Some might think my love for Firefox only goes back to 2006, when I started up Firefox Facts.  However, I had been using and loving Firefox even before that time and date.  Here are some of the best features or feelings Firefox brings to the web browsing table:

• The community of developers and users is great. When you use Firefox, and dive into the community aspect, you really feel like you are making a better browser for everybody to use.  Mozilla listens to user feedback more so than any other company I know of, and it shows.
• Firefox, hands down, has the best execution of special features out there too.  Even if they are not the first one out of the gate with a feature, once they get it – they will prove to you it was well worth the wait.
• You can theme, add on to, or hack your way around Firefox to make it best suit your needs.  Will Chrome or Internet Explorer provide you a toolset as powerful as about:config to tweak with the guts of the browser?  No.
• My last big argument for using Firefox is slowly starting to go away over time.  People love to cheer for the underdog. Day after day though, as Firefox picks up more steam and more users, the “underdog” label is slowly going away.

So there you have it.  Those are the big reasons I love the Firefox web browser.  What about you?  What you do you find most attractive or most off putting about Mozilla’s browser?

After watching a video online, you might decide you want to watch it again later – but rather than going to the website again and slowly downloading it as you watch, you would like to have a local copy.  The freeware program, VideoCacheView will let you easily recover videos from your browser’s cache.

If the video is stored in your web browser’s cache, VideoCacheView will find it and give you the option to export the file out of the cache and onto your desktop.  Once there you can archive it however you see fit.

Here is a little more about the program from the developers:

It automatically scans the entire cache of Internet Explorer and Mozilla-based Web browsers (Including Firefox) and finds all video files that are currently stored in it. It allows you to easily copy the cached video files into another folder for playing/watching them in the future. If you have a movie player that is configured to play flv files, it also allows you to play the video directly from your browser’s cache.

You can download and try this great freeware program on almost any flavor of Windows too.  Head over to the NirSoft website to download it and give it a shot.  Hope it helps you with your video download recoveries.

  Quicktext – Keep a list of pre-written messages to use in your e-mails.  It also accepts variables so personalizing a static message with information you have in hand is easy to do.

  Minimize to Tray – This extension minimizes Thunderbird to the system tray on the task bar.  This way I can keep Thunderbird running without it getting in the way when I don’t need it.

There are only a handful of themes really worth checking out too.  Here are a few of my favorite themes for Thunderbird:

  Azerty ‘mail – Brighter and unique icons, but still keeps the same look and feel.

  Charamel – A tan colored Thunderbird theme that is awesome, except for a few little things here and there that keep me from using it 24/7.

  Silvermel – A silver port of Charamel, same look (and bugs) – just a different color.

The rest of the popular themes out there all look like Apple/Mac clones (insert yawn here), and do we really need more than one of those? I think not.  Really wish DeviantArt had some better ones too, but they seem to be a little lacking with the Thunderbird skin section.

• When and Where to Get Firefox 3
• Silvermel is the Best Firefox 3 Theme Yet?
• Firefox 3 is Faster Finally?
• Firefox 3 – RC1 Making Headlines!
• Set a Record on Download Day 2008
• Classic Compact Theme and Add-on
• Phoenity Reborn for Firefox 3
• Released: Firefox 3 Beta 1
• Release Date Set for Firefox 3
• Firefox 3, Worth the Wait? What About Firefox 4?
• Firefox 3 – More Beta 2 Goodies
• Brainstorming About Firefox 3
• Domination from Firefox 3 – Beta 3
• Search Through Your Saved Passwords
• Pirillo Talks Firefox 3
• Firefox Themes with Version 3?
• First Look at Firefox 3
• Your Addons Ready for Firefox 3?
• Mozilla Starts on Firefox 3
• Why Does Firefox 3 Deserve the Hype?

Also be sure to watch or subscribe to FirefoxFacts.com all day long for any new and exciting Firefox 3 news!

You can also pick an icon to represent the web site or Prism application you are setting it up as.  By default it searches for the favicon, but you can edit it to go to any image.  That image will become the desktop icon for it.  The Fluid Flickr group had a lot of nice icon examples you could use too. (thanks to TwisterMc for that jewel)

To help with performance, each Prism app also runs in it’s own profile:

Prism now places each web app into its own process/profile so they don’t interfere with each other, which also makes it possible to install a web app twice and use it simultaneously with two different user accounts.

Personally Prism really excites me a lot and if this is still the beta form of the project, I can’t imagine the goodies waiting for me in the final release.

Life of an Internet Entrepreneur – Pinny Cohen’s blog is one that I can suggest to anybody and everybody. A true entrepreneur in every since of the word, watch a lot of what Pinny has done inspired me early on to keep doing what I am doing.

Worthy Example Post: Online Organization Tools for Freelancers

Lifehacker – Who doesn’t subscribe to Lifehacker might be a better (and somewhat shorter list) to suggest. They have been helping me “get things done” for a long time now.

Worthy Example Post: Better Gmail 2

Lorelle on WordPress – Lorelle’s well written posts and help via the blog here is one of the reasons I really decided to turn to WordPress to do everything. Still have yet to figure out how to get WordPress to write my posts for me, but I am sure Lorelle might be working on that one too.

Worthy Example Post: What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content

Mashable! – I started subscribing to Mashable as an alternative to Tech Crunch, but over the years it has bee much more than a replacement. It stands alone when it comes to delivering news and tips about the new social Web.

Worthy Example Post: Pandora Now Available Anywhere With GlobalPandora

Mozilla Developer News – One of the best internal Firefox blogs and news feeds out there today. If you want to keep up to date with the latest Mozilla is working on, this is the site for you.

Worthy Example Post: Firefox 3 Beta 2 now available for download

Mozilla Links – Mozilla Links does a good job at catching all the goodies that fall from the cracks over at the Mozilla camp. It is one of my favorite resource feeds for when I am working on material for my other site, FirefoxFacts.com.

Worthy Example Post: Firefox 3 Beta 2 review

Official Google Reader Blog – Ever since giving up on a slew of other feed readers out there, I have yet to find a reason to turn away from Google Reader. Reading their blog means I too can keep up with what they are doing as far as the development end goes.

Worthy Example Post: Managing your shared items

Who knows, you might love them yourself and want to share them with others. Just remember who told you about them in the first place, and feel free to share me some link love anytime you please.

Checkout the Entire Feed Suggestion Series!

• Feed Suggestions from A to C
• Feed Suggestions from D to F
• Feed Suggestions from G to K
• Feed Suggestions from L to O
• Feed Suggestions from P to S
• Feed Suggestions from T to Z

• What is Mozilla Firefox?
• How Do I Download Firefox?
• Why Should I Switch to Firefox?
• What Are Firefox Extensions?
• What Are Firefox Themes?
• Can I Customize Firefox’s Toolbars?
• How Can I Manage My Firefox Bookmarks?
• How Does Firefox Handle RSS Feeds?
• Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts to Remember
• What is the Firefox Search Box?

Know of any other topics that you would like to see me cover? Drop me an E-mail and let me know.

1. Create a new bookmark (right-click and select “Bookmark this link…”) for this address:
   

   http://www.google.com/notebook/ig?hl=__MSG_locale__

2. Right-click on that bookmark and select “Properties”.
3. Check the box that says, “Load this bookmark in sidebar” and you are good to go! It isn’t exactly rocket science so everybody should be able to enjoy this one.

Now you have a full note taking application to work with in your sidebar and it beats that tiny default extension Google provides you any day of the week.

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!

On the other hand though, Firefox is a “stupider” browser (no offense to my Mozilla friends) so it is harder for deviants out there to get it to do their evil deeds.

No matter if you like Firefox or not, you have to admit there are a lot of great extensions out there that can make your browsing a lot safer. Nothing beats common sense, but having some of these extensions installed should be a good first line of defense.

NoScript

For those folks out there who are extra suspicious about the browsing they do Online, and want to really be safe – picking up NoScript might be a good idea. Once you install this, no JavaScript or Java will be able to run via a Web site without getting your permission first.

Stealther

Do you like to pretend that you are a super secret spy when browing the Web? Maybe you just don’t want that nosy brother or sister looking in on what you have been doing. No matter the situation, if you want to stay secret – the Stealther Firefox extension is for you.

McAfee SiteAdvisor

You can think of SiteAdvisor as a good second opinion when you are browsing the Web. You know, the kind of second opinion you ask for when you go to the doctor after he tells you your leg is about to fall off. This makes staying away from the “bad” areas of the Web a lot easier to do. I just wish they would make that damn button a little smaller in the status bar.

WOT

We all like to stay clear of things that might be bad for us Online. McAfee’s SiteAdvisor has done a great job in filtering the Web and letting us know what is safe and what might not be so safe. Is there an alternative out there though? Yes there is, and the name of it is WOT. Think of it as an alternative to what SiteAdvisor does.

PhishTank SiteChecker

This extension allows you to use the power of PhishTank to make your browsing experiance a little safer. It does a really good job at blocking you from visiting Web sites that have been known to be a hazard for other Internet visitors as well. If you wish to, you can choose to visit the link anyways or you can learn more about why it might be a good idea if you avoid it.

Foxy Proxy

Now I am not afraid to mention that this whole proxy switching thing never made too much sense to me. Then again, I never feel the need to be sneaky or need to get around anywhere to get my browsing done. For those of you who do feel sneaky or need a work around to browse, I have found the perfect companion for your Firefox browser. FoxyProxy is the way to go.

Fire Encrypter

Want Firefox to help you encrypt your secret files and documents? Maybe you just want to learn more about the encryption process? No matter which camp you fall into, the Fire Encrypter Firefox extension is for you. It brings the top secret world of encryption right into your favorite little browser.

CookieCuller

Want more control over your cookies? No, I’m not talking about the ones your grandmother loves to shove down your throat – I am talking about the ones that involve your browser. The Firefox extension CookieCuller gives you total control over which cookies stay on your computer by letting you protect cookies of your choice while automatically deleting the rest.

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.

Have another extension you think should be mentioned? Leave a comment and share it with us all.