Best Firefox RSS Reader Extensions
There is more than one way to subscribe to web pages and get the latest updates and news. Firefox itself can even become an RSS feed reader if you install the right extension. Now which extension is right for you?
Posts Tagged With: extensions
Gmail Tweaks Worth Switching For
Going with the recent e-mail issues I have been having - there are several neat things I have learned and picked up along the way while switching from Yahoo! Mail to Gmail. I know there are more people in this same boat so hopefully this will be helpful to all.
Maybe the best (pardon the pun) tool I have found while switching has been the Better Gmail extension for Firefox. It ads a lot of the little customizations that I have been looking to do. My big ones were to hide the invite box, hide the ads, and make Gmail use https:// by default.
Mozilla Trashes Extensions?
Mozilla has taken a lot of a good extensions and tossed them in the trash. Why? I don’t really know. There is somewhat of an explanation for their actions here - but it doesn’t tell me too much. I have been a big Firefox fan for a long time, but this was just a stupid move.
I have gotten a lot of people saying that some links on my Firefox blog, FirefoxFacts.com are broken now because of this. I’ll be doing my best trying to fix their mess and finding alternative links to themes and extensions. The thing that sucks if for many of these extensions I am the number one source, so finding an alternative might be harder than I thought.
Maybe it is my fault as well, maybe I was stupid to think that Mozilla wouldn’t be clueless enough to eliminate that many quality extensions. Maybe I shouldn’t have kept giving them credit and linking back to them?
Maybe I’ll get started on Opera Facts? Ok - no reason to take it that far yet.
Was your extension deleted by Mozilla? If so - send me an E-mail and I’ll be happy to highlight you on Firefox Facts. As long as you have an alternative hosting solution setup for the extension or theme I’ll be happy to highlight you.
Update: Looks like links are coming back - or so I am being told via E-mail. I have been talking with several people from Mozilla and they promise they the broken links should only be a temporary thing as they work the bugs out of the new system. Mozilla, you won me back over again! Thanks for getting it fixed quickly!
10 Tips for Domain Name Shoppers
Web hosting and domain names go hand in hand. Kind of like left over turkey and hot sauce.
Without one you can not have the other - so I figured it would be nice to know how to find at least one half of that equation. Shopping for domain names can be a tricky task indeed. Hopefully though, with this guide by your side you should be a little more prepared for what is in store for you.
1. Search for Your Desired Domain Name
One of the first things you are going to want to do, after you figure out what domain you want, is to figure out if it is available or not. Now most domain name registers will give you a box to search from. Here are some of my other alternative favorites to do that work for you.
2. Don’t Pick a Hyphenated Domain Name
Think of ten of your favorite Web sites. Do any of them have hyphenated domain names? No. The first reason is, is that hyphenated domain names are really hard for folks to remember. When picking a good domain name, you want to find something short, relevant, and with a few keywords. Sure, there are a few companies that break that rule, take Amazon.com for an example.
3. You Should Be a Picky Shopper
It never hurts to be too picky when it comes to buying a domain name. Before you decide on which domain name register you should go with, you should do your homework on them and make sure they are legit and have no bad history.
Going with the trusted names out there might be the best way to go because then you know they at least have a large user base that they can’t afford to screw over.
Here are some domain name registers to start with:
4. The Shorter the Domain, the Better
When you have a domain name, you want it to be something that people remember. Now this one should pretty much be common sense, but some people are a little lacking in that department. Something short or something that is unique is usually the best way to go. Overly obvious works as well.
5. Should You Buy Other Extensions?
There are a lot of different domain name extensions out there. From .net to .us, which ones should you buy? Well I would say first things first, you want to get that .com domain name. That is the one most people know and the first one they will try when randomly typing in your name via the browser’s address bar.
6. Purchase Spelling Mistakes
Do you have a domain name that is often misspelled or could be misspelled? In that case it might be a good idea to purchase a few more domain names for those misspellings.
Did you know that Gooogle.com will take you to Google? So does Gooooogle.com. Goooogle.com does not though. See the difference?
Don’t know why they couldn’t get the four “o” Google domain.
7. Get the “You Suck” Domains
Think you are going to be popular? Well in that case, purchasing a domain name with the word sucks after it might be a good idea. This will percent somebody else from doing it in the future and publishing all kinds of bad stuff about you. Did you know the folks at GoDaddy own GoDaddySucks.com? It will take you right to the front page. Beat your competition to this domain and get it now. if your competition hasn’t done so - you might want to by theirs as well.
8. Should Domains be Keyword Heavy?
Sure, there is nothing wrong with that. Search engines love it, and so do real live visitors. I would not sacrifice keyword usage for length though. If you have to choose between getting the keyword rich domain and getting the short domain - I would pick getting the short one.
9. Make Sure You Own Your Domain Name
You should always make sure that the domain name is registered in your name and not the name of the Web host or the domain name register. That way if you want to move to a different Web host or domain name register, the process isn’t such a pain in the rear. Want to find out who’s name your domain name is under?
Just do a simple Whois search and you should be given all the details there are. Make sure you always read the fine print.
10. Domain Name Acronyms
Now I am sure everybody knows what an acronym is. Just in case you don’t though, an acronym is a word that is formed by combining parts of other words. Web Hosting Show Fans acronym would be WHSF. It takes the first letter of each word in the phrase and makes a word out of it. Now do you want to use acronyms when you pick your domain name? I would say maybe. I would rather you get the whole phrase first, and then pick up the acronym later on down the road.
For example, www.ilovemashedpotatosandcheese.com might be a little too long of a domain name. In that case, it might be better to direct people towards www.ilmpac.com.
Bonus! Domain Name Resources
As a special bonus tip - I figured that I would share with you some of my favorite domain name resources. Here is the full list - feel free to leave a comment and suggest your own too!
Uwhois
SamSpade.org Tools
Network Tools
DNS Stuff
Ajax Whois
Domain Tools
Have anymore domain name shopping tips to share?
Top 12 Firefox Extensions for Regular Folks
Now I have seen top Firefox extensions lists for everybody and anybody out there. They have ones for Web developers, they have ones for tech-savvy mothers, they even have ones for your five year old brother. I have never seen a list of Firefox extensions for us regular people though. Here is a list of extensions no regular person can be without.
Now the main reason I added this one onto the list, is it made all my older extensions I had (when jumping from Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 2) work again. Now since some extension authors haven’t gotten around to updating their work, Nightly Tester Tools will be an extension to keep around for the time being. By the time all my favorite extensions are update though, it might be time to roll out Firefox 2.5 or Firefox 3!
I do not really like the built in download manager that comes with Firefox. It just does not get the job done for me, because I really don’t need another box popping up at me. The folks at Mozilla should have turned to the Download Statusbar extension. This tool gives you progress bars and either a big toolbar across the bottom, or a tiny icon in the status bar. This is a must have extension if you do a lot of downloading.
When I got my laptop, I needed a quick and easy way to keep Firefox in sync via both my desktop and laptop systems. Now there are a hundred and one different extensions that promise to do this, but Google’s Browser Sync does it the best. Plus, I think Google is the only place I would trust with all this information I am sending back and forth anyways. You can sync your bookmarks, cookies, saved passwords, history and tabs. This is a nice ability to have when you are using more than one machine.
4. Greasemonkey
I love Greasemonkey so much, I could do another top scripts list on it alone. It is alike a series of extensions inside of an extension. Once you install Greasemonkey - you can install any number of “user scripts” that add functionality to any number of Web sites. You easily control any aspect of a web page’s design or interaction.
5. IE View
IE View allows you to open any link up in Internet Explorer. I used to use IE Tab, but once I moved up to Firefox 2 it seems like it broke an awful lot. That was about the time I figured it was time to go back to old reliable. IE View is really simple - just hit a button or click a menu option and your present Web page opens up in Internet Explorer. You can also set some links to always open up in Internet Explorer as well. I know it hurts you to think about it, but we all need to still use IE from time to time.
SiteAdvisor was one of those extensions I was really excited about every since it’s release. Since being bought by McAfee - it is still good, but doesn’t have that same feeling. No matter who owns it though, it is still a nice tool to have. Think of it as a safety helper while searching randomly on the Web. For the most part, they are usually spot on with their warnings as well. A green icon means good, yellow is a warning and red means bad. They really couldn’t make it any easier.
7. Menu Editor
After you install a dozen or so extensions, your Firefox menus start running a little wild. The Menu Editor extension allows you to bring all these options and links back down to a list you can manage. There is nothing worse than right-clicking on a Web page and it taking 10 minutes for your right-click menu to load up. It might not be spring, but this extension is perfect for doing some spring cleaning around your browser.
For anybody that spends a lot of time posting things Online or writing in any text box you find, the Resizeable Form Fields extension is a must to own. This extension allows you to drag and resize your text forms to any size you need. When you refresh the Web page - they will go back to normal. This is handy when writing long posts and you want to see everything you have typed thus far.
9. TinyMenu
You can never be saving enough space when it comes to your browser. The TinyMenu extensions allows you to shrink the “File, Edit, View, ect” options down to one drop down menu that says “Menu”. This will save you precious space when it comes to laying out your toolbars and icons inside of Firefox. I like to keep things nice and neat, and this extensions does the trick.
10. StumbleUpon
I am not a man of unlimited ideas, so when I need to find something to cover that I haven’t covered before, StumbleUpon is a great tool to use. StumbleUpon allows you to browse randomly through the Internet going to Web pages that other folks have marked via the StumbleUpon toolbar. The only thing I don’t like about StumbleUpon is that the toolbar for it is a little large. When not in use though - you can always hide it.
11. Video Download
This extensions allows you to download all those neat videos you find via the Web’s most popular services. Download content from Youtube, Google Video, iFilm, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Myspace, Angry Alien, AnimeEpisodes.Net, Badjojo, Blastro, Blennus, Blip.tv, Bofunk, Bolt, Break.com, Castpost, CollegeHumor, Current TV, Dachix, Danerd, DailySixer.com, DevilDucky, Double Agent, eVideoShare, EVTV1, FindVideos, Free Video Blog, Grinvi, Grouper, Hiphopdeal, Kontraband, Lulu TV, Midis.biz, Music.com, MusicVideoCodes.info, MySpace Video Code, Newgrounds, NothingToxic, PcPlanets, Pixparty, PlsThx, Putfile, Revver, Sharkle, SmitHappens, StreetFire, That Video Site, TotallyCrap, VideoCodes4U, VideoCodesWorld, VideoCodeZone, vidiLife, Vimeo, vSocial, Yikers, ZippyVideos, and any other Web page with embedded objects.
12. WebmailCompose
I like using Yahoo! Mail as my default E-mail application. I manage all my different E-mail account via them, so trouble comes when I click a “mailto” link on a Web page. I have no real “default mail client” to use. This WebmailCompose extension lets you use any number of Webmail applications to act as your default mail client. That means when you click one of these E-mail links, you will automatically be brought into your Webmail.
Have one I missed? Add a comment and let everybody else know what it is and why it should be here.
TrackMeNot
With all this talk about your privacy being attacked and people snooping on what you have been searching about, you are bound to feel a little paranoid. You might be watching over your shoulder as you type. You might be turning the lights out before you get Online. How can you protect yourself from being tracked in your searches though? If you use Firefox, you need the TrackMeNot extension.
Here is what the developer of the extension has to say about it.
TrackMeNot runs in Firefox as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. It hides users’ actual search trails in a cloud of ‘ghost’ queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles. TrackMeNot integrates into the Firefox ‘Tools’ menu and includes a variety of user-configurable options.
With how the world is going these days, I might also be inclined to ask the Firefox folks to put this feature into the next version of Firefox by default. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view.
This Firefox extension is for versions 1.5 and up of the browser. To pick up your copy all you need to do is download it via the Mozilla Add-ons Web site.
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