Tag archive for "firefox"
Way back when, we had mentioned that Mozilla’s plans for “Weave,” their platform for syncing browsing information between different desktop/mobile clients, included support for synchronizing Firefox extensions or, as they’re known now, “add-ons.”
Well, it turns out that add-on synchronization isn’t isn’t here yet and keeps getting bumped from the official Weave roadmap. So, our plans for a completely synchronized Firefox experience among our PCs were somewhat dashed… until now.
Alright, it’s happened to me no less than one trillion times now and I’m sure it’s happened to you: you fill out a contact form or a form for tech support only to lose every carefully-chosen word in some fluke accident like a browser crash or the accidental closing of a tab.
If it has happened, save yourself some trouble in the future by installing the Lazarus add-on for your browser. (Lazarus for Mozilla Firefox | Lazarus for Google Chrome – sorry IE users)
We’ve been using Mozilla’s Weave extension/platform for some time now and the team, today, launched Weave version 0.7. Nothing major to report in this release, just some performance and UI improvements. However, Mozilla’s always had plans to enable the synchronization of your many different Firefox add-ons. I suspect that’ll be something that comes with the release of 1.0 but who knows what 0.8 or 0.9 will bring…
I work on a number of different PCs throughout any given week so it’s nice to be able to jot down a post in an offline client and always have the same settings with me… regardless of which machine I’m on. The following three clients can be easily installed on a flash drive or in a synchronized folder somewhere on your computer:
Weave 0.3, Mozilla’s browser information synchronization architecture (which we’ve previously covered), has officially been released.
With Weave, you can synchronize your browser’s bookmarks, browsing history, passwords as well as any tabs that you might have open across any of your PCs – safely and securely. Here’s Mozilla’s official project description:
“Weave Sync is a prototype that encrypts and securely synchronizes the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, so that your desktop, laptop and mobile phone can all work together. It is part of the Weave project, which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser.”
Along with the 0.3 release, Mozilla is now officially supporting Fennec; Mozilla’s own mobile browser. Eventually, at least according to the project roadmap, Weave will enable you to synchronize your browser preferences and add-ons (read: extensions) in addition to all of the aforementioned items.
Give it a try by downloading from the official Mozilla add-ons site: Weave 0.3. Or, check out the official Weave project site at http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/weave/.
Do note, however, that the 0.3 release requires Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 or greater… which is still in a testing phase. (Hence the “beta” label.) Plus, if you do decide to g’head and upgrade your version of Firefox in order to take a peek at Weave, some of your other add-ons might very well break in the process. A great number of mine did.
feedly’s been around a while… and, while I’ve had it installed since it debuted, I’ve only come to truly appreciate what it has to offer just recently.
The list of feedly’s features, like many of today’s niche applications, is short but sweet. In essence, the Feedly add-on for Mozilla Firefox "weaves Twitter and Google Reader into a magazine-like experience."
For example, the Google Reader interface is clean and to-the-point but it’s certainly not exciting to look at. feedly, however, can take your existing GReader content, which looks a little like this:
…and turn it into something like this:
Now, I love Google Reader and the simplicity it brings to the table (something that’s necessary when dealing with hundreds of RSS feeds) but if I’m just checking in with my feeds for a few minutes or so – just to see what’s breaking, I’d much rather look at what feedly has to offer me. The spacious, image-assisted layout has definitely been saving me some time.
In addition to the display options in store for your feeds, the feedly Firefox add-on also brings you the “feedly Mini.” For a detailed rundown of what the Mini has to offer, check out the following post on the official Feedly blog: “Launching Feedly Mini: Twitter and FriendFeed on the Go.”
Basically, though, the Mini acts as a miniaturized, ever-so-faintly-visible toolbar at the bottom of pages you visit. This toolbar quickly tells you how many people have shared the page you’re viewing within feedly/Google Reader as well as how many times it’s been discussed in Twitter & FriendFeed. Not only can you see who’s sharing the content of the page you’re on, but you can immediately do so yourself from the same toolbar: share in Reader/FriendFeed, Twitter it up, email, etc.
(Source)
Overall, feedly’s benefit comes with how well it integrates into existing services. For instance, there are plenty (read: PLENTY) of aggregation services out there but most of them don’t have the option to tie in with other services similar to its own… and for good reason in most cases. With feedly, I have a choice of how I can read my RSS feeds. If I choose to read an article or multiple articles in feedly, those articles are automatically marked as read in Google Reader so that I’m not doubling up on work when I head back to GReader for some in-depth feed scanning.
feedly is a product of DevHD (not much there, yet) and is 100% free. I’m not entirely certain how they plan on surviving (that same question can be asked of so many of today’s “free” applications) unless they plan on selling the product off eventually.
Anyway, if you’re already a big Google Reader user, give feedly a try.
Just over two months ago, we were among the first to bring attention to a preview version of the del.icio.us extension designed to be compatible with the latest release (3.0) of the Firefox web browser.
Five days ago, the Del.icio.us team announced and subsequently delivered the final version of that extension to the official Mozilla Firefox add-ons repository. Be sure to check out the official blog post from the del.icio.us team detailing all the new features in the release: "Firefox 3, Delicious and You."
Overall, the extension provides a great way to keep your bookmarks (with tags and notes, too) synchronized on each of your computers and, of course, on your http://del.icio.us account.
(FoT Tip: If you’re a nut for synchronization, you should also check out the Mozilla Weave extension for Firefox. In addition to bookmark synchronization, Weave also allows you to sync stored passwords, cookies, browser history and saved form data. Check out what we had to say about that a couple of weeks ago.)
Microsoft devotees shouldn’t feel left out as the team has also announced and released a beta version of an add-on for Internet Explorer.
It’s been quite some time since Google updated the official "Google Browser Sync" Firefox extension. If you’re unfamiliar with it, the extension enabled you to synchronize your browser bookmarks, history and passwords with any other computer on which you might be running Firefox.
Not only has it not been updated since 2006, the extension isn’t even compatible with the 3rd release of the Mozilla Firefox browser. (As is typically the case with Google, mum’s the word on any plans and nearly 100 status requests have gone unanswered in the official forum for Google Firefox extensions.)
Mozilla answered the cries of many, however, when it released "Weave" late last year. The official extension (from the company who brought you the Firefox browser itself) allowed for synchronization of your bookmarks, history and saved form data. With the next release, they added support for cookies.
Now, with today’s release, they add support for passwords as well…thus leaving Google Browser Sync entirely useless.
The extension even allows for developers to extend Weave for their own applications but you can read more about that, and Weave’s many other features, on the Mozilla Labs blog. Or, you can just download it now: https://services.mozilla.com/.
Note: once you begin the initial synchronization, be prepared for the browser to choke just a little bit while the sync occurs. Once you’re finished with that initial synchronization, however, it’ll be as smooth as silk to keep your browser information up-to-date on all your computers.
Now, if they only would allow for synchronization of Firefox extensions…
Feature, Mozilla, Software, Web 2.0, Yahoo!
We’ve tested quite a few bookmarking tools and how well they integrate into the Firefox Web browser: Diigo, del.icio.us, Google Browser Sync, Mozilla Weave and more. The best has always been, and continues to be, the del.icio.us Firefox extension. The extension’s integration into the Firefox Web browser is unparalleled and offers the following priceless, time-saving features:
This is one of the few tools that I use every single day and, unfortunately, it’s core functionality became broken when Mozilla released the beta versions of Firefox v3. It’s taken quite a while but Yahoo! has finally released an updated version of the extension yesterday afternoon:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/delicious-firefox-extension/message/2204.
I found it took a bit of maneuvering to get to the installation file so I’ve gone ahead and posted it on our site for you to download. Just save the file, open your Firefox Add-Ons window and drag-and-drop the .xpi in there. The installation process will proceed and you’ll be prompted to download the update.
By the way, kudos to Yahoo! for listening to their users and pushing out an update to this extension. The final version of Firefox 3.0 hasn’t even been released so they technically didn’t "have" to release a version yet but they realized there was a huge demand for it. Are you paying attention, Google? I only ask because it’s been almost two years since Google Browser Sync was released and very little has been done to keep it updated. In addition, you’ll notice that almost every post in the Google Firefox Extensions newsgroup remains unanswered.
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