Firefox 2.0 last days. Final security updates from Mozilla

Mozilla is considering just two more security updates for Firefox 2.0 before it retires the browser at the end of this year.

"We're starting to consult the [development] community for feedback," said Mike Beltzner, the director of Firefox, prior to setting a final 'end-of-life' date. If all goes according to plan, the last update for the older browser will be Firefox 2.0.0.19. The current build of Firefox 2.0 is 2.0.0.17, which was released last month to patch 14 vulnerabilities.

Mozilla's policy is to support a browser for six months after it's been superseded by a new version. The company unveiled Firefox 3.0 in mid-June; shortly after that, Mozilla announced that it would stop patching Firefox 2.0 later in the year.

Beltzner confirmed Wednesday that Firefox 2.0 remains on track for retirement by the end of December.

He also noted that a majority of Firefox 2.0 users have taken advantage of an upgrade offer to Firefox 3.0 that Mozilla triggered two months ago. "Presently two-thirds of our users are using Firefox 3, with more than 50% accepting the first major upgrade offer back in late August," said Beltzner in message posted early Wednesday to the Mozilla site.

One user on the mozilla.dev.planning message forum asked Beltzner how the end-of-life for Firefox would affect Thunderbird 2.0, the e-mail client that's built on the same Gecko foundation as Firefox 2.0, or other applications, such as SeaMonkey or Camino, also based on Gecko 1.8.1. "Based on the current [Thunderbird 3] release planning, [Thunderbird 3] will be released 3-4 months after the Gecko 1.8 [end-of-life], when [Thunderbird 2] is still the stable release," said Simon Paquet.

Thunderbird, which is developed and maintained by Mozilla Messaging Inc., a Mozilla Corp. spin-off, is considerably behind Firefox in its shift toward version 3.0, which is based on the Gecko 1.9 tree. Earlier this month, for example, Mozilla Messaging renamed what had originally been Beta 1 of Thunderbird 3.0 as, in fact, a third alpha. Previously, Mozilla Messaging had said the first release candidate for Thunderbird 3.0 would likely ship in late January, with a final some time after that.

Currently, the Thunderbird timetable omits any dates after Nov. 18, when Beta 1 is to enter "code freeze" status.

But the demise of Firefox 2.0 support doesn't mean that Thunderbird 2.0 users will be left out to dry, Beltzner said today, making an effort to differentiate work on Firefox from the underlying Gecko engine. "The end of support for Firefox 2.0 doesn't mean that [developers] won't be able to work on the Gecko code," he said. "It just means that our focus won't be on actively maintaining that [1.8] branch [of Gecko]."

Other Mozilla developers had responded previously to Paquet's concern about a lack of patches for Thunderbird, noting that during earlier end-of-life moves, programmers continued to support the e-mail client.

"Mozilla, in some form, will provide support for Thunderbird based on the official lifecycle policy, like we did for 1.0 and 1.5," said Michael Conner, of Mozilla, in a message posted in late September.

"Even after we did the end-of-life for Firefox 1.5 [in May], developers who were employed by Mozilla Corp., and members of the Gecko community would respond to patch request from the Thunderbird team," added Beltzner.

New Beta version of Chrome available

Google just released a new beta version of Chrome, Google's first web browser, which addresses a number of issues we had noticed in earlier releases. Besides improving the performance and stability of a number of plugins, including Flash, Sliverlight, and Quicktime, as well as fixing some security issues, Google also finally added the ability to add words to the built-in spell checker.

Other updates include fixes to scrolling with laptop touchpads and better reliability for those users who access the web through a proxy server.

If you are using Chrome, your browser will update itself in the next few days, or, if you are impatient, you can also just download the new version directly or go to "About Google Chrome" and see if the update is already available for you.

Trojan Horse?

Earlier this month, we also wondered if Google was positioning Chrome as a Trojan horse for indexing password protected sites. Earlier versions of Chrome would take a snapshot of every site you visited, whether it was password protected or not, which gave rise to some speculations about Google's motivations beyond creating a searchable index of those sites on a user's desktop. Now, Google explicitly states that Chrome no longer stores data from secure sites that use https: and show a lock in the address bar.

Security Updates

Google also addressed a serious security flaw that was discovered just after the first release of Chrome in September. This flaw had the potential to trick users into opening potentially malevolent files, but now, Google will ask users for permission to open these files. Chrome now also saves every executable file with a .download extension and only converts them to their real file names after you confirm that you want to save them.

Speed

We also tested this new version of Chrome with the SunSpider and Dromaeo benchmarks. In both cases, Chrome showed a clear improvement in performance over the first beta version, even though Google did not mention any performance improvements in the release notes.

Mozilla launches mobile Firefox working on PCs too

A short time after we knew that Mozilla is willing to launch a mobile phone version, The version has been released and named “Fennec” additionally runs on PCs too !

For testing mobile Firefox you can use Nokia’s N810 which is an MID tablet, Don’t have a N810 ? take it easy, Mozilla is going to release other versions for Mac, Windows, Linux to get the max users test .

Code Base
The surprise is that Fennec uses the same code base just like Firefox 3.1 beta full-fledged computers.

Fennec Features .
here is some features which are support in this alpha version .

• touch-screen support
• password manager
• pop-up blocker
• Firefox-style tab-browsing interface

IE Web Developer toolbar

Firefox has Firebug, Chrome has Chrome Inspector - everybody knows this. But do you know that there is also a similar tool for Internet Explorer? Even if Internet Explorer Developer toolbar is not as strong as its counterpart from Firefox still this addon is the one to use when you want to solve the most buggy browser. Among its main features:

• Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page.
• Locate and select specific elements on a Web page through a variety of techniques.
• Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
• View HTML object class names, ID's, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
• Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
• Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS web feed links.
• Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
• Immediately resize the browser window to a new resolution.
• Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
• Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align and measure objects on your pages.
• Find the style rules used to set specific style values on an element.
• View the formatted and syntax colored source of HTML and CSS.

The Developer Toolbar can be pinned to the Internet Explorer browser window or floated separately.

AdBlock for Chrome (and other browsers)

One of the bad sides of Chorme is that you can't block the ads. Flash advertisments that cover the whole page are a big pain for anyone. However there is a solution for this. It's called BFilter (click on the link for download) and it acts as a local proxy. Very configurable it can work for any brwser installed on your system. It can even import the AdBlock filter lists database.

BFilter is a filtering web proxy. It was originally intended for removing banner ads only, but since then its capabilities have been greatly extended. Unlike most of the similar tools, it doesn't rely on blacklists (although it does support them). The problem with blacklists is that advertisers are always one step ahead. You see an ad slip through, you update your blacklist, and in case it didn't help, you add a new entry yourself.

The result? A much nicer browsing.

Have fun !

P.S. It filters the Yahoo Mess adverts (no matter the version)

Enhance and improve Firefox’s usability with these essential addons.

Firefox is impressive but how can you make it more useable? Try some of these addons that help improve the browsers ability to handle the most demanding users.

1. Text Link

This addon does a real simple job. It makes any non-HTML formatted URI like say “oxyweb.co.uk” into a clickable link so that anything that looks like a link can be double-clicked to open it up on the same page, new tab or new window. It’s clever, it does it across many lines and when an accidental space has been put into the link. I used to use Linkification but this alternative covers more bases.

2. ScreenGrab! (& ScreenGrab! with Online Upload)

A saviour for bloggers, web designers and anyone who needs to prove a point. ScreenGrab! screenshots whole pages aswell as selections and the visible portion. It also has a “Copy” only option so rather than save a screenshot, it copies to the clipboard which makes it great for pasting into other apps like Photoshop (for doing mock ups).

The even more useful ScreenGrab! with Online Upload, an experimental addon created by imagebam.com which will take your screenshot and upload it to it’s free image hosting website. Cool enhancement.

3. Add Bookmark Here ²

Although I love the idea of pressing a little star on the Awesome bar to bookmark a URL, but i’m not a huge fan of Firefoxs bookmarks implementation. I tend to stay more organised with the use of this addon which puts a “Add Bookmark Here” option in every folder so you can bookmark quickly and stay organised.

4. Stealther

We won’t go into reasons but sometimes you do wish that there was no history of you visiting to certain websites. We’ll just say you have to. Press the Stealthier button and from then on anything you do will not be logged so no URLs in the address bar, no cache, no cookies, nothing. I

This is the best implementation of a privacy browsing mode - better than Google Chromes implementation because it’s just a button click away as opposed to a new window appearing. Alternatively try Distrust.

5. Foxmarks Bookmark and Password Synchronize

If you use more than one computer with Firefox you’ll love this tool, heck if you use Firefox you’ll love this addon. It makes a secure online backup of your bookmarks and synchronizes them across many computers. Since version 2.5 it can optionally synchronise your Firefox passwords too. - securely of course (You’ve probably heard of this addon).

6. Shareoholic

If you’re a fan of user submitted content sites like Digg and Reddit or some of the lesser known ones like Ma.gnolia or Simpy then you’ll love Shareholic. It’s a button and context menu submission tool that can submit to a plethora of different sites with just a couple of clicks.

7. Video DownloadHelper

This really is the best addon for downloading videos it works with dozens and dozens of video websites and most importantly it does it seamlessly.

8. Morning Coffee

Perhaps everyday, like m,e you visit digg.com and every Monday and Friday you have a look at your Google Analytics account oh and every Wednesday you need a failblog pickup then this addon takes the incessant clicking out of the equation. Just select the day and it opens up the URLS for that day. I’m sure you can use this for much more productive uses but it suits me fine.

Alternatively Speed Dial and Fast Dial are both popular but no where near as good as Google Chrome’s implementaion which picks the websites automatically. Firefox camp is sussing things out.

9. PermaTab Mod (& PermaTab Beta)

This little addon makes a tab sticky so you can’t accidentally close it. I find this invaluable when watching videos online at BBC iPlayer or having music playing via last.fm. It’s an experimental addon so you have to log in or visit the Permatabs support page for the latest beta

I hope you like the list of firefox addons that I can’t do without. If there’s another addon which you can’t do with or have something to say, leave a comment below.

Chrome Under Linux Part 2

Not yet; at least not any official native release by Google that we know about. But if you would really like to try out chrome without the hassle of having to install MS windows in a virtual machine, try out Crossover Chromium. This is not a native port of chrome for linux, but a package installer with wine embedded. Also, this is nowhere close to being as stable as it is under windows and as rightfully pointed out by the developers; this is essentially a proof of concept to show Wine’s capabilities of running native windows application. Packages are available for debian and RPM based linux systems; Mac OS build is also available. Have Fun.

Firefox Minefield: Fastest browser

If you are not happy that you can’t get to try a native chrome, arguably the fastest browser out there (chromium is not so stable); give Firefox Minefield a shot. Even though it’s an early Alpha build, under the hood, it has the fastest javascript engine out there. There are faster javascript engines, but none of them are released bundled with any browsers yet. (not that I know of).

- Download and install the latest nightly build.

- Start tracemonkey javascript engine by going to about:config and enabling the option javascript.options.jit.content.

- Browse websites blazingly fast!

According to some tests it is 10% faster than Google Chrome.

Firefox Minefield - A glitch in the future

A colleague today showed me a cool, new browser that he's been using to browse the web at blisteringly fast speeds. The browser? Minefield. The author of the code?
Mozilla.
Yes, that same Mozilla that makes the Firefox browser. Minefield is, in fact, a way to glimpse into the future of Firefox, as it's a pre-release/alpha version of the Firefox browser.
After spending some time with Minefield, one thing is clear: the future of Firefox is fast. Lightning fast.
How fast? Some claim that it has the fastest javascript engine on the planet, which means it leaves Google's Chrome browser in the dust. In my own unscientific tests, I'd say that this assertion is correct. Ars Technica pegs Minefield as 10 percent faster than Chrome.
You can download the latest nightly build for Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows, but be warned: it's alpha code. While a quick scan of the Web shows few complaints as to stability, Minefield may not be for you. It doesn't support some of my favorite Firefox extensions (like Adblock Plus), but it actually has surprisingly good support for extensions, given that it's a fast-moving project.
Feeling brave? Or simply feeling like your browser is too slow? Give Minefield a try. It's a separate install so it won't affect an existing Firefox install. You have nothing to lose but your chains.

Opera 10 - the next step for Opera

Opera, a Norwegian firm, makes browsers for devices ranging from the PC to mobile phones and games consoles. It released an incremental version, 9.6, for the desktop last Wednesday, prompting a million downloads in a day. Version 10 will be more significant, according to the company's web evangelist, Bruce Lawson.

Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk on Monday, Lawson said Opera 9.6 had performance improvements, but conceded that many users, especially of Apple, found the browser unpleasant on the eye.

"There's been a lot of criticism from some quarters that Opera on the desktop looks a bit shite, especially on the Mac," Lawson said. "I personally feel it feels busier than it is. [In Opera 10] the whole look and feel are being seen to — it's what our customers are looking for. If we want it to be a tool, it's got to be pleasing to work with."

Lawson said the firm had hired the British designer Jon Hicks to rework Opera's user interface and "make it look prettier". Hicks is best known for having created the Firefox logo.

Read this

Ten reasons to switch to Opera

Read more

Lawson and his colleague, product manager Roberto Mateu, declined to list possible features that may appear in Opera 10, saying that such features are subject to change ahead of launch. They did, however, say the version would go into its alpha release by the end of 2008, around the same time as the low-end mobile-phone version, Opera Mini 4.2, goes into beta.

As for Opera 9.6, the browser can now synchronise the user's typed browsing history across any devices using the Opera Link synchronisation feature. The built-in email client, Opera Mail, also now supports a "low-bandwidth mode" for those users with slow connections, and offers the option of ignoring "less important [conversation] threads and contacts with a single click".

A multi-column feed preview has also been integrated into Opera 9.6's RSS reader, allowing users to view a feed's contents before subscribing to that feed. New languages are also supported in the updated browser: Indonesian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.

Asked whether the release of Google Chrome had had any effect on the Opera team, Lawson said the team had been "mostly pleased", due to the coverage afforded by Chrome to browsers that are not Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).

"People saw [Chrome] on the news and realised there is an alternative to IE," Lawson said. "People are now aware there is a market."

Lawson also claimed Chrome was "not a competitor" to Opera, as it was not pursuing Opera's "main constituency". "Most people who use Opera are comparatively tech-literate," he said, adding that Opera was nonetheless trying to widen its appeal beyond this set.

How to use Firefox 3.1 without removing your stable version

Recently Mozilla announced about the release of Firefox 3.1 beta 1 which has claimed to be the fastest browser ever.  But this is still a beta version and a final stable version is still awaited.

However if you are a Firefox addict like me, you might want to test the Firefox 3.1 without messing up your current installation of Firefox.

Then here is the solution. An USB Portable Version of Firefox 3.1b1 has been released.

This allows you to check out all the latest features in Firefox 3.1 without hampering your current Firefox installation. This is also a ready to use package i.e. you just need to double click it and you can start using it right away without any installation.

You can also carry it in any USB, Memory Sticks or Flash Drives and start using it on any computer without installing Firefox at all.

Download Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Version

Firefox 3.1 beta first look impressions

At first sight

The first public beta of Firefox 3.1 offers a handful of new features such as a 3D preview during tab switching, location awareness, better compliance with web standards and much improved JavaScript performance. Additional features planned for the beta 2 include a new privacy browsing mode, an Opera-like Speed Dial feature, improved private data deletion and URL bar tweaks. But clearly, if we trim the features down to what matters most, speed is the primary battle that is fought in the browser arena these days - and Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 sports dramatic speed gains. Chrome, Safari and Firefox are in a neck and neck race, while IE8 is left in the dust. In fact, the recent improvements leave us scratching our heads what Microsoft is doing right now. As it looks right now, IE8 could end up as the Windows Vista of the browser market – a software that holds the majority of the market, but has to give up market share with very little opportunity for defense.

In reaction to Chrome and the recent JavaScript (JS) engine optimization in Safari 4 beta, Mozilla decided to add a few more weeks to the Firefox 3.1 development schedule. "We're watching other browsers as much as they're watching us," said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's interim vice president of engineering. The extra time will come in handy to tweak the JS and rendering engine and iron out new features. The first results of this effort are now visible in Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 (FF31) that delivers some of the planned new features, with more features being expected to arrive with the beta 2 (code freeze on November 4) and the final version that is planned to be released before the end of the year.


A closer look: New Firefox 3.1 beta 1 features

- JS speed gains: Mozilla claims JS speed gains of up to 40x thanks to an optimized engine called TraceMonkey. There is virtually no way to verify this claim in a real world browsing experience, but at least subjectively, sites like Facebook and Google Docs feel much snappier. Complex layouts render noticeably faster, courtesy of the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering engine. In a side-by-side comparison, Firefox 3.1 beta 1 eliminates many delays we are used to today when a layout is built in the browser window. Even complex pages are built almost instantly. 

Earlier today, our managing editor wrote that "the new Firefox plays in the same league as Google Chrome." And subjectively, I believe that this is a fair statement. In direct comparison, Chrome still seemed to have a slight edge on our system, but the difference was negligible. We here at TG Daily believe that there is true value in those speed gains as it makes your browsing much more efficient, reduces wait times and prepares the browser for future applications. This is by far the most noteworthy browser enhancement since the introduction of phishing filters.

- HTML

Fennec browser ported to Windows Mobile

Mozilla has been making significant headway with its mobile browsing efforts. Building on the extensive work that was done to reduce Firefox's memory consumption leading up to the 3.0 release, Mozilla aims to bring a desktop-like browsing experience to handheld devices. The organization launched the Fennec project to begin experimenting with mobile platform portability and with mobile user interface concepts.

When we took our first look at Fennec earlier this year, we pointed to work done by developer Brad Lassey to port XULRunner and Gecko to Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform. These efforts have accelerated and the results are extremely impressive. Screenshots posted this weekend by Lassey and other developers demonstrate the Fennec browser, including both the renderer and the user interface, running on Windows Mobile devices.

In a recent screenshot, he shows the browser's current status on Acid 3, a test devised by the Web Standards Project to help browser implementors evaluate the extent of their compliance with certain web standards. Fennec on Windows Mobile scores 88 out of 100 on the test. This puts it ahead off Opera Mobile 9.51, which scores 71 out of 100.

Mozilla is also working on an ARM port of Tracemonkey, Firefox's new high-performance JavaScript engine. Some early benchmarks that were published last month are extremely impressive. The developers say that there is still plenty of room for further optimization.

Mozilla is clearly serious about bringing the full power of Firefox to multiple mobile platforms. The open source web browser is evolving quickly and could soon be a serious competitor to Opera Mobile on Windows Mobile devices.

New Google Chrome Show Greasemonkey Support

Recently the latest beta builds from Google Chrome are said to have basic Greasemonkey support. With emphasis on basic.

According to Martin at gHacks, the fact that Google doesn’t yet support an extension system within Chrome means that there are some pretty significant ifs and buts about what’s possible and what’s not with the addition of Greasemonkey. Script loading and a metadata issues are purported to be conflict prone.

As Martin writes, “Only scripts in c:\scripts are loaded and only if the user adds the parameter ‘–enable-greasemonkey’ by appending it to the program’s shortcut.” He goes on to explain that, “The scripts are not limited to a domain but will work on all domains which is usually handled by the @include metadata. The metadata part is ignored which could be problematic….”

The reason for Greasemonkey’s emergence in Chrome, however stifled, is because the software’s creator, Aaron Boodman, is a Google employee, as Google Operating System’s Alex Chitu describes.

If you’re looking to give the latest Greasemonkey-enhanced Chrome build, you can venture over to the Chromium BuildBot website. You’re able to download the most recent development, but keep in mind that stability is not guaranteed.

Fennec: Mozilla browser for Mobile devices

Mozilla Has Officially launched its Mobile version of Browser Under The codename “Fennec”


The first release is for OS2008 ("Maemo") Platform which is there in Nokia N810 Internet tablet.

The reviewer are quite amazed with The interface of this new browser and are saying that its going 

to be hit soon.


Few amazing Feature of This Browser ( Fennec):

• Bookmarking and that too with Tags
• Tabbed Browsing Support
• Easy Access To major Search Engines
• Inbuilt Pop-Up Blocker
• Password Manager( I love this Feature)
• Download Manager
• Customization and Preference Tab

Another top with 25 best and most useful addons for Firefox

Mozilla Firefox, undoubtedly the best browser is so famous for its Add-ons. Here is a list of 25 Best and Most useful Add-ons for Firefox 3. The add-ons are small applications for the browser that will enhance the browsing experience and will also perform many useful operations. There are many add-ons available for Firefox but I have handpicked best of the best and most Popular and Useful add-ons that you should have installed.

You can check the Tips and Tricks of Firefox to Make Firefox Faster. You can even Optimize Firefox for Best Performance. You can go to the particular add-ons page by clicking on the name of the add-on. The list of the 25 best add-ons will be as follows..

COMFORT

All-in-One Sidebar :

All-in-One Sidebar (AiOS) is an award-winning sidebar control, inspired by Opera’s. It lets you quickly switch between sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar.

Down Them All :

The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox. It is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400% and it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time.

Interclue :

Ever wanted to know what was behind the link before you clicked? Interclue tells you everything you need to know before you open yet another tab. Small icons appear on mouseover to warn you about dead links, Malware or Phishing Sites, etc, and for any valid links Interclue provides compact link previews, relevant extra information and useful next action buttons.

Cool Previews :

CoolPreviews (formerly known as Cooliris Previews) gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the preview window immediately appears to show you the content. To email it, just click.

IE Tab :

It is used for Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your web page displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.

SECURITY

AdBlock Plus :

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. It will block most advertisements fully automatically.

FoxyProxy :

FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox’s limited proxying capabilities. It offers more features than SwitchProxy, ProxyButton, QuickProxy, xyzproxy, ProxyTex, TorButton, etc.

No Script :

The best security you can get in a web browser! Allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS attacks. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice.

Secure Login :

Secure Login is a login extension for Mozilla Firefox integrated password manager. Its main feature is similar to Opera’s (the browser) Wand login.

MULTIMEDIA

Fireshot :

FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations. Such functionality will be especially useful for web designers, testers and content reviewers.

FoxyTunes :

FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser. It supports almost every music player like Winamp,itunes etc.

G Space :

This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (4.1 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.

Cooliris :

Full-Screen, 3D — Cooliris (formerly known as PicLens) transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for searching, viewing, and sharing online photos and videos. Its “3D Wall” lets you effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, news feeds, sports feeds, and more.

Video Download Helper :

The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. It is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video, audio and image files from many sites.

COMMUNITY

Blog RovR :

If you don’t have time to read ALL those Blogs! RovR does it for you. It fetches posts from your favorite blogs about anything you’re browsing, and shows you summaries you can open read posts without leaving the web page you were on. It also suggests popular items AND lets you Twitter about any site you’re on too.

Chat Zilla :

A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. It provides all the usual IRC client features: multiple servers, a built-in list of standard networks, easy searching and sorting of available channels, logging, and DCC chat and file transfers, plus easy customization with JavaScript plug-ins and CSS styling.

Locator :

It is used to Locate highlighted address on Google map: simply highlight the address, right click with mouse, select ‘Locate on Google Map’ in popup menu and your place will be shown on Google map.

Reminder Fox :

ReminderFox displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo’s. It does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar. It makes sure you remember all of your important dates via easy-to-use lists, alerts, and alarm notifications.

SamePlace :

Extensible instant messaging client based on the XMPP (Jabber) protocol. Accesses Jabber, GTalk, Twitter, MSN, AIM (and more, via gateways). It REQUIRES the xmpp4moz extension (download it from http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3632/ )

PROFESSIONAL

FireBug :

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

FireFTP :

FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.It includes more advanced features such as: directory comparison, syncing directories while navigating, SFTP, SSL encryption, search/filtering, integrity checks, remote editing, drag & drop, file hashing, and much more!

Stylish :

Customize the look of the application and of websites with Stylish, a user styles manager. User styles empower your browsing experience by letting you fix ugly sites, customize the look of your browser or mail client, or just have fun.

SQLite Manager :

Manage any SQLite database on your computer. An intuitive hierarchical tree showing database objects. Helpful dialogs to manage tables, indexes, views and triggers. You can browse and search the tables, as well as add, edit and delete the records. Facility to execute any sql query.

Web Developer :

Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. It is very much useful for the developers to access different tools they need.

Greasemonkey :

Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript. You can get hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at http://userscripts.org.

Along with these there are many such add-ons which will provide you with various functions to make your browsing experience interesting. Share your favourite Firefox add-ons here. Bookmark and share this post, if you like and Happy Browsing..!!

Groundbreaking Addons that Mozilla tests

Finding new and useful Firefox extensions is a passion of ours, but sometimes we run across extensions adorning the daunting "Experimental" moniker at the Firefox Add-ons web site. We try to avoid these extensions as much as possible because they haven't been vetted by the folks at Mozilla, but even more importantly, we hate requiring our readers to register and sign into a web site just to download an extension. Most of the extensions that have hit the Experimental phase are ready to go despite their name; they just need a little extra push to get over the approval process. We've covered three awesome experimental extensions once before, and now we're back with a look at three more experimental Firefox extensions we're excited about.

Note: As I mentioned above, Mozilla hasn't officially approved these extensions, so do proceed with caution.

UrlbarExt

UrlbarExt adds six small buttons to the Awesome Bar adding gobs of wildly useful functionality. From left to right, here's what they do:

1. Copies the current URL to you clipboard.
2. Creates a Tiny URL from the current URL, then pastes the results in the address bar. Works great in conjunction with the copy button after the Tiny URL is created!
3. Runs a Google site-specific search using the site you're visiting as a starting point (e.g., site:lifehacker.com hackintosh). Right-click this button to enter your query.
4. Moves up the URL path one level or directory at the time. So if you were visiting http://lifehacker.com/5058888/five-best-media-converters, clicking once would bring you tohttp://lifehacker.com/tag/. Double-clicking this button takes you straight to the root (e.g., http://lifehacker.com/).
5. Click this icon to open a drop-down for quickly bookmarking andapplying tags to the current page.
6. Want to do a little anonymous browsing? Click this button to surf anonymously or access filtered web sites automatically by redirecting your traffic through proxy servers. There's no set up—just click it and go. If you want to customize the proxy server, try the cached version of a page, or use the site's IP rather than the domain (which can get you around some blocking software), right-click this button for more options.

You Old Enough?

You Old Enough bypasses YouTube's age check verification, allowing you to watch any video on YouTube without logging in or registering for a YouTube account. Let's be honest: The whole age verification thing is kind of a joke to begin with, since all it requires is a user claiming to be old enough. On top of that, videos that require you to log in aren't always the kind of video you're excited to add to your account history. With the You Old Enough extension installed, a new pop-up window containing the video opens whenever you stumble onto a YouTube video that requires age verification, completely bypassing the login or registration requirement. Handy.

TV Manager

Like TV? The TV Manager extension lets you browse listings and set alarms for your favorite programs from the comfort of your browser. The extension supports most US channels and is completely customizable. If you set an alarm on a show, TV Manager displays a simple reminder when the show is about to start (perfect for ending your Wikipedia run before you miss your show).

Smarter Session Restore from Firefox 3.1

The nightly builds of Firefox 3.1 have added a significant improvement to the session restore dialog you normally see after a crashed browsing session. The upshot: Rather than displaying a modal dialog that requires you to restore your old session or start from scratch, Firefox will display anabout:sessionrestore tab in which you can selectively disable any tab or window from the previous session before you continue with the restore. If you suspect any web site of causing your crash, the option to disable it from the session restore is a real boon. It may not be as good as Google Chrome's per-tab process isolation—which ensures that no single tab can bring down any other—but it's still better than finding yourself with a choice between a crash loop or losing your saved session altogether.

SquirrelFish Extreme : 4x faster JavaScripts

AppleInsider is reporting that the next version of Safari, which will be 4.0, will support SquirrelFish Extreme, which is fast fast FAST with JavaScript.

A new bench at WebKit.org presents performances of SquirrelFish Extreme, that is said to be at least two times faster than the previously announced SquirrelFish javascript engine some months ago (brougth a high performance bytecode interpreter), the later still being two times faster than Safari 3.1 javascript engine (WebKit 3.1).

SquirrelFish Extreme uses more advanced techniques, including fast native code generation, to deliver even more JavaScript performance. Benchmarks can be found Squirrelfish Extreme benchmarks can be found on the "Summer of Javascriptcore" blog. As seen, it claims to be faster than both Squirrelfish, Google's V8, and the upcoming Firefox javascript engine, Tracemonkey.

Firefox 3.1 beta realse first comments

Mozilla has announced the availability of the first Firefox 3.1 beta release, an important development milestone for the popular open source web browser. Mozilla aims to make Firefox 3.1 a strong incremental improvement with user interface enhancements, new features, and increased support for emerging web standards. The new beta release includes a modest handful of noteworthy changes that improve the user experience.

Mozilla had originally planned to start code freeze for beta 1 in the middle of August, but decided to delay the beta release and do an additional alpha release instead.

The beta includes Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which uses tracing optimization to deliver a massive performance boost that makes it faster than Google Chrome's V8 engine. Although it still falls short of Apple's recent Squirrelfish Extreme project, the Mozilla developers say that TraceMonkey still leaves plenty of room for additional optimization.

Although TraceMonkey is finally included in beta 1, the new engine isn't actually enabled by default. It is still under heavy development and it reportedly exhibits some bugs that could impact JavaScript reliability. To configure TraceMonkey in beta 1, browse to "about:config" and then toggle the "javascript.options.jit.content" variable.

Another major feature that is included in this release is Mozilla's new implementation of the W3C Geolocation Specification. It allows web applications to obtain information about the user's geographical location through a simple JavaScript API. In beta 1, this functionality is built on top of the Loki web service, which is supplied by Skyhook and determines the user's position by comparing local WiFi access points with information in its global reference database. For privacy reasons, the browser will automatically prompt the user before supplying a web site with geolocation data.

Several web sites already have basic support for the feature, including Yahoo's Fire Eagle and the Pownce microblogging service. We tested it with Outside.in Radar, a new web service that displays news headlines and other information about things that are near the user's current location. Earlier this month, Mozilla Labs also released the Geolocation Specification implementation as a Firefox 3.0 extension called Geode so that users and developers can start testing the functionality and incorporating support for the APIs into their web applications without having to use Firefox 3.1 prerelease versions.

In addition to these new features, beta 1 also includes a lot of other improvements that we have looked at in previous alpha and nightly builds. Firefox 3.1 alpha 1, which was released in July, introduced new tab switching behavior and a new visual tab switcher with graphical thumbnails. The alpha 2 release, which was made available earlier this month, added support for the HTML 5 video element which makes it possible for the browser to natively display playable video and seamlessly intersperse it with HTML and SVG content.

Mozilla is actively working on many other features that are planned for Firefox 3.1, but haven't been fully implemented in this beta release. Future versions will include a new private browsing mode that is similar to the one in Google Chrome. Mozilla is working on some nice user interface improvements too, such as support for tag autocompletion in the bookmarking interface.

Firefox 3.1 is evolving swiftly and each new prerelease delivers impressive changes. Users can look forward to a great 3.1 release with lots of good improvements and great support for open web standards. The new beta release is available for download from Mozilla's web site and additional information can be found in the official release notes.

Did Chrome peak pass already?

At the beginning of September, Google launched a trial version of its Chrome web browser, opening up another front in its war against Microsoft. Now that the dust has settled on the launch, it's time for an update.

Google claims that Chrome loads pages faster and more securely than rival browsers, which should encourage internet users to consider making the switch.

But take a look at this graph - sourced from web analytics company GetClicky. It shows that after its launch to a frenzy of news coverage Chrome peaked with a 3.1% share of the browser market. Since then it's been a steady decline, down to just over 1.5%. And it looks like it will stay that way.
Over the same period, Microsoft's Internet Explorer has seen next to no dent in its market share, which remains virtually unchanged at around 57.2%.

It's still early days of course, but it seems Google has a job on its hands if Chrome is ever to rival Firefox, let alone Internet Explorer. It's possible that most consumers are simply unaware that Google's browser exists. There was a clear frenzy of Chrome-related interest early in September, but that has dwindled away now as the figure from Google Trends to the left shows.

For a time the browser was even featured on the famously minimalist Google search page which must have boosted downloads, but it has since disappeared. Quite why is anybody's guess. But if Google is serious about getting the message across, we can expect to see many more comic strips in the months to come.

Firefox 3.1 feature list from Mozilla

Mozilla Corp. will use a several-week delay it recently added to the Firefox 3.1 schedule to build a private browsing mode and beef up the browser's address bar, the company said today. Three weeks ago, the company said it would insert four to five more weeks into the timetable, part of a reaction to changes in the browser market, including the introduction by Google Inc. of its Chrome browser. Then, Mozilla said it would probably use the time to add a privacy mode and to punch up its TraceMonkey JavaScript engine performance.

A private browsing mode and fast JavaScript execution were touted by Google last month when it launched Chrome.

In meeting notes published on its Web site today, Mozilla said it planned to add the privacy feature in Beta 2, which would likely be released in November, according to Mozilla's current schedule.

Dubbed "porn mode" by some, privacy tools limit or entirely eliminate what the browser records as it travels the Internet. Typically, URLs are not recorded in the history, cookies are not saved and other evidence is purged from the computer at the end of the session. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8, Chrome and Apple Inc.'s Safari all have private browsing built in.

Also set for debut in Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 are changes to the already-available Clear Private Data tool that would let users select time and data ranges for retroactively erasing their browsing tracks, changes to the address bar to add privacy-related tagging and tab search, and a restoration of the plug-in installation process used in Firefox 2.0.

Already slated to appear in Beta 1, Mozilla said today, are support for the video HTML tag, tab-bar tweaks and the ability to drag a tab to the desktop to open a new browsing window.

Mozilla is also mulling over several other additions to Firefox 3.1 but has not committed to working them into the release. The most prominent would be the Opera-esque Speed Dial feature, which would show user-selected or most-recent sites as thumbnails when the user opens a new tab. Google's Chrome sports a similar tool.

The developer who has taken charge of the proposed Firefox feature cited a pair of existing add-ons, Speed Dialand Fast Dial, as examples of what he was considering.

Mozilla made it clear, however, that those last-wave changes would not have priority. "We're also considering reviewed, solid, tested patches for some other small improvements, but we will not hold Beta 2 for these," the meeting notes said.

Beta 1 is on track for release next week, while Beta 2 will be locked down Nov. 4 and released several weeks after that, Mozilla said. It has not committed to a ship date for Firefox 3.1, but has said it will shoot for a late-2008 or early-2009 release.

Firefox Addon that changes the look of Gmail

If you are bored from the skin of GMAIL and Want to change it, than you have to try the Firefox Addon Google Redesigned. Google Redesigned is a Mozilla Firefox extension designed by Globex Designs that aims to fully redesign the look and feel of popular Google services. This is achieved with Cascading StyleSheet (CSS) files which are loaded on the client’s browser.

Google Redesigned is built for Mozilla based browsers (Firefox, Flock, IceWeasel, and such). Users using other browsers will not be to install the extension. Firefox 3 and Flock 2 are highly recommended as certain styles will not work correctly on older versions of the Gecko engine. As well the Firefox 3 engine provides much faster performance for handling these styles.
Download FireFox Addon Gmail Redesigned

Firefox Mobile to be launched in a few weeks

In an interview that started with Mozilla CEO John Lilly explaining how he runs the company to San Jose Mercury News reporter Pete Carey, it was revealed that the first Firefox Mobile alphas could be released in “a few weeks.”

We know that it’s definitely coming, despite debunked rumors of it being released in 2010, but with the imminent release of the first alpha we’ll all finally be able to see it “for real.”

Below is an excerpt of the San Jose Mercury News interview with John Lilly, in which the Mozilla CEO answers the question, “What are you doing in mobile?”

We want to make sure that the Web on mobile is more like the Web than what the mobile industry offers today, which is closed, separate networks and not a very good information-getting experience for the user. The first thing is to bring Firefox to mobile devices. We’re working on that, and we’ll see some alphas in a few weeks.

Which is pretty much in line with what Tristan Nitot of Mozilla Europe told us in our previous article about Firefox Mobile :

I have discussed Firefox Mobile (codenamed Fennec) in the past saying that we should see an Alpha pre-version hopefully before the end of the year if it’s ready.

I think that those of you who like to try early versions of new apps, might have something very interesting to play with soon.