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Google Chrome not Compatible with Google Toolbar

November 3, 2008 By James View Comments

As I’ve mentioned before I’ve started using Google Chrome as my default personal browser while at home.  Sometimes I slip up and go back to the warm comforts of FireFox but Chrome is so damn fast and clean it’s hard to put it down.  

I’ll admit Firefox is much more intuitive and allows me to blog much easier, but hopefully Chrome’s contextual menu will catch up to the curve set by FF.

I was going through some of my RSS feeds tonight when I saw a new post over at the Gmail Blog about some Google toolbar functionality.  Normally I hate toolbars with a passion, but Google toolbar is one I’ve been able to live with in the past and I was curious how it would work with Chrome.  Google Toolbar with Google Chrome?  It must be second only to sex I thought to myself.

Sadly, I was quickly given my comeuppance when I tried to install it and realized that toolbar and Chrome don’t play together at all, let alone nicely.

I’ve often heard that Google’s projects are very segmented which is why Gmail and Reader don’t coexist, even though they’re basically the same platform, but I have to admit I didn’t expect this.

I’m sure much of the functionality of Toolbar will be built into Chrome eventually if it isn’t already so it’s not a huge loss.  Besides, who really likes toolbars anyway?

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: firefox, google, google chrome, google toolbar

Note to Firefox: Please Put “Add Tab” Option Back in the Toolbar

October 16, 2008 By James View Comments

After using Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for a couple of days I have one request.  Please, for the love of god, add the option back to have an “Add Tab” button next to the other toolbar buttons.  I mentioned earlier that in this version they have removed this option and relocated it to actual tab bar.  It sucks.  I’m sure that left there I would eventually get used to it but why shouldn’t I at least have the option?

It’s like when IE6 came out and completely redid their design and moved the refresh button over to the right side of the address bar.  I rarely use IE and still haven’t gotten used to it’s new location.

The first thing I always do after downloading a new version of Firefox is edit the toolbar and put the “Add Tab” button in the exact same position every time.  Having it gone is just a pain and it seems silly to not give users the option to have it there if they choose.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: beta, browsers, firefox, functionality, Web Apps

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is Looking Pretty Sweet

October 14, 2008 By James View Comments

I have to admit, I’ve gotten more and more comfortable with using Chrome as my everyday browser while at home.  There are however a few key features in Firefox that I’ve grown extremely accustomed to which I have indeed been missing.  So, of course, word of FF 3.1 Beta 1 coming out was enough for me to drop Chrome for a while and come back home so to speak.

One thing that took me a few minutes to figure out was the “new tab” button missing off the toolbar.  I usually add it on manually and have grown accustomed to using it fairly regularly, even though I know I should be using the ctrl+t keyboard shortcut.  Don’t bother, that option is gone from your toolbar icons.  replacing it is a permanent spot over on the right side of the tabs.  The “+” obviously opens new tabs and the little arrow next to it allows you to skip to any open tab as well.

From a GUI point of view, one of the cool new features in FF3.1B is the ctrl+tab 3D feature to cycle through open tabs, which is sort of similar the alt+tab feature in Windows which cycles through open programs, and maybe even more similar to the cascading desktop feature in Vista.

FF 3.1 beta uses the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine which is most of the reason it’s so much faster than the current version of FF3 and more on par with Chrome for its Javascript rendering speed.

For whatever reason though, this feature comes disabled by default.  It’s fairly simple to turn on in three easy steps.

  1. Type about:config in your browser’s address bar.
  2. Type or paste javascript.options.jit.content into the filter.
  3. Double-click the preference to set the boolean to true.

FF3.1B will also be introducing geolocation awareness which is something you could get with FF3 but not without an additional plugin.  3.1 will have it baked right into the main product.

You can download and test drive a copy here.  Beware though, it will brick all of your plugins.  I’m sure those will be fixed soon enough and for now it’s nice to see an even faster version of FF rolling out with brand new features to boot.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: beta, browser, firefox, mozilla, Web Apps

Top Firefox 3 Plugins I Can’t Live Without

June 23, 2008 By James View Comments

Here are some of my favorite plugins that are currently compatible with FF3.

  1. Adblock Plus – I’ve had this installed so long that I literally forget that I even have it. Many times it works so well that when I do need to find an ad on a page for my job or something I think the page is broken until I realize I need to greenlight the ads for them to show up.
  2. Better Gmail2 – Whether you’re a Gmail power user like me or just a casual Gmailite you’ll probably want to check out Better Gmail2. It lets you customize Gmail just the way you like it. From forcing Compose mailto: links to open in Gmail to hiding your spam count to some pretty sweet skins plus a whole lot more. Better Gmail 2 is updated frequently, and is definitely you’re best bet for fine tuning Gmail to fit your needs.
  3. Better GReader – If you’re a GReader guru you this is an add-on that will make you’re life a little more convenient. I basically use this add-on for three things. Auto Add to Reader which lets you automatically bypass the option to add the feed to iGoogle, show favicons and the optimized skin. The skin does a great job of maximizing screen real estate and making GReader even easier to navigate.
  4. Colorful Tabs – This add-on is super simple and does just what it says. It colors your tabs. “Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface.”
  5. Forecastfox – The best thing about this plugin is the seamless way it integrates with the browser. Now when anyone asks, “what’s the weather like outside” or “is it going to rain tomorrow” all you have to do is glance to the bottom right hand corner and you’ll have your answer.
  6. IE Tab – IE Tab is probably only really useful if you’re a coder and need to check browser compatibility issues. IE Tab let’s you run a page based on IEs engine right in Firefox. It’s a quick and convenient way to make sure your page doesn’t fail once you launch it in IE.
  7. Picnik – I just added this add-on recently and haven’t used it much but from what I have used I’ve been pretty impressed. The coolest feature about the plugin is it adds a “Send page to Picnik” option in your right-click contextual menu. This will screencap whatever page you are on and send it straight into picnic and let you go to work on it. Extremely handy if you’re a developer and you want to capture some of your work, throw a nice matte frame around it and post it to your portfolio.
  8. Screen grab! – “Saves a webpage as an image”. That’s what it says under the add-on screen and that’s exactly what it does. This is sort of a trimmed down, streamline version of the Picnik plugin and one which I use way more frequently. This plugin also add options to your contextual menu. With Screen grab! you can either capture and save the visible portion of the page, the complete page or a selection. This is a very handy plugin that I find myself using often.

There you have it, many of you may have heard of some of these and some of you may have heard of all of these but you can’t fool the fooler once again.

On a quick sidenote in case anyone at Mozilla reads this, you really need to fix up your search function on your add-ons pages. For many of these plugins I typed up the exact name and they either didn’t come up at all or were way down on the list. A few I actually had to go through Google to find them on your add-on page.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: firefox, mozilla, plugins
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