Useful Firefox 3 add-on extensions for the 'common' user:

Before I write this post, I want to make it clear that this is not like some other top-ten add-on extensions list. Neither is this a must-have list. Actually I personally feel there is no such thing as a must-have list. It just depends upon the need of the user.
However the add-ons on list which I have made here are quite handy and helpful for the common Firefox user and not meant for needs of a web-developer or some other advanced user.

So here we go...

1. Interclue:
This is a link augmentation tool. In simpler terms, it lets you view what is behind a link without having to actually open the link in another tab. Interclue will open a small window where you can see what the link looks like before opening it … it is highly customisable and can be turned off for specific sites or for a specific session too. Small icons appear on moving our mouse over links 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.
From the developer:

“Here are some sites that Interclue works really well on: Most search engines, and local site searches. Google Reader. Bloglines. Gmail. Del.icio.us, Digg, other social bookmarking sites. Bugzilla and Trac ticketing systems. Most news sites. Almost any given blog. If you're a knowledge worker, don't forget to try it on your intranet. Interclue generates page summaries inside the browser rather than getting them from a server, so there is no privacy risk involved in using it on your intranet. Interclue is fast, smooth, and easy to use.”

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4999

2. Webmail notifier:
Webmail Notifier automatically checks your webmail accounts and notifies the number of unread emails and new mails … it fit nicely in one corner of my status-bar and I just need to move my cursor over it to check the number of new/unread mail!!!
It supports Gmail, yahoo, hotmail, daum, naver, empas and nate.
I use it for my yahoo account since it is cumbersome to have the yahoo-mails checked through my e-mail client 'thunderbird'.
download webmail-notifier:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4490


3. Down-Them-All:
The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox! The mass downloader for Firefox. However, if already use Internet Download Manager (IDM), you won’t need this one embedded to your browser.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201


4. Ad-block 'Plus':
This will ruin my ad-sense’ earnings but still… :-) … Adblock plus is good for if you get annoyed by ads…actually I myself have this one installed and it works quite well.
Pages load faster and appear cleaner.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

5. ColorfulTabs:
Surely you want this one in your browser. As the name suggests, it colours every Tab in different colour and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appeal of the interface… And if u are like “ i-open-20-tabs-at-a-time-and-have-a-hard-time-locating-them” kind of surfer…then don’t miss it because you can even choose to colour the tabs according to your choice !!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1368

6. ScribeFire:
Ok you can skip this one if you are not into blogging … but u must definitely check this out otherwise …. Its a fully featured blog editor that integrates with your Firefox web browser and lets you easily post your blogs...
Well if I were to have a browser with only one add-on allowed [as stupid as it may sound], I would choose scribefire … because it is the best offline bogging tool I have… I have written this blog on scribefire itself…. even inserted the images while I was offline and then I had to connect to the internet just to post my completed blog.
It provides a “lot” of features … actually all the features you can think of while writing your posts offline … if your internet is not free or too costly then this is the best blogging tool for you… just type out your post while you are offline and then you need to connect to the net just to post your blog complete with all the pictures and videos added.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730

7. 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.
Comprehensive Sidebar management and enhancement…has a lot of options and can be set on
auto-hide mode too.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1027

8. IE tab:
Ofcourse there are few occasions where you want to use internet explorer to open some particular site … with this addon internet explorer can be opened as a tab of ff3 itself without you having to open i.e. in another window … saves time and provides easy browsing by embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

9. pdf download:
PDF Download helps encounter PDF files on the Web. Whenever you click on a PDF file, PDF Download lets you know before trying to open it, and then offers you choices such as downloading, opening, or converting it straight to HTML.
Developer :

PDF Download helps to stop PDF files crashing your browser, stop PDF files taking forever to open and make PDF files download like other files in Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/427


10. All-in-One-Gestures:
This extension allows you to execute common commands using mouse gestures, rocker navigation, scroll wheel navigation and page...
It does simplify browsing but needs little time to get used to
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/file/31871/all-in-one_gestures-0.19.1-fx.xpi

11. NoScript: (Security tool)
It speeds up your browsing by stopping the big scripts loading up, and can improve your anonymity and security. It allows you to selectively disables browser scripting (JavaScript)…Allow active content to run only from sites you trust.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

12. Sage Too:
Newer version of the popular RSS manager ...Sage 1 was a basic and lightweight RSS Reader and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox.
The newer version has a lot more to offer and the detail is presented nicely on the download page. Worth trying out...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7263


13. Del.icio.us and stumble upon:

‘Delicious Bookmarks’ is the official Firefox add-on for del.icio.us, the world's leading social bookmarking service. It integrates your del.icio.us bookmarks and tags with Firefox and keeps them in sync for easy, convenient access.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615

With StumbleUpon you can also connect with friends and share your discoveries, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering. StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138

14. Flagfox:
Well if you care to know about the location of the server of the website you are visiting, then flagfox displays a country flag in the status bar depicting the location of the current website's server, and provides quick access to detailed location and webserver information.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5791

15. Firefox 3 universal uploader:
As the name says, this firefox extension allows you to upload/download files from any website using a friendly interface. Upload files/photos/videos to Flickr, Picasa, Youtube, Box.net, Facebook, Webshots, OmniDrive, SME Storage and Google Docs in this version.You can add multiple files to the queue at a time. Extension will take care of uploading them for you.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4724
New Firefox 3.0 compatible version is posted on http://www.fireuploader.com


16. Hyperwords:
Select any word or words on any web page. A menu pops-up. Choose from any one of the many powerful commands. Customizable menu and behavior.
Select any text on any page for one-click access to References, Searches, Conversions, Translations, Email, Blogging & more.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1941

17. Video Download Helper:
The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.
DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites. Just surf the Web as you are used to, when DownloadHelper detects it can do something for you, the icon gets animated and a menu allows you to download files by simply clicking an item. For instance, if you go to a YouTube page, you'll be able to download the video directly on your file system. It also works with MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm, DreamHost and others.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

18. Flashblock:
Never be annoyed by a Flash animation again! Blocks Flash so it won't get in your way, but if you want to see it, just click on it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433


Finally ……
The add-ons certainly do add a great flavour to browsing but one should try to keep only those add-ons in their browser which they really require and not just because someone says they are good. They need to be carefully chosen to give the user maximum ease in browsing. For instance, if you are not comfortable with the sidebar, there is no point keeping it. Too many add-ons slow down your browser and it takes a long time to start. Moreover it can give your browser a messy look.

Other then extension add-ons you also have lots of Firefox themes add-ons to choose from and also plugins which are installed as and when they are required.

Happy browsing!!

Mozilla THUNDERBIRD : Complete Review of Latest Version 2

Mozilla Thunderbird, just like Mozilla Firefox, is another highly successful opensource software developed by Mozilla Corp. It is a great e-mail and news client and offers RSS feed reader and a good contacts management system too. Thunderbird is safe and fast and has a great user interface, nice spam filters, quick message search, and can be customized to a large extent.

The areas where it scores over the other software offering similar functionality like MS Outlook and Windows Mail are the ease of use, better speed and a few more good features which offer better functionality. And of course the best thing is that it is free !!!

The version 2.0 was released a few months back and is available in over 35 languages. It is compatible with windows vista and has been undergoing constant updates since release as expected. Mozilla claims it to be a reloaded version more powerful than ever.

You can download the latest version of Thunderbird [presently 2.0.0.14] here:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

I am a Gmail user and the the first impression was simply fantastic. The ease with which a new Gmail account gets created in Thunderbird 2 is worth appreciation, very unlike Windows Mail where I had to go to my Google accounts page and check out few things. AMAZINGLY all you need to do is to type in your user name and password in the account creation wizard and the client will do the rest of the required settings for you.

Here is all I had to do:

step 1 :

step 2:

And that's it :


Easyyy ... ehh ??? that’s the Gmail support it offers. It does rest of the settings by itself via POP3 access. [POP 3 access has to be enabled in gmail account setting though ! ] Moreover the default settings leave a copy of the mail on the server upon download so the mail on the server doesn’t get removed … good work. And we can customise any of the settings as per your requirement in the account manager window.

And this is what I got in windows mail when I tried to open an account in gmail. I had to visit my google account settings page to fill up this stuff:


Another great feature if you are a windows vista user is that you can get all your mail indexed in windows vista and you can find yor e-mail directly from start menu search box.

No integrated calendar??? Not a problem …
Yes there is no inbuilt calendar in Thunderbird like the one in MS Outlook but that’s not a problem as you can download an extension called LIGHTNING which adds an integrated calendar.
Download the extension here:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/download.html

When Thunderbird 1.5 was released it promised better security, automatic updating, automatic spell checking, anti-phishing technology, and other useful features. The newer version has got even more in its arsenal. Let's take a look at the impressive list of new features in the version 2 :

Message tagging:
Message tagging is a nice little feature that allows you to add tags to individual emails using available tags or you can create your own tags too. Each tag comes has a corresponding colour so when we tag a message, it gets colorized in the mail folder. We can add multiple tags to a mail and it allows a great way of organizing the mail.



Contact management:
The address book is divided into two : first is the personal address book and the other is the collected addresses book. This allows better sorting of the addresses too. You can easily import address book entries. Auto complete results of the address while sending a mail is done according to how often you send e-mail to each recipient.

Add-ons and updates:
There are quite a few handy addons available which can furthur enhance your experience of working with Thunderbird. They can add lots of new features to thunderbird. One of the most important ones was mentioned by me above called as Lightning for adding an integrated calendar.
There is an add-on manager available [Tools ...- add on] for this purpose just like the one in Firefox. Over 170 extensions for Thunderbird are available. Thunderbird add-on can let you manage contacts better, place voice over IP calls, listen to music, keep track of birthdates all from your inbox , add mouse gestures support, dictionary search, a tool that can switch between multiple proxy configurations and a lot more !!! Really cool !!!
You can configure Thunderbird 2 to automatically download new product versions and security updates.

Themes:
We can look for themes for thunderbird and install or uninstall them using the add-on manager [Tools ... -add on]. These add to its user friendly nature even more by allowing you to change the look of the interface. Initially though, only one theme is available as the default theme.

Configuration:
Thunderbird is hugely configurable and an editor is available for this but it is definitely not a place that I would like to visit because one really needs to have some good knowledge before making any changes there.

Mail filtering:
Sorting : The message filters are easy to design and do come handy when we need to manage large volumes of mail. They give a great way to organize our mail folders.
Spam Filtering: Mozilla has updated Thunderbird’s popular junk mail folders to stay ahead of spam. Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird's leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird “learns” and improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird can also use your mail provider's spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.

Find as you type:
Finds and highlights message text as you type. This speeds up the search process. It is identical to that in firefox for searching the text in the current page. Thunderbird also supports a Saved Searches feature, which is like the one available in vista explorer. A saved search is a folder that contains the results of a search you previous performed.

New mail alerts:
The notification appears in the system tray. In addition to the subject of the email, you'll see information about the sender and the part of the body text when possible. Thunderbird's notifications are usually quite a bit bigger than those offered by Outlook. The program doesn't remain in the tray to check mails once it is closed which obliges you to manually open the program to check e-mail and feeds.

A notification :

Wide support:
The version is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It supports POP, IMAP, Gmail and .Mac [on OS X] accounts for e-mail.I did write about how easy it was for me to open my new gmail account in Thunderbird. Gmail and .Mac users can access their accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing their user names and passwords.It works fine with multiple accounts of all kinds.


Security:
Phishing protection :Thunderbird protects you from email scams which try to trick users into handing over personal and confidential information by indicating when a message is a potential phishing attempt. As a second line of defense, Thunderbird warns you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different Web site than the one indicated by the URL in the message.{For knowledge on phishing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing }

Thunderbird will display an information bar with a graphical red shield any time it believes the currently-selected email is an email scam. You can then tell the application the email is not a scam, or delete it. Suspicious emails are allowed to display simple text only, so they can't access your system programmatically.

{ I tried to explore the net and found out that more security features in Thunderbird include S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices. I do not have a clear idea of how all that works but anyhow I felt like including it here. }


Image blocking:
Remote images in the e-mail messages are blocked by default in Thunderbird 2. However you can tell mark certain addressed as trusterd and for mails from these addresses the image loads automatically.

Navigation:
Thunderbird 2 offers message history navigation that allows you to click “forward” and “back”. These back and forward buttons are provided in the interface for easier navigation while we are viewing our messages.

Finally…
Well it can obviously be difficult for a long time MS outlook user to switch to thunderbird as few of the features and few shortcuts do differ. But Thunderbird is a fully featured e-mail client with lots of extra functionality and people are working to constantly keep improving the software. The user-friendliness of Thunderbird and the fact that it is free is ensuring that lots of new users are opting for it. Lets hope the versions to come will be even better than the present one and provide lots of interesting features.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 : A personal review

Well I came across the Mozilla Firefox Browser only around an year ago and the first thing I noticed and really liked about it was its comparatively higher speed than the other available browsers. As I got acquainted with more of its features, I realized what an amazing browser it is. Thus I dumped the Internet Explorer Browser which I had been ignorantly using till then. and now I fully support the “Spread the Firefox” campaign.
Actually it is not just me but the whole world is slowly becoming a fan of this small, fast and easy to use ‘opensource’ browser which scores over its rivals in so many aspects has gained global appreciation.


The huge popularity that this browser has gained was evident when the new version 3.0 was released on the 18th of June at 10:00 PST. Mozilla had been hyping this day as the DOWNLOAD DAY for around a week and had urged the people around the globe to download the new version on the release day itself so that a new world record could be created. The response was amazing : a whopping 8 million downloads on the very first day . It is being claimed by Mozilla as a new world record for release day downloads.


And ofcourse one can download the latest version here :


The servers reported serving almost 9,000 downloads a minute day on the “download day” and exceeded the first day download mark for Firefox 2 of 1.6 million after just five hours of availability for Firefox 3 ... Over 700 community launch parties were registered on http://www.mozillaparty.com You can find out the present number of downloads of firefox here

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

I too got a taste of the latest version too. It claims to be {and is !! } even faster than the previous version and boasts of malware protection and many other features. Some of the new features which I liked are :


1. QUICK BOOKMARKING AND EASIER TO SORT BOOKMARKS :
Now we can quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click on the star icon in address bar and a second click lets us file and tag them. Tags are keywords that we can associate with our bookmarks to sort them by topic so now we can quickly access our recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on the bookmark toolbar.

2. AUTO-CHECK FOR ADD-ONS:
Various add-ons are available for further enhancing the firefox browser and the add-ons of the 2.0 version may not necessarily be compatible with the 3.0 version. There is no need to hunt for the add-ons anymore. Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugins versions and will disable older, insecure versions. Earlier version we had to go to install required plugins from http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/addons.html and other such sites.
Users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager. The Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from the community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.

3. ONE CLICK SITE INFO:
Click the site favicon (the small icon before address) in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to.

4. IMPROVEMENTS IN TABS :
Tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quick-menu. To drag a tab simply click on the tab and pull it along the tab-bar. Right click on the tab bar for a variety of cool options. You can even undo closing of a tab and Firefox will also prompt users to save tabs on exit.

5. SECURITY AND PROTECTION :
Malware Protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. The content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. Clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. To improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled. Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.

6. NEW DOWNLOAD MANAGER:
The revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. The active downloads and time remaining is always shown in the status bar as your files download.
Users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.

7. FULL PAGE ZOOM :
Zoom in : ctrl ++ ; zoom out : ctrl -- ; additionally there is a feature which allows us to zoom only the text portion.

8. FASTER :
Improvements to JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.

9. EATS UP LESSER MEMORY:
Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.


Yes it is true that some bugs have been reported for 3.0 version already. But that is and always will be the case. As a matter of fact updates are constantly made available and it keeps improving with each and every update.

One can confidently say that firefox is currently leading from front in the battle among opensource softwares and the rest. What I believe is that ultimately it is going to be the former which come out as the victors just because of the way they are spreading and gaining wide acclaims.