidebar, then Extension panel > AIOG > Options).

Go to these options, which are found near the bottom right of AIOG’s main options page. Set it up like so.

Under the “Advanced Prefs #2″ Tab, click the “Grab and Drag Acrobat Reader Mode” option (do what you want with the rest).

Now you’ve just set up the functionality of the Grab and Drag extension, without the bugs! However, instead of left-clicking, like Grab and Drag does, you have to use middle clicking. Just thought you should know.

Analysis

All-In-One gestures has many features, but the main one is mouse gestures. Technically, there is an extension called “Mouse Gestures” that is primarily mouse gestures, but it actually is a bigger installation. Why not choose All-In-One Gestures, and get more functionality for less bloat?

As All-In-One Gestures’ main feature, mouse gestures make navigating the web much easier and faster. I’ve almost completely gotten rid of Firefox’s interface. I don’t need any of the buttons anymore, as I can do them easier and quicker through simply gesturing. All I have left is a Compact Menu, a Location Bar and a search bar. I’ve also got the All-In-One Sidebar, and a status bar, but those are still useful. And I probably will never leave my precious tab bar.

The implementation of Acrobat Reader-style grab and drag is much better than the Grab and Drag extension. It is comparatively bug-free (so far). It is also slightly more useful having the feature use the middle mouse button rather than the left mouse button, as it frees up the left mouse button.

There are many, many features in All-In-One Gestures, and it would be infeasible to discuss all of them in one post. The features discussed here are the most important and useful, but there is no reason to discredit or ignore the others.

All-In-One Gestures is one of those unique extensions that I would recommend specifically to both minimalists and power users. While it has a slight learning curve (there is little documentation on what the mouse gesture actions can do), it is easy to become dependent on it after a few days of use. After you learn the basic commands (close tab, open tab, back, forward, reload, etc.), you can effectively get rid of much of the navigation bar.

However, it doesn’t matter who you are, All-In-One Gestures is a very useful extension that will streamline your browsing experience.

Download All-In-One Gestures
All-In-One Gestures official site
Get Firefox!

Finally, after just over a year, Mozilla Firefox has fully made the transition from 1.0 to 1.5.

Firefox 1.0

Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. In the year since, it has been met with broad acclaim, and many awards. There is now a cult following/fan base around the browser (which I’m proud to be a part of). It is almost certainly the most successful open-source software in the world.

Firefox 1.0 is an excellent browser. It’s purpose is to be small, lean, and incredibly extensible, and it meets those goals well. It is a small download, it is quick, and it supports themes and extensions.

Themes and extensions add functionality to Firefox in any number of ways. Much of this blog has been focused on reviewing the extensions I like best. You can either see the reviews from the links on the top left, or from the “extension” category. With extensions, themes, and Firefox’s inherent open-source status, a user has, effectively, complete control over how they view the web.

I think the idea of being in complete control of how I customize my browsing experience is what drew me into Firefox. Being able to choose what I wanted, and what I didn’t want; to block both advertisements and arbitrary toolbar installations; that was fascinatingly entertaining and interesting. Firefox actually made it… well… fun to surf the web.

Before Firefox, there were two main browsers I knew about: Internet Explorer, a horribly bloated and rigid software which I’ve always hated, and Netscape, which was a bloated, but slightly customizable, software which I could stand. I had no clue that Firefox, Mozilla, or Opera existed until after I got into the Firefox craze. (how ironic)

Since discovering Firefox, and thus losing my fear of navigating unknown parts of the web, I’ve learned much about Internet technologies and upcoming memes. Firefox essentially opened up the Internet to me.

As well as an excellent browser, Mozilla Firefox was also a battle of business models. Ever since Linux created the concept of open-source, there has been a war of business practices between open-source zealots and Microsoft. Mozilla Firefox also was to show that open-source could be mainstream. Honestly, I believe that Mozilla proved that open-source did, in fact, have a very good chance against multi-billion dollar corporations with pretty much endless money (*cough* Microsoft).

Several times in Firefox 1.0’s lifespan security flaws were found and publicized. Unfortunately, the mainstream media (curse them!) jumped on this fact to go “Ha! Firefox isn’t that much better!” Like much of what mainstream media does these days, however, those stories omitted crucial facts.

Often they reported on bugs that were already fixed. They overhyped the unfortunate fact that Firefox has had more security flaws revealed in that year than did most other browsers. What the didn’t often tell people, though (bless those that did), was the incredible speed and efficiency that the Firefox team fixed those security bugs.

Mozilla’s ability to fix and and release a fix for security holes within a few weeks (sometimes in a few days) was possibly the biggest triumph against Microsoft. Currently Internet Explorer has incredibly severe security holes that have been public for a few years. Some of those holes, Microsoft has said that they’re never going to fix.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 set the stage for the next-generation browser battle.

Mozilla Firefox 1.5

The unfortunate frequency of the security holes (which caused them to go through 8 releases of Firefox) also put in the spotlight Firefox’s need for a decent updating system. The new updating system is the highlight of Firefox 1.5

Firefox 1.5 was originally 1.1 However, many more features got added in this release than previously intended, and they decided to rename it to 1.5

Firefox 1.5 comes with several new features. Mostly it is behind-the-sciences tweaking and modifying, but there are a few features that will stand out to users of Firefox 1.0:

1. The updating system has been streamlined. In Firefox 1.0, you had to download the whole 4.7 megabyte package to update versions. Now it comes in the form of patches.
2. Much better caching. Caching is better organized and going backwards and forwards is lightning fast.
3. A “Clear Private Data” feature. This allows you to delete a whole bunch of stuff like history, cache, cookies, etc. quickly and easily.
4. Bunches of other stuff. There is more support for several more web standards (notably Scalable Vector Graphics, or SVG). There are some general, all-around usability tweaks, like useful error pages and a revamped Options Menu. And a whole bunch of other stuff.

Along with Firefox 1.5’s release, Mozilla brought online Mozilla.com, which is the new site for Firefox and Thunderbird. Also, Addons.Mozilla.org got a new theme and is revamped to be much easier to navigate.

From the Ashes…

From the ashes of the previous browser battle between Internet Explorer, the next browser battle between IE, Firefox, and Opera is created.

This is a highly exciting time for technology geeks. Firefox 1.5 is released, web 2.0 is kicking off, and being geek is starting to become mainstream (emphasis on “starting”). The next-generation of everything is showing up. From the next generation of gaming consoles, to a new way in which media is done, everything is changing.

We are moving away from the “survival of the fittest” model to a “competition between collaboration.” Companies are no longer the only competitors. Everyday people are starting to find new and better ways to call upon the general public and use collaboration to create stuff that is far better, more sophisticated, and easier to use than anything a corporation can create. Firefox is only the first example. Firefox threw open the doors.

This is a highly exciting time for Firefox fans. Our beloved browser has grown a year older. It is better, quicker, faster, more user-friendly, and more ready to fight Internet Explorer. Firefox 1.0 drew concern from Microsoft. Firefox 1.5 is going to be Internet Explorer’s biggest threat.

Download Firefox 1.5!

One of the biggest problems with Mozilla Firefox has been incompatible websites.

Or, rather, websites designed only for Internet Explorer. Firefox can’t render sites designed with Microsoft, specifically ActiveX, in mind. This isn’t Firefox’s fault, but rather the lazy web developer’s/web programmer’s/web master’s fault.

Previously, there was no way around this, other than opening up Internet Explorer (IE) and viewing the site from there. No longer.

IE Tab embeds IE into Firefox at your command to allow you to view the website as it would be viewed in Internet Explorer. The browser is the same, the buttons, the tabs, and the menus are all the same, except for what is inside the tab. Inside the tab, the website is displayed exactly how it would be if you were viewing in in Internet Explorer.

You can easily switch between viewing the site in Firefox and IE at will. Just click on the Firefox symbol on the status bar, and you can switch back and forth. You can also create a list of sites to always view in IE Tab, so your favorite/hated bank’s website always works fine.

One downside is that any extension that affect the web page (Adblock, PasswordMaker, Aggregate Yahoo! and Google, and anything from a context menu) won’t work in IETab. Ads still show up, your context menu (right click menu) is IE’s context menu, and PasswordMaker does nothing (you have to copy to clipboard and paste). This is perfectly understandable, as IE is not Firefox.

Ideally, this extension wouldn’t be used that much (unless you liked IE more and just use Firefox for the menus and toolbars). However, it is still useful for those renegade sites that refuse to make their sites conform to standards, and to web developers who want to see how much IE butchers their beautiful site. This extension is highly useful as a backup to what could be a tricky situation.

It is also interesting to easily see how different sites are between Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Download IE Tab (Windows only)
IE Tab Website
Get Firefox!

If you’ve never used Google Suggest, then I suggest you check it out now.

Google Suggest instantly give you suggestions of a search, narrowing it down with each letter you type. Type in “password” and a list will drop down of everything from “passwords” to “password hacker” (see picture). Keep typing and it will continue to narrow down your search to whatever you want.

Firefox comes default with Google in its search bar. It is just a search for Google.

However, Google released an extension that turns that ordinary Google search into Google Suggest search, with suggestions popping down based on what you’re typing.

You probably notice that the search box for my Firefox is bigger than the standard. Google Suggest often has entries that are too big for the normal search box, as the normal search box is pretty small.

If you want your puny search box to be expanded into my courageously space-consuming search box enter the following code into your userChrome.css file:
/* Make the Search box flex wider
(in this case 200 pixels wide) */
#search-container, #search bar {
-moz-box-flex: 200 !important; }

Save the userChrome.css file, restart Firefox, and *presto!* Your search box is larger and more fitting.

I was personally surprised by how useful Google Suggest is. You can easily and quickly see all of the suggestions that Google has, and figure out if there is a better way to say what you’re trying to search for.

In case there is any doubt, after you find the search you want, and hit Enter, this extension does nothing. Everything else behaves just like a normal Google Search.

Also, it uses stuff like Google Zeitgeist to determine what appears, not your personal search history.

Google Suggest Extension
Google Suggest Website
Get Firefox!