The Firefox project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape’s sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser. To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite’s software bloat, they created a stand-alone browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox (and Thunderbird).

Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird free database software project. In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. Continuing pressure from the database server’s development community forced another change; on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox, often referred to as simply Firefox.
Source: Wikipedia

Currently at version 3.5, and with a version 3.6 just around the corner, the Mozilla foundation has completely redesigned the standard of web browser for a faster, more secure and reliable way of surfing the net.

Here is a short video, posted by the SpreadFirefox Community that briefly tells the browser’s history through these five years, from 2004 until today:

Wolfram Alpha is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research. It is an online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine would.
Source: Wikipedia

I have been using Wolfram Alpha for graphing functions and calculus problems, but you can use it for any question that needs to be computed, such as calculations, weather tables, measurements and unit conversion etc.

Today I want to show you a way for embedding Wolfram Alpha’s results directly into Google’s search result page: the answer is a simple add-on for Firefox called Wolfram Alpha Google.

After you install it, just try to make a research on Google, and you will notice a box on the right side of your screen, containing Wolfram Alpha’s result to that particular query.

Plus, you will notice a small button on the upper right of the page: this will simply allow you to be redirected to the real Wolfram Alpha’s result page with a single click.

That’s basically what this plug-in does: so you can just download and install it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12006

Bonus add-on: If you also want to add Wolfram Alpha to you default Firefox’s search engines without adding it manually, just go to this page and install the add-on that you will find. Now you will see that WA is integrated into your browser, enabling you to make researches quite faster.

With Xmarks you can sync your password and sync and backup your different bookmark to different PC using Sync Profiles.

Bookmarks Syncronization:

To sync your bookmarks it’s easy. Just install Xmarks on each computer you use, and it seamlessly integrates with your web browser and keeps your bookmarks in sync.

Bookmarks Backup:

• Whenever you add, delete or edit a bookmark, Xmarks will automatically backup the changes on their servers and store them for six months.
• To view and restore past bookmark collections, visit my.xmarks.com.
• Then select “Tools” > “Explore and Restore Old Bookmarks” to get started.

  

• Pick a backup collection to view its contents, export it to an HTML file or restore those bookmarks back into your Xmarks account.
• Use this feature to undo mistakes when managing your bookmarks, or to recover deleted bookmarks that you later realize you need.

Password Synchronization:

Password Synchronization works silently in the background to make sure that your passwords are the same on all your computers. If you add, remove or update a password on one computer, Foxmarks will make sure that your change will automatically be made on all your other computers as well. It works in a similar manner to bookmark synchronization with two major differences:

1. Password Synchronization is completely optional and is turned off by default. Foxmarks will ignore your passwords until you decide to synchronize them.
2. Password Sycnhronization encrypts your passwords using a secret PIN of your choosing before they ever leave your computer. This ensures that nobody but you, not even Foxmarks, can gain access to your passwords.

The diagram below illustrates in greater detail how Password Synchronization works:

To learn more about this visit Xmarks official website


Click here to install Xmarks

Windows/Mac/Linux: Less than two weeks after they released the first beta, Mozilla is back with Firefox 3.6 beta 2. This release includes over 190 bug fixes from beta 1, in addition to the already existing performance boosts and support for one-click themes.

You can grab the latest straight from the Firefox beta page; if you’re already using 3.6 beta 1, those 190+ bug fixes seem like they’d be well worth the update.

Again, this is a beta release, so only upgrade if you’re an early adopter willing to deal with some potential bugs. That said, if you’ve been using 3.6 over the last week or so, let’s hear how you’ve liked it so far in the comments.

You can download it HERE

Source: Lifehacker

You have to know that “About:config” page lets you change almost every aspect of how Firefox functions. Going through and explaining what every preference does would not only be an impossible task, but also unnecessary since most people are happy with the default settings. There are, however, a few settings that we think are essential to change. Make these tweaks first when you encounter a fresh install of Firefox.

Here the list:

browser.urlbar.autoFill = True
Enable auto-complete for URLs when typing into the location bar.

browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo = 15
Increase the number of closed tabs that firefox has stored in its cache to 15.

browser.tabs.tabMinWidth = 75
Show more tabs in a single window by narrowing the minimum width of a tab.

browser.search.openintab = True
Automatically open new search results in a new tab

middlemouse.paste = True
Use the middle mouse button to paste text from your clipboard.

browser.blink_allowed = False
Disables annoying text with the Blink tag.

When Firefox 3 was first released, one of the new features was the option to associate html protocols with web applications, such as launching a webmail service when clicking a “mailto:” link.

Unfortunately, at the time of launch, only Yahoo’s mail client was officially supported, and users had to either use extensions or manipulate some javascript code to enable Gmail as the primary mail handler.

The current iteration of Firefox has included Gmail in the web app client list, and here’s how you turn it on.

• Go to Tools-> Options, and select the Applications tab. This is a list of protocol and content associations, with their respective plug-ins for each type of content (ie. Mp4 video).
• In the search field, type “mailto”.
• Then, in the Actions drop down menu, select Gmail as your default client.
• That’s it! The next time you click on an email link, Firefox will open up Gmail in a new tab to send an email.

Bonus tip: download and install the Better Gmail 2 add-on to add extra UI features if you’re planning on using Gmail as your primary mail client.

To read other tweaks: maximumpc.com

If you are tired to see how your computer starts to slow down after you’ve been using Firefox for a while, I’m going to teach you how to reduce the amount of memory that Firefox is allowed to use for caching.

You can also set Firefox to ensure that when you minimize it, Firefox will move to your hard drive, and as a result it will take up less than 10MB of memory while minimized.

Photo Credit: Marin Myftiu – Edited By Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

Here’s how you do it:

• Go to the address bar on your Firefox browser and write about:config
• Search “browser.cache and select browser.cache.disk.capacity” in the filter.
• Try to set 20000 if you have between 512Mb and 1GB of Ram. If you have less than 512Mb then reduce to 10000. (By default it’s usually set to 50000. This value could be lowered depending on how much ram you have.)

• To reduce your Ram consumption when Firefox is minimized, by simply sending Firefox back to the hard disk, just type about:config in the address bar: right click anywhere and select New>>Boolean. Name it config.trim_on_minimize and set it’s value to TRUE.

Restart Firefox.

Now your Firefox will be faster and will consume less RAM than before.

Every medium or advanced user has asked himself this question more than once: “which is the best web browser to use?”

This morning I was watching videos on YouTube, when I ran into this one by Sydus93, a young American geek who posts video tutorials online.

This particular video, even if a bit dated, shows you in simple words all the differences between all the major web browsers around: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari.

I think the video talks for itself, so I’ll just let you watch it…and wait for your comments!

Tired of searching for an address opening Google Maps in a new tab? Want to get things done a little bit faster, without losing the quality of the services you normally use?

KwiClick is a fantastic Firefox add-on that allows you to browse multiple pages simultaneously, so that you don’t need to waste any time browsing search results, maps, or anything that concerns Google, YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, FriendFeed and more.

With KwiClick, you don’t need to go back and forth between pages to find the right search results: search results are displayed contextually within a non obtrusive panel, bringin information right on top of the site you are navigating on.

You can view comments, related information and additional user content from embedded videos and Flickr images. Quickly send embedded content via email or share with friends on popular sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

Try this fantastic service for yourself, just by installing it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5655

Or visit their official website at http://www.kwiclick.com/

Are you one of those people who can’t live without watching videos on YouTube or similar everyday? Would you like a simple a fast way to grab and download your favorite videos from major sharing sites?

NetVideoHunter is a Firefox add-on, that you can use to instantly download videos and music from almost all video-sharing sites, supporting Youtube, MySpace Music, Google Video, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Break, Putfile, iFilm, Videoegg, Veoh, Blip.tv, and more.

Here the video-instructions:

• Click here to Install NetVideoHunter inside your browser. The installation package comes in XPI formats, so if your Firefox version is older than 3.0 you might like to have an idea on how to install XPI files
• Go to the page where the video player is and play the video (if not started automatically)
• When the streaming begins, NetVideoHunter captures the videolink (when possible), and the video counter on the lower-right corner of the Firefox window is incremented, notifying you that a new file is ready for download
• You can then click on the NetVideoHunter icon, and the download window opens with the list of the captured videos and music.

  

More infos at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7447

Tired of hand translation of your documents? Looking for an automatic and efficient way to get all of your works translated?

Photo credit: sh0dan

Today I want to suggest you some tools that you can use to translate some words or an entire web page without downloading any software, but just by using your browser.

Here are the three add-ons i selected for you:

• gTranslate: With gTranslate you can translate any text in a webpage just by selecting and right-clicking over it. The extension uses the Google translation services to translate the text.
• Translator: Translator is web translation extension that allows you to translate any web page into nearly any language at the click of a button. It allows you to translate any web page into nearly any language at the click of a button. It supports Google’s translation tools, Yahoo!’s Babelfish, PROMT, freetranslation.com, Altavista’s translation tools, and Im translator.
• FoxLingo: If you want a powerful translation tool, look no further than FoxLingo. This add-on for Firefox will do web page translation, search translation, auto translation, has resources for learning languages and much more. Powerful is the key word here as it can translate full web pages (over 1,500 different language pairs).

Wishing to know which of the three is the best? Discover on your own by installing these fantastic instruments now! For free!

Via FirefoxFacts

I just want to share with you a new extension I found bouncing around on the net, that will allows you to batch download sets of Facebook photos with one single click!

You could simply click on every single photo and download it, but when they become more than 20, the job starts to get boring.

FacePAD is a Firefox extensions that makes this effort easier because,letting you grab all the photos from any Facebook album in a single move.

Better known as the Facebook Photo Album Downloader, FacePAD will not only let you grab your own photo album, but will also let you download your friends’ photo album, event albums, and group albums with the click of a button.

Here is the video:

Here are listed some of the functionality shown in the video:

To download photos from a friend’s photo album, just right-click on the name/link of a Facebook album and select “Download Album with FacePAD option”. If you did this properly, a JavaScript pop-up will appear, one for each page of pictures you are going to download, and the download process will begin in instants.

Instead, to download an Events Album or Groups Album, the user must right-click on the “See All” link on the main page of the group or event of interest.

FacePAD has also a Facebook’s fan page

You can read more on this extension and download it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8442

Everyone who runs a blog or has created a website in his life knows how important it is to have an FTP client in order to transfer files to a web server. Many are the choice available on the web, free and not, but today I want to show you what my personal pick was.

Photo Credit: Sachin Ghodke – Edited By Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

FireFTP is a Firefox extension that integrates a full featured FTP client right into your browser, so that you do not have to install any other software apart from Firefox to completely manage your blog.

After you install it, I bet you will instantly fall in love with it: the interface is complete with everything you could ask from a standalone software, options will allow you to fully personalize the software behavior, from setting up the auto-refresh rate, to changing the number of simultaneous file transfers.

You can also set up multiple accounts for your websites, and decide whether to let FireFTP remember the login credentials for you, without typing them anytime you need to modify something.

FireFTP can be activated from your browser’s Tools menu, and within some instants you’ll be able to control your remote files, directly in your browser, as if it was a normal webpage.

Download Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684

Official Website: http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

I have been asked in comments to other articles, but also in person, whether it is possible to restore Firefox default settings: if you have tweaked your about:config page to speed your browser up, or simply installed an add-on that messed up your configuration, Firefox 3 has a simple method to restore all default settings back without uninstalling the software.

Photo Credit: Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

Here’s how:

1. Open Firefox in Safe Mode, from your programs menu or by typing “firefox -safe-mode” in Start->Run.

   

2. Choose what you want to be brought back to its original settings by checking one of the following options:
   
   • Disable all add-ons: Disables all added themes and extensions.
   • Reset toolbars and controls: Removes any made toolbar customization.
   • Reset bookmarks to Firefox defaults: Replaces your bookmarks with the default bookmarks.
   • Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults: Restores the default Options and preference settings and resets the default theme. It also changes back to default all the entries in the about:config page.
   • Restore default search engines: Adds back all of the default search engines (Google, Yahoo, eBay, Creative Commons, Answers.com, and Amazon.com) , without removing any added search engines.

Now everything should be back to default, as if you just installed a new fresh copy of Firefox.

Yesterday I presented a cool extension that allowed you to immediately check your Gmail inbox on your Firefox status bar, but now you might be wondering: “what about Google Reader?”

Photo Credit: Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

Google Reader Notifier is a Firefox extension that easily enables you monitor all your unread feeds directly on your Firefox status bar.

After you have installed it and provided your login infos, all you need to do is to set some simple options in order to customize how the report will be:

• Customize the mouse behavior and how your mouse button will operate with GReader Notifier.

  




• Decide how often the add-on will refresh to check for new items, and how the counter and the notification window are shown as new items arrive.

  




• Personalize the icon appearance, choosing your preferred theme, and the location of the report icon on your status bar.

  




• Decide how and where to display the options windows, whether you want it to open in a new window, new or current tab.

  

This is another useful add-on that you should definitely check out and integrate in your “Google Firefox extensions”.

Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3977

How many of us daily use Google mail service, Gmail, and wish to add as many options to it as possible? We have seen a great extension already to add an HTML signature to our Gmail messages…But how cool it would be to be able to see if you have new messages, directly into Firefox’s interface?

Photo Credit: Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

Gmail Notifier is a fantastic extension that enables you to see if you have new messages without even opening Gmail, but just by looking at your screen’s right bottom.

After you install it, all you need to do is provide your Gmail login information, and wait for it to connect: you’ll be now able to be notified anytime you receive a new message, and to immediately see how many new messages there are in your inbox.

Many are the preferences that you can set in the options menu:

• Change position to the Notifier icon on the taskbar.




• Change how new messages are opened: current tab, new tab, or new window.




• Enable multiple account checking.




• Show notification and/or play a sound for new emails.




• Change how often it’ll check for new emails.




• Enable automatic login.

These are just a few of the options you will find, so my advice is to go, grab the extension, and try it for yourself as soon as possible!

Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/173

Google’s web browser, one and maybe the only alternative to Firefox, Chrome, has been out for a while now and many have been the reactions to this: people will bet it’ll be the best browser ever developed, others believe it will never overcome Firefox…

Personally I don’t know what will happen as newer versions are released, or how this “battle”, if it how we can define it, will end.

Photo Credit: Nicolo’ Canali De Rossi

What I do know, is that Chrome is spreading rapidly and the number people who are falling in love with it is increasing everyday. That’s why I decided to look for a news site that will give you as much information as possible regarding Google’s Firefox counterpart.

It is called Google Chrome Fans and I personally love it: its interface is really clean, news are well written, and it also offers a FAQ page answering the most common questions about Chrome.

So if you are looking for a great source of information and news about Google web browser, you should definitely give it a look and add it to your favorites or, even better, add it to your feeds list.

Link: http://www.googlechromefans.com/

One of the most common queries nowadays is “how to speed up your browser”. In fact, one of the top articles of Universe Firefox is called How To Speed Up Firefox 3, which covers only a few tips I’ve found around the web, and that I will maybe collect in one guide.

But for now let’s go back to present, and let me tell you what I have found today.

Tweak Network is a fabulous Firefox extension that allows you to tweak your network settings with a GUI interface. You can set all the parameters as you wish, with two preset buttons that you can use to switch between Default and Power mode.

After you install it, a new button into your Tools menu will be created: Tweak Network Settings. Open it, and you will see this panel below, where you’ll be able to configure the parameters, for both modes.

Default

Power

So if you don’t want to be bothered with complicated settings inside Firefox or simply want to give it a try, download Tweak Network now and enjoy faster browsing!

Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/327

Obsessed with downloads and speed? Are you one of those who downloads a lot and wants to know how the files are coming down, how fast, and how much time is left, at a glance?

Today I want to present you a very simple but very efficient extension, that lets you monitor your download activities on the right bottom of your screen.

Download Status is its name, and it does nothing more than adding a small panel to your browser bar, in which you can see how many Kb/s you are downloading, as well as the number of files, downloaded size and estimated time left.

I guess there is nothing more to say about this simple, but very useful add-on, which I advise you to download immediately!

Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8598

Who wouldn’t be happy to be able to boost up download speeds? How many times you really wanted to force that file to go faster and faster, but couldn’t do anything to do it?

We have seen together the best download manager for Firefox, called DownThemAll!, and it really did its job, also allowing you to download all the files present on a page with one click.

Today I want to show you another fantastic extension, still in Alpha phase, which will be a great opponent to DownThemAll!, and maybe even better.

FireDownload is part of an upcoming family of downloading tools for Firefox, which promises to boost up your downloads up to 10x, completely integrating itself into the browser’s interface and menus.

After you install it, a new option will be available as a checkbox into your download interface: just thick it, and your file will begin downloading much faster. The only problem I encountered until now is that you cannot change location and name for the file, but maybe developers will adjust this feature in upcoming versions.

You can also right-click on any file URL and a new voice will be added into your menu: clicking it will immediately start a new download to the default location (Desktop).

Here two examples of FireDownload in action:

• Downloading Ubuntu Linux, from the same server, with and without FireDownload.

  

• Downloading Fedora Linux, from the same server, with and without FireDownload.

  

So if you are tired of using DownThemAll! or any other download manager, you should definitely try this one out: simple, seamless, and fast!

Link: http://www.fireaddons.com/

Download Link: http://www.fireaddons.com/iamchosen/

The installation package comes in XPI format, so you will have to allow it by clicking the pop-up button on the top right of your screen.