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.

(Still, Weave will synchronize just about everything else: browsing history, passwords, bookmarks, open tabs, etc. For those of you not wearing tin-foil hats, I highly recommend you check it out.)

Like I said, my hopes for that Holy Grail of browser synchronization, add-on sync, were unfilfilled until I discovered an entirely separate Firefox add-on designed to fulfill that purpose: Siphon.

Siphon’s purpose as of right now is to fill that missing link and ensure that your favorite browser add-ons are available on whatever computer you’re on: at home, at work, on-the-go, etc.

Simply install Siphon through the Firefox add-ons interface (go to Tools > Add-Ons and search for Siphon) and create an account through siphon-fx.com. Then, specify what add-ons you want to synchronize. Once you’re done, set Siphon up on your other computers running Firefox and let the beautiful act of synchronization occur.

The developer of Siphon, Ian Halpern, has big plans and doesn’t intend on stopping at add-on synchronization. Future features of Siphon include the following:

• Support for syncing themes and enabled/disabled properties
• Automatic Add-on download and install
• Configurable user specified server support
• Easier Add-on management
• Different user profiles
• Support for syncing extension settings
• Support for other mozilla applications

So, g’head and give Siphon a try… and then let us know what you think in the comments. If you like it, make use of the Mozilla Add-Ons “Contribute” function and donate a whopping $3 USD to assist with further development of what could potentially be a VERY useful add-on.

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)

Lazarus works on ordinary web forms, WYSIWYG editors, and even AJAXified comment boxes, and will save you from pretty much any given server, browser, or connection problems that might otherwise cause you to lose your work, or that really pithy blog comment you struggled on for over an hour.

Lazarus now comes with 2048-bit RSA and 256-bit AES hybrid encryption, so your form history is more private and secure than ever! Lazarus also includes search functionality so you can recover text even if you can no longer find the original form you entered it into.

Firefox users can also check out Textarea Cache for similar functionality.

Related Links:
Weave FAQ |  Weave Download |  Weave Project Homepage

• Zoundry Raven – having recently gone open-source, Zoundry Raven is definitely the more mature and feature-rich of the three apps mentioned here. Like any good blogging client worth its salt, it supports multiple profiles, WYSIWYG editing, FTP as well as Picasa/Image Shack integration and more. ZR also supports custom fields… that one’s a biggie for you advanced WordPress users.

  

• w.bloggar – Like the Raven above, w.bloggar offers pretty much all of the blogging features you’d come to expect but in a (semi) less attractive package. (How superficial of us.) Still, it works quite well and should meet most all of your blogging needs. [via FreshFreeStuff.net]

  

• Firefox with ScribeFire – Sure, it’s an extension, not an application, but don’t let the fact that it’s dependent upon Portable Firefox sway you away from ScribeFire. It’s not quite as heavy on features as either Zoundry Raven or w.bloggar but it’s got a great interface and offers everything you need to get a quick post on your site… and the fact that it’s integrated into a web browser is both a blessing and a curse.

  

I’ve stumbled across a couple of other blogging clients that can act as portable applications like the ones above, the most notable of which being a portable version of Windows Live Writer, but it takes a bit of work to get them that way and I’ve found that once an update gets published by the author, your portable version goes kaput.

Know of any others we’re leaving out? Give us and our readers a shout in the comments.

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.

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.

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.

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…

• keyboard-shortcut (Ctrl+B) activated search-as-you-type functionality
  (this brings up the sidebar which brilliantly disappears as soon as you find what you’re looking for)
• the ability to add both tags and notes to your bookmarks
• synchronization with your del.icio.us account (meaning that neither a specific browser or the extension itself are necessary to find your bookmarks – just hit http://del.icio.us while you’re on the road and login.)

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.