Firefox – Giving more depth to your time on the Internet.

Its been a while. Sorry readers.

As the browser wars heat up, with the introduction of Google’s Chrome ‘Beta’, which will be featured in another review soon, The old favorites are still banging along. Using the internet, doesn’t have to be a task. Addon’s and plug ins make the user experience, more streamlined and easier. Saving you time and Bandwidth.

Mozilla’s Firfox 3, is still in my eyes the best Internet browser for your PC or Mac.
Seeing as its free and far more secure than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, there is really no reason that you shouldn’t be using it.

Unlike Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Firefox is able to manage and use 3rd party applications and addon’s.

Lets have a look at what Addon’s you should be using with Firefox.

Forecastfox:

What to know what the weather outside is doing? Forecastfox, provides up to the minute weather coverage, keeping you updated every fifteen minutes what’s going on outside. Also giving you three days in advanced weather forecasts. Sitting in the bottom right hand corner of Firefox, its simple unobtrusive design gives you all the information you need. Saving you a trip the weathersa.co.za site.
TwitterFox:

Like to Twitter, but hate having to visit the site, every time you need to inform your friends that you’re about to head down to KFC or that you’re about to take a bath.

Twitterfox, will enable to keep friends updated, right from your browser. Enabling you to post and review new comments.
After you’ve installed it, and typed in your user name and password. A small blue T should appear at the bottom of the Firefox browser.
A single click, will bring up the latest comments and also give you space to write one of your own.

Video DownloadHelper:

Ever want to download videos from Youtube or Liveleak. With Video DownloadHelper, You will be able to download your favorite flash player movies right to your desktop.
Sitting next to your address bar. Simply click on the icon, after you have finished watching a video. From there it will download it to your desktop. Quick, simple and easy…

Download Statusbar:

Normally when you download with Firefox, another window will open and clutter your already full task bar.
With Download Status bar, an status bar will appear at the bottom left hand side of your browser. While not needed to enhance the Firefox experience, it does help in keeping your task bar from cluttering up.

StumbleUpon

This great little application, will take you to websites you would never have imagined  your self going to. Simply download the addon, sign up, select the types of things you’re interested in and begin stumbling. Each click will take you to a never before seen site that will either amaze you or destroy your faith in humanity. Warning, it does become addictive, and you will find your self wasting a lot of bandwidth with it. But when you are bored and need something new to look at… Start stumbling.

Yoono:

Get all your Gmail, Facebook, MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger and what ever other chat program you use, straight to  your browser in one helpful little window.
So instead of having various windows open to chat with friends, have all their details in Yoono. And chat away. You are also able to set up your RSS feeds into Yoono, however it still doesn’t work as well as it should. Rather stick with your normal RSS reader.
While most chat programs work well with Yoono, it seems that Facebook doesn’t want to work with it. But it doesn’t really matter, Facebook chat never works properly at the best of times.

Cooliris:

Cooliris, is with out a doubt one of the most awesome addon’s you can get for Firefox. It enable viewing many pictures at once. Think of it as Window picture viewer but on your Web browser. Put Windows Picture Viewer sucks, I hear you say. Well yes it does, but Cooliris doesn’t. A 3D interface that looks like it was ripped from a Mac OS. Its a site to behold. Install the addon, when you want to view a picture, move your mouse over the picture. In the bottom left hand side of the image a black and whtie image of two interlocking squares will appear…click…behold…cry… love me long time.

You are able to watch videos and navigate around will Cooliris…but you will waste a massive amount of bandwidth doing so.

British English Dictionary

Spellcheck for your web browser… simple yet effective.

FoxyTunes

Control panel

Control your music playing program from your web browser. Simple to manage, with all the buttons and controls you would need. Its kinda like Winamp in your browser. Most music players are supported and should not be a problem. It will install all the buttons and control on the bar at the bottom of the browser’s window.

FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.
Supports WinAmp, iTunes, Yahoo Music Engine, Pandora, foobar2000, Windows Media Player, Xbox Media Center, Musicmatch, Quintessential, J. River, jetAudio, XMPlay, MediaMonkey, Media Player Classic, Sonique, wxMusik, Real Player, XMMS, Noatun, Juk, Amarok, Music Player Daemon, Rhythmbox and many other players.

There area thousands of more addon’s theses are just a few that are available. Whats your favorite Firefox addon? Drop me an email and tell me.

If you have already got Firefox installed, all you need to do is click the green install button on the addon. It will install it onto your system, from here all you need to do is close the browser and restart Firefox. Bingo there you go.
Any Questions on how to install or manage addon’s feel free to drop me an E-mail at
mccabejj@avusa.co.za