Don’t pimp real foxes. That’s just mean. (Photo: wildphotons)
38.16% of the people who visit this site are still using Internet Explorer (IE). It’s like buying a hybrid car for the gas mileage and then driving with flat tires and the doors open.
This post will serve two purposes: first, to introduce beginners to features of Firefox (FF) that make it worthwhile; second, to introduce more experienced users to the favorite add-ons of Matt Mullenweg (lead developer of WordPress) and Garrett Camp (co-founder of StumbleUpon). Perhaps you’ll like one or two of mine…
If you aren’t using Firefox, here are a few short reasons to start:
* Built in spell-check
* Lightweight and fast
* Intuitive shortcuts
* Better than a college degree (some think)
* Extensions (also called “add-ons” or “plug-ins”)
Extensions lead us to this post. Kid in a candy store time.
After you’ve made the leap and switched to Firefox (download it here), here’s are the extensions you can use to take it to the next level:
Installing the Google Toolbar is the key to Firefox efficiency. It is the starting point.
It gives you one-stop access to Google RSS, Google Docs, Google News and Google Blogsearch. Google Docs lets you store and collaborate with word processing without being tied to local Microsoft applications. Google RSS lets you read news without surfing and Google News and Blogsearch are two of the best methods for bloggers to track trends and events. I use Google Highlighter to find terms on pages with tons of text.
The FF search bar in the top-right corner is one of the most helpful features of the browser. Instead of going to Google.com to do your searches, you can search Google and others sites from a drop-down window in the top-right of any window. Just hit Cmd + K to jump to the top-right search box, then Cmd + arrow up or arrow down to choose among searching on Amazon, Creative Commons, eBay, and more. If you get stuck without FF, you can do the same in the Google search field on any browser with “parkour site:youtube.com” to find parkour videos on YouTube, for example.
Try and use simple tech tools to separate professionals from amateurs whenever possible.
The Alexa toolbar – a small plug-in – lets you do that in a ruthlessly numerical way. As you surf, it gives you each site’s traffic rank (and historical chart of traffic, like a stock chart), based on several metrics, in the bottom right-hand corner. I often use the web for meme research, media filtering, and competitive analysis instead of web dev, and this tool is my first line of defense.
Some estimate that a million-plus rank is just a few dozen people a day. In the mid-six digits (Ex: 200,000), you’re looking at people with sizeable audiences, and once you crack 100,000, you’ll begin to find professionals, some with readerships larger than most newsstand magazines.
General Rule: Alexa is a valuable first-look tool to keep you from giving too much credence to a professional design, or — alternatively — being scared off by site that doesn’t care much for first impressions.
Alexa is not a complete rank, however, and is flawed in many respects. It’s the first step for me when evaluating media opportunities or baseless traffic claims, but I supplement Alexa with the following analytic tool: SEO for Firefox.
The SEO for Firefox add-on is used for search engine optimization. I don’t use it for tweaking this site. I use it for media and competitive research, as it allows you to see in normal Google results — once turning the add-on “on” — the resulting sites’ pagerank, links on Yahoo!, Alexa traffic rank, Compete traffic rank, Bloglines rank, Technorati rank, and much more. To supplement this, if serious about competitive research, I suggest viewing Quantcast when possible.
Important: turn off this add-on when not in use.
I’ve used clunky dictionary extensions for Firefox before and — in all cases — I’ve found simple to be better. Definr is a company that takes clean interface to a new level – the homepage has four links and one of them is the search button. It caches the most commonly searched words so it doesn’t waste your time.
Using Delicious, every article I’ve ever felt was worth saving is available to me anywhere in the world from any computer. This is something we’ve discussed here before.
Delicious lets you batch your daily read (I tag things with “to_read”) into one single task instead of an unending barrage of distractions or tangents. It also makes it possible to quickly and conveniently track down things resources you’ve used in the past, so you don’t waste time in fruitless searches.
Make sure you install the Classic Delicious extension — it’s cleaner, easier to use, and less prone to feature abuse.
Matt Mullenweg and Garrett Camp’s Favorites
Matt Mullenweg‘s favorites, which he explained on a ferry en route from Santorini to Milos island in Greece, include:
Foxmarks – syncs bookmarks across multiple computers
Google Browser Sync – syncs cookies and passwords (see these newer substitutes)
PWDHash – auto-generated customized passwords for various sites
Firebug – according to Matt, “one of most significant web dev tools of the last 3-4 years.” It’s a “net profiler” that indicates how long each element on a page takes to load.
Google Gears – faster and improved browser performance (local caching, etc.)
Garrett Camp‘s must-haves include:
TabCatalog – shows contents of all of tabs as a thumbnail-style list (using F8 or other hotkey you designate). Great for not having to flip through tabs to see what is open or find what you’re looking for.
Stylish – Customize the look of your browser or mail client. Stylish is to CSS what Greasemonkey is to JavaScript.
StumbleUpon (please slap yourself if you’re surprised) – Learn how to stumble across things you like, kill memes dead, or spread idea viruses. Here’s the description of how it works.
Experiment, extend, and go nuts. Have any of your own favorites to share? Better alternatives to the above? Please share in the comments.
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Glad to see you’re spreading the good news
Go FF!
Plugins I can’t live without:
Add to Search Bar – you mentioned the FF search bar. Many people don’t know you can stick any search into it whether it’s Wikipedia or the search box here in the upper right hand corner.
All-in-one-gestures – use waves of the mouse to make FF do anything, easier on the wrist than without.
Drag de Go – assign different actions depending on which direction you drag *anything*
Flashblock – keeps your eyes from getting tired by blocking all the blinking Flash ads behind one click of your mouse.
IE Tab – for when a site STILL doesn’t work properly in FF and needs Internet Explorer.
Screen grab! – for taking screenshots of what’s in the browser window
Split browser – lets you split the browser window into multiple windows, perfect for blogging on the top half of the screen while checking information on the bottom.
Tab Mix Plus – take control of FF tabs.
Most of these same features can be found on IE7 with IE7Pro: http://www.ie7pro.com
Tim – Firefox 3.0 is much improved, especially with the extensions…..I personally use the following Firefox extensions I found very useful:
IETab – renders pages through IE to get around the requirement of some sites to view the site in IE. Also, some pages still dont render correctly for firefox so this usually fixes it.
DownloadThemAll – Allows you to easily download multiple files/links from a page. Saves a ton of time in frequent downloading
InstaClick – Opens links in a new tab when you right click on them
Regards,
Eric
I love the blog Tim but I disagree that Firefox is necessarily better. I’ve noticed Firefox being slower, and more of a memory hog than I.E. many times. Neither one is particulary good with web standards.
I like Firefox for the extensions. Some great tools to aid development. However, the majority of people use I.E. (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp) so if it comes down to it that’s what I develop for.
It’s definitely popular to hop on the Firefox bandwagon but for myths about Firefox check out: http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.htm
It’s a bit old but it’s been updated casually and most of it is still true today.
Luke Krogh
Safari for the PC is also very good.
Firebug is much more than a “net profiler.” It’s a javascript debugger, real-time css/html editor, and all around indispensable tool for front-end web development.
Just thought I’d mention it…
hey.
I got a little bro of firefox… camino, i tihink. can I still get the extensions?
(I feel like i’m using yahoo answers)
I’m somewhat annoyed with Firefox at present because the back/forward button disappears every time I relaunch.
However, 1password, myVidoop, and passpack are all additional password utilities worth a look.
For design work, I find myself using a couple of basic tools – ColorZilla, which lets me lift the hex color code off any part of a page, and MeasureIt, which measures whatever I drag around.
I’ll caution newbies that not all extensions are created equally. Load too many or indiscriminately choose, and don’t be surprised if Firefox chokes.
And Tim, regardless of species, when did pimping go from “a little Howard Hughes” to mean?
I bookmark these as I come across them…
30+ Must-Have Updated Firefox 3 Extensions
http://mashable.com/2008/06/26/firefox-3-extensions/
15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/15-coolest-firefox-tricks-ever.html
15 must-have Firefox tricks
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052321&intsrc=hm_ts_head
11 Powerful Firefox 3 Add-ons That Can Replace Standalone Applications
http://www.jasonbartholme.com/11-powerful-firefox-3-add-ons-that-can-replace-standalone-applications/
10 Best Firefox Extensions of 2007
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9835848-12.html?tag=cnetfd.mt
I really like Adblock Plus. It removes annoying ads and speeds up your surfing.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
My personal favorite for dictionary functionality in FF is the “Dictionary Tooltip” available here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1171
It lets you double click any word and get a pop up window in the browser. It’s fantastic!
For productivity – if you’re like me and have a tendency to wander away from the task at hand, you can’t beat LeechBlock. Which lets you restrict access to websites to certain times or limited amounts of time at your discretion.
Additionally, the better gmail extension is *fantastic* – as is the better youtube one (for when you’re not using leechblock or are checking our Tim’s latest video perhaps)
Adblock Plus does wonders for cleaning up horrid sites and even works a treat on things as ad loaded as myspace. Custom filter sets and all sorts of goodies are preloaded with it.
Chris Pedrick’s web developer extension for FF also is a great tool for messing around with things, like removing CSS to see how a site shows up or disabling select elements of a site – It’s also nice if you’re a budding web developer 😉
Greasemonkey is great too – plenty of unique user scripts for different websites readily available and if you’re a dab hand at some javascript, you can write your own.
That being said – I still use Opera… Though FF3 is tempting what with it’s actual proper rendering of web pages now.
All I can say is, “AWESOME post!” I learned more about FF in the time it took to read your post than I did in the two weeks I’ve been using it.
I have absolutely learned to love Firebug, I haven’t found a better tool for troubleshooting web code. I have never used stylish, but since I am weak with CSS and tend to be utterly lost most of the time, might have to give it a whirl!
Oh also, need to add, I love the Delicious plug-in. I have actually used to it completely replace my bookmarks plugin, that way no matter what computer I am using (office, laptop, home, whatever). I have my bookmarks always available to me as long as I have access to the plugin.
Tim – Thanks for introducing me to the Alexa Sparky plug-in! Great tool for site research. Haven’t gotten to test drive SEO yet but that looks promising, as well.
Why don’t they make these for IE? I know FF is cooler but most customers still use it, so I mostly do, too.
Looks like these extensions may finally push me over the wall…
The Top 7 I can’t live without, which are great productivity boosters:
– GTD Inbox: I cannot overemphasize how much time and control (i) a well-thought GTD process established through this add-on in your GMail; and (ii) GMail keyboard shortcuts (press ?) can make you gain. Incredible.
– Google sharing: bookmarklet that enables you to very quickly share a webpage with friends through your GMail account. Excellent.
– Copy All URLS: Wow! Imagine you have twenty open tabs for a subject you are researching and want to continue later. Easy: Use this add-on to quickly paste the URLs as single text in a .txt file. Then select all, go to linkbun.ch, transform all the links in a single link, and save it to process later (through del.icio.us or sharing button).
– FEBE: Firefox Environment Backup Extension. The name says all: experiment with dozens fo extensions, configure your Firefox, and save it all automatically with this extension.
– PicLens: enables extremely fast and awesome navigation through Flickr, Google Images and so on.
– Del.icio.us (already mentioned)
– Better GMail (already mentioned)
I must say firefox has made a lot of improvements with version 3. It is now my default browser on the mac. On windows I always thought iRider was by far the best browser for serious web browsing. To this day no browser has matched all of the features of iRider, so if you use windows I would definitely recommend it over firefox. You can have 100 tabs open and manage them easily and it still flies.
If you are using firefox there are several plugins which can give you most of the functionality of irider. You need colorfultabs, firegestures, multiple tab handler, and tree style tab addons. This gives the nice vertical tabs down the left side. I can drag across the close buttons to close a bunch of tabs. I can move to the tabs and use the scroll wheel to cycle through them. I can also click on the tabs while holding the mouse and move through the open tabs. I can also right click for a ton of tab options like close all tabs, duplicate tab, etc. Also they are color coded.
In addition to those plugins I also use: piclens: cool way to browse photos and videos. download status bar: keep track of downloads in a small status bar at the bottom of the browser. firebug: javascript development tool. measureit: development tool, get sizes of things on screen. blue organizer: just a cool plugin does a lot of stuff with content of pages, check it out. google toolbar: which I have hidden, I just use it to collect my web history (I love being able to search through all of the pages I have ever visited. It can do this without showing it on the menu bar as I have no use for the other features of the toolbar.
I used to use FF, but a quirk in my current computer sadly negates all the benefits (and then some). The touchpad (made by Alps Electric) doesn’t support finger movement functions in any browser but IE. THAT I can’t live without.
If anyone knows of an add-on or something that allows finger movement fuctions in FF on an Alps Electric touchpad, I’d REALLY appreciate it. IE kind of annoys me.
[…] for folks’ favorite firefox extensions. A friend forwarded the post to me, you can find it here: Pimping Firefox: The Basics (Matt Mullenweg, Garrett Camp, and More) – The Blog of Author Tim Ferris… __________________ http://www.twitter.com/nextday Which of these well-engineered, handy, […]
I must concur that Firebug is a necessity in your web development arsenal for all the reasons mentioned above.
As already mentioned above loads of useful add on’s in Firefox
Fox Clocks is cool for time zones down in the Status Bar
http://icolorfolder.sourceforge.net/
Colors folders – very helpful for highlighting important folders
Pretty good stuff Tim. I actually just downloaded Thunderbird a few days ago to do a bit of a compare/contrast with Outlook. So far it seems Outlook is in the lead, but I have to digg into it a bit deeper. At least Thunderbird is free tho.
Quick note about installing the del.icio.us add: don’t let it auto-import the bookmarks you already have in your browser. The tags it automatically assigns will be retarded, and you’ll just end up having to delete them manually, one by one.
Google Policy on Information sharing…
We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
We provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.
If Google becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as the number of users who searched for a particular term, for example, or how many users clicked on a particular advertisement. Such information does not identify you individually.
Please contact us at the address below for any additional questions about the management or use of personal data.
You’ve just converted me Tim!
I guess that it ultimately comes down to personal preference but I definitely prefer the Opera web browser.
This one is a little controversial, particularly from devoted e-commerce people such as Tim… Adblock. Ads are both the most intrusive and slowest part about the browsing experience. I never click ’em anyway, so why have to see ’em?
Great and informative post on Firefox. I have been using FF since it first came out, but I think I finally found something better. Flock is based of the Mozilla browser, but has the ability to intertwine with all of the social sites that you use. You can also use just about all the plugins for FF. I actually just wrote a short article about it here: http://simplisticthoughts.com/ and you can find the Flock page here: http://flock.com/. Flock 2 is in beta form, but should be released soon running on the same engine as FF3.
[…] Ferriss writes Pimping Firefox: The Basics (Matt Mullenweg, Garrett Camp, and More). Includes my 5 favorite extensions. (0) […]
For those of the NR that need a portable solution with Firefox:
Click Here For Firefox Portable Edition
Quoting this site:
Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured web browser that’s easy to use. It has lots of great features including popup-blocking, tabbed-browsing, integrated search, improved privacy features, automatic updating and more. Plus, thanks to the PortableApps.com launcher bundled in the Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your favorite browser along with all your favorite bookmarks and extensions with you wherever you go.
I’ve used FF Portable Edition with the Portable Apps Suite for about two years now and am extremely pleased with it. You NEED this if you travel!
Oh, I forgot to mention. Firefox Portable Edition is FREE. 🙂
I like to move Firefox’s functions to the server. Using delicious (the new one) for bookmarks, and a little known (but good) one called lookpicking for search plugins:
http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/extensionnew
and
http://lookpicking.com/welcome
Oh and I agree with Andre and Jeff: try out piclens, it’s rad!
Tim,
You had me at “Fire”. I am a convert.
– Mike Michalowicz
Tim-
I have long been a fan of the Mozilla utilities and when I hear anyone say, “What is FireFox?”….I launched into a rampage of all the features and advantages of using it over IE. I get really aggravated when using someone else’s computer and I have to use IE…I feel like I went back in time!
Thanks for this great post to you and to everyone else who has submitted some really incredible extensions.
I use both Firefox and IE and to be quite honest, I like Internet Explorer for ONE main reason – the LETTERS ARE EASIER TO READ.
Firefox gives me fuzzy letters in ALL websites I visit. And I know it is not my machine because I have three and all three give me grief when I am using Firefox. One of them is actually a MAC. So go figure!
Stylesheet support is better at IE than Firefox. I will continue to use both and will continue to make IE my MAIN BROWSER and use Firefox as I use Word Press.. Fair enough?
Why I love Firefox Add-ons.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1542
Who says you can’t browse in “style”.
Thanks for the post Tim!
I have been a fan of Firefox for awhile now but my new computer running Vista will not allow FF to load. Anyone know what the problem is? When I click the icon to load it, it crashes and will not restart. Thanks!
My fav plugin has to be screengrab by far:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
I grab ALL pages I visit, then use Irfanview to simply browse through them as a slideshow. It is much easier than loading a “save as complete” html page. The disadvantage is that the text is not available.
This is the reason I am hoping against hope that someone comes up with a “save every page I visit as MHT” plugin. Check these out in the meantime.
UnMHT – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8051
Mozilla Archive Format – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/212
Honestly, Vista.
Although FF runs ok on my Vista machine, it isn’t as stable as it is on my Linux laptop.
Have you attempted reinstalling FF on Vista? Or disabling all of your plug-ins (if you have any) to be certain that a plug in isn’t crashing it?
Many people cannot use firefox at work, so that 38.16% might be people who are being forced to use IE …
What’s the url for Tim’s del.icio.us account?
Hey Tim,
Cool post… the part that made me laugh however was the new picture of you holding the glass of (what looks like) tequila… with that “come, try the poisoned apple” look! Good stuff.
“It’s like buying a hybrid car for the gas mileage and then driving with flat tires and the doors open.”
Can someone explain this analogy to me, or is it just a random jab at IE that doesn’t need to make sense?
I fully support the use of Firefox, but I mean, come on, what?
Firefox takes forever to open. Longer than my IE 6. I have nothing against Firefox. I need to design for both.
I use FIreFox because of the plugins, but even FF3 is still slower than IE7.
Sometimes it(FF) just desides not to open a page and nothing would help but restarting it.
More plugins, more bugs.
IE7 also have nice features with IE7Pro.
Tim, did’n’t know you were techy. I hope you had your VA install all this stuff through my remote PC instead of wasting time doing it yourself!
The only thing FF has done is help me diagnose an Internet connection problem. It’s behavior is much the same as the old Netscape browser back in good ol’ 1998.
No searchstatus on the list :(, get’s my vote as alexa/pr plugin, plus it has the option of highlighting no-follow links and several more functions. Works like a charm.
I truly adore the Firefox, but the newest version has some challenging non-visible scrollers which seem to not be as obedient [sometimes they react, sometimes they scroll up when I want to go down, etc.] as the visible ones. makes me want to go back to the old one…am I the only one experiencing this?
Well spoke Tim, Firefox has been my browser of choice for years.
Now move up to Thunderbird for mail, and then onward and upward to Linux 🙂
I recommend noscript for security, blocks all javascript unless you whitelist the site (Can be permanent or temporary, with a click on an icon)
[…] You can always find “Essential Firefox Extensions” type posts without having to look too hard these days and especially around the time a new release hits the streets but looking in at my WordPress Admin’s “Dashboard” this evening I came across one of the most unique “extensions” post by Tim Ferris called Pimping Firefox: The Basics (Matt Mullenweg, Garrett Camp, and More). […]
IE7 imitates but doesn’t do anything better than any other browser and brings nothing new to the table. Best used only when needed.
Safari windows is fast but they need to let the OS handle the fonts. As it is the fonts are to small and blurred to be usable. It also has security holes that you could drive a bus through.
Opera, one of the fastest, lightest footprints does just what you need. Get’s the UI right. Sadly, even with 9.5 still no colorawareness feature. I have a wide gamut monitor so Opera gathers dust till they add this feature.
FF3. FF3 has so many great things going for it but the biggest are the plugins. Its biggest problem, instability and bugs but FF3 is vast improvement over the last couple versions of 2. For me FF3 is my #2 choice to Opera but the one feature that lifts FF3 above everyone else that no one has mentioned yet, it’s coloraware like Safari (Apple version only). Its the only way for anyone running windows to get right colors on the web if you have a wide gamut monitor. Its not turned on by default but like most things FF, a plugin comes to the rescue. DL, enable, your wired. Color Management Plugin
I recommend FireShot for taking screen shots and pasting into emails and photoshop.
Thanks for sharing those every important FF extensions, checking them now.
Hey Tim- great post. It was funny to hear Matt’s in Greece I’m reading your post from Mykonos in Greece. Were living the mini retirement lifestyle for the next three weeks and defining alternate activities!
###
Oh, jealousy! I can’t wait to get back to the Greek islands. Top 5 places I’ve been for sure. I love friendly people.
Have fun!
Tim
For Mac users, aside from many of the add-ins above (and 1Password, which was mentioned), I highly recommend downloading an optimized version of Firefox for your specific cpu. The custom versions of firefox run faster than the generic version. See
http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2008/06/18/index
for custom-compiled versions.
I use firefox as much as possible, and I do love it. However, it is far from lightweight. The current instance I have running has two tabs open and is using over 100mb of system resources.
First to J: Yes, I am having those intermittent scrolling problems too. It’s not just you.
I am a long time FF fan as well and I love FF3. People are talking about grabbing screen shots. I have a small utility called Fast Stone Capture that you can run in the quick launch bar. It will get page, frame, scrolling window or there are 2 options to draw your own frame if you only want a section of the page. I’ve had it for years and use it all the time. After it grabs what you want you can re-size, print, save, zoom, write a caption and a tons of other things. Better, it’s shareware. http://www.faststone.org/
Wow… very surprised not to see SearchStatus on this list. Its always been in my top 3 plugins…
A bit of trivia here…
A Firefox is actually a Red Panda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Panda
Apparently, they can be domesticated.
I’m using Flock, which is better than FF if you user web 2.0 services like facebook, twitter, digg etc. These services are built into Flock – FF addons usually work just fine in Flock.
Add-ons I like (not mentioned by Tim):
– twitterbar: great for sharing links fast
– Session Manager (mainly for link recovery after crash)
– PicLens (fast image search)
– FireFtp (great for FTP)
The thing is– correct me if I’m wrong– Firefox 3.0 is not compatible with the Del.ici.ous toolbar! I can’t quick-click sites into my delicious file??? This is a war crime!
Hello Tim,
I am fairly new to the blogging community, and was introduced to your site and your book just yesterday. Your solutions for lifestyle design in the the 4-Hour Workweek, are a true inspiration for any like minded entrepreneur. I know this comment is irrelevant to the post but I was hoping you would give me some advice regarding dodging bullets. My most recent post is the bullet dodging experience I had today.
Tried the Alexa Sparky Extension just now, which pretty much crippled my Firefox 3. Nice roundup either way.
Nice to see you pimping FireFox Tim!
On a social media tip check out shareaholic. It lets you easily share/bookmark websites you like on a host of social news sites/networks quickly…
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5457
Tim,
Great stuff and I’m going to have to check out a few of those, however there is one I have to disagree on. Del.icio.us used to be my defacto form of saving things for future reference. However, I found that with their late-to-the-game strategy of implementing Web2.0 tech, I had to look elsewhere.
Evernote has become invaluable to me for all the same reasons as Del.icio.us used to be… However, no more dead links and many more options for search and recovery. Enjoy!!
I already use google toolbar with ff2 and many other plugins, but i think i need to use Alexa Sparky Toolbar. anyways… there are many important plugins that i use, and that do not support ff3, so its good idea for me to wait few months more before migration..
Hello Timothy,
I emailed your tech people, who redirected me to you. FYI, I have been trying to get the sample 6 month dreamline and blank dreamline off of the website, but keep getting an error message that says “file is damaged and cannot be repaired”
Is there any other way to get this worksheet?
Thanks,
Frances
###
Hi Frances,
I can’t duplicate the problem from this page: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/lifestyle-costing/
I’ve asked Jared, who created one of the forms, to check it out as well.
Cheers,
Tim
@seoulkaa
I thought the same thing until I searched for it a few weeks ago. There is a del.ici.ous toolbar that is compatible with FF 3. FF never found any updates for the del.ici.ous toolbar I was running, so I had to manually update it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615
firefox 3.0 is the shiznit. you might also wanna try seoquake instead of the seo toolbar. theres a feature that lets you sort google search results based on pr.
@ Frances,
I can’t duplicate the problem from this page: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/lifestyle-costing/
I’ve asked Jared, who created one of the forms, to check it out as well.
Good luck!
Tim
Firefox rocks. Been using it regularly now since version 3.0 and I find its a really improved product and runs very well without a hitch. I am primarily an Opera fan, but Firefox 3.0 is really good and impressive especially in terms of performance. I am impressed to say the least.
[…] bin ich auf diesen Blogpost gestoßen, in dem Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) und Garrett Camp (StumbleUpon) von ihren […]
Hello! Excellent topic. And in the spirit of time-saving, I recommend:
1-Click Weather
Can run in your status bar with current and forecasted weather. Quickest way to figure out what you’re gonna wear tomorrow.
Clipmarks
Do a lot of research online? Clipmarks is the fastest and most convenient way to “highlight” the web and save your highlights in one, access-from-anywhere repository.
Colorzilla
I believe someone mentioned this already, but really it deserves being mentioned again. This is the fastest way to pick up a hex color. Which makes it great not only for designers, but also for developers.
Cooliris Previews
I use this addon not so much for its main previewing-a-link feature (which is also a time-saver), but so far it is the fastest way to forward a web page to someone (right-click on the page, choose Cooliris – Send link, enter an email address, and off it goes – though I would like to email the creator to suggest the email address field remember and pre-populate the addresses you’ve entered before).
Dictionary Tooltip
Someone already mentioned this one as well, but thought I should add that you can also very easily and very quickly look up alternate definitions in other dictionaries listed in the tool. Awesome if you’re writing an essay or term paper.
Fireshot
Also mentioned already, but thought I should add not only can you quickly make a screengrab of a web page, you can also edit and crop the image in seconds!
FoxyTunes
Control iTunes from your browser’s status bar! Saves me tons of time when I’m developing and simultaneously boppin’ to my favorite beats.
Web Developer
Also already mentioned, but thought I should add that the combination of this addon and Firebug has significantly reduced the amount of time I spend testing and re-testing different coding solutions, especially when you’re working with controlled development environments where you’re not allowed to play around with alternative solutions. These two together turn your browser into your very own development sandbox!
Those are my favs. Hope other people can use them to save time.
And thanks so much, Tim, for your life design guidance. My latest application of one of your suggestions is no more multi-tasking at work. Benefits so far: the quality of my work is up; it forces me to save time in more effective ways so as to keep up with quantity; and the pain in my shoulders from stress has actually decreased.
This Argentine-American thanks you! If you’re ever in Los Angeles and want to try the best empanadas and flan in your life, drop me an email! My mother’s empanadas and flan are famous within the San Gabriel Valley Argentine community. ;o)
Where are you reading about “Thinking Systems” and “Charlie Munger”? Where are you moving to? It sounds like you like the SF area so I bet not too far from there.
Its ironic that I just discovered Firefox prior to reading this post. It didn’t take me long to convert.
The SEO functionality alone makes it a no brainer, IMO. 🙂
@Sean,
I’ll be talking more about thinking systems soon. Much to discuss. Where am I moving to? Where the wind takes me, of course 🙂 Tomorrow, off to FL, then NY.
Pura vida,
Tim
I use IE6 because that what they make us use here at Bank of America. I wish they would understand firefox. Thats Legacy stuff for you right.
Firefox is a laggard. Seriously, take a look at IE beta 8, it rocks and you can do stuff on the web you didn’t even think was possible.
I use FoxyProxy with ssh tunnels to browse inside clients’ networks; it’s a huge timesaver. Also TwitterFox – I don’t need all of those tweets on my phone, so I read most using TwitterFox.
Most excellent. We all get busy and forget to take time to sharpen our saw …
Hey Tim! Hope u’re well. Just catching up on your blog. Great post on my favorite web browser. Some great plugins listed in your post and comments.
One that no one has mentioned yet – QuickNote. Sidebar or Tab with up to 4 note pages. V. useful for jotting stuff down if needing. 🙂
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/46
With the new firefox3, lots of old plugins were rendered useless, but just over the last couple of days for example ImageShack has come out with the new plugins. Great for image uploads. Will write up more on this and a few other great plugins worth mentioning on my new personal blog and will link it over to yours too.
Take care
Vince
I am one of those 36% of non-FF users. The thing is I have only one computer, my work laptop, on which i cannot install anything! Thought of getting another laptop for home, but that sounds wasteful and honestly I don’t need another computer. Is my logic wrong on this one?
To those who are saying they use a work computer, you can pick up portable versions of Firefox and other apps at portableapps.com. Just install them on a usb stick and you can run your browser through there, meaning you can get all the add-ons you like and also, since your cache is on the usb stick, don’t have to worry about your work finding any of those “private” sites you visit 😉
In the process of catching up with my blog reading I had to add to the flood of responses to this post. I love Firefox not because it’s faster than IE (it’s not), but because of the add-ons – and they work! Three of my favorite add-ons that are not mentioned in your posts or subsequent comments are Session Manager, Morning Coffee, and ScribeFire. I listed others in a post on my blog; http://paretopluspeter.blogspot.com/
Very helpful post. Thanks for the tips! From one Firefox user to another…
One of my guy friends just heard you speak in at the NSA conference last week, and he told me that I had to subscribe to you. Right on. I am looking for that blog entry about outsourcing dating. Is there one? I need to do that.
What are your thoughts on Google Analytics? Do you use it?… I find it more accurate than Alexa.
Here are a couple more FF extensions I use that I didn’t see above:
* Pearl Crescent extension for capturing a screen shot of a web page
http://pearlcrescent.com/products/pagesaver/
* Fission – adds a “progress bar” as your web page is loading in FF
I was one of the non firefox people until my computer was so slow I was encouraged for the millionth time to start using firefox. Can’t believe it took me so long. Hopefully I’ll move faster on putting on the extensions.
Tim,
I recently read your book and when looking for my muse I realized what I’m an expert in… Property Taxes!! lol. I’ve been working for the LA County Assessor’s Office for five years and know them like the back of my hand. I know things that most who work in my office don’t know. I have the knowledge to help hundreds of thousands in California save thousands of dollars. I understand how the law works and how it can help people when applied creatively. I want your input on this since I do work for a gov’t organization and it is very taboo to share ‘secrets.’ Also, there may be some liability. However, this informational/audio CD that I am in the process of creating could be HUGE!! And help so many! I’m freaked out though. Please help!
Sincerely,
Valerie
I love firefox 2.0 – my experience with 3.0 is not so great
– Ronin
This is my contribute to Zotero.
It does not replace an application that I know, so I will not compare it to any.
It’s a research tool that lets you download pages, highlight content, make notes on them and even write up mini-reports. Many information sites support Zotero and are able to give Zotero all the bibliography information needed. Zotero, with one click, can export bibliography info in many different forms (even print them directly). Because Zotero saves webpages, you can work offline. It’s a must for any high school or college student. Also, don’t worry about crashes. Every letter you type is saved when you type it with no noticeable lag time.
I too have loved firefox, but found stome instability when visiting facebook. Not real sure why. Someone above mentioned Flock, which was also interesting and seems to work pretty well.
It seems to work better for me to use both IE8 & FF depending on just what I want to do. I have found that FF does have some really cool seo plugins.
Personally I use both Chrome and Firefox. Chrome is definitely faster but firefox is what I’ve been using for years now so making the switch wouldn’t be easy with firefox having all that fancy addons. I know I won’t be dropping firefox anytime soon.
I agree about how firefox has some really cool add on. Since I use Microsoft CRM that currently only runs uses IE I am forced to have both browsers.
Prepared to begin acquiring several severe folks to your site?