Learn More About Firefox 3’s Site Identification Button

Taking a deeper look at the new site identification button inside of Firefox 3, dria.org does a good job at taking it apart and showing you what it is all about. Honestly, it takes the padlock in browsers past and puts a whole new useful spin on it. No longer is it just a yes or no answer on if a site is safe. You get all kinds of useful information delivered right to you in a way you have yet to see in a next generation browser.

Dummy Text Addon for Firefox

Many designers, when they are in need of some dummy text to fill in a layout won’t do what I do. Personally, I like just to write random sentences such as, “The duck likes to party with the midget at Wrestlemania.” over and over.

The dummy text they use has a name though – it is called Lorem Ipsum. While it does resemble classical Latin, it (much like my sentence before) has no real meaning.

Dummy Lipsum, a Firefox extension, does the hard work for you and will auto generate this text for you. After installing you can setup how it starts, you can show HTML tags and you can also set how much text it generates and how it is formatted.

When your done, you just hit the generate button, and then copy it to your clipboard. From there, you can paste it any place you might need it. As a bonus tip, I’ll also share this little tidbit of information. You can do the same without an extension by just visiting the lipsum.com web site. The Firefox addon though does make this auto generation a little more handy to have when your in a hurry to generate some text that really means nothing at all.

Firefox 3 – Vista Theme Preview

Thanks to Percy over at Mozilla Links, we now have a Firefox 3 Vista preview worth gawking at (theme-wise anyways):

My first thoughts were “oh, it’s shinny and blue” but it does the
job it sets out to do. It does fit into the Windows Vista look and feel
pretty well, don’t you think?

Finding Your 404s with Firefox

Traveling to a link you want to check out, only to find that you reach the dreaded 404 (file not found) is a pain in the browser. Let say you bookmark a link, think you might read it later and then when you finally get the time to a few months later the page is gone. Well if you have Firefox there is new 404 extension that could help you recover your lost page.

Getting an award for the longest extension name ever, 404 : Page is Not Found ? Now it will be! will give you an “archive” button to push when you get your next 404 error page. This button will show you an archived version of any page. Under the hood it looks to be using the Wayback search at archive.org, so not all 404s will be recoverable. It is a very creative idea though, worth checking out if your find yourself running into dead ends a lot these days.

Navigate via the Numbers

If you have a hidden hate for your keyboard’s companion, you know that mouse sitting over there, mocking you with its two buttons and scroll wheel of humility then you might want to look into NumberFox. This addon for Firefox will allow you to navigate links, selections, search boxes and more by typing in the corresponding number.

When NumberFox is turned on, the page is filled with numbers corresponding with the links on the page. To choose a link, all you have to do is enter the number into the NumberFox box (in the picture, seen right above the Google logo) and your off to surfing through cyber space. You can also use the up and down keys to cycle through the available links for another way to navigate through your clicking choices.

If the mouse is on your bad list, or you need an alternative this extension is a good way to go.

Shrinkify Your URLs

There are a lot of URL shortener services out there. They take that really super long URL from a place like Amazon.com and make it into something that is easy to cut and paste into a blog post or a Twitter even. Shrinkify is another awesome answer to this problem that gives you that ability to shrink URLs right from Firefox.

Here is a little more about the Shrinkify extension from the developers:

The Shinkify Firefox extension makes long, unwieldy URLs shorter with the Shrinkify.com web service. Using either a toolbar button, right-click menu item, or tools menu item, you can submit your current url to the Shrinkify web service. The shrinkified URL will then be copied into your clipboard.

Also might be worth noting that the Shrinkify extension came in 8th in this year’s extend Firefox competition. So if you are looking for a simple way to shrink your URLs built right into the browser, Shrinkify is your best solution.

Simpler Mail in the Browser

Not really a mail client, and not really a part of your browser either – Simple Mail wants to be the lightweight e-mail client you thought you always wanted but never thought you could have.  The Simple Mail extension allows you to write, read and get notified about message from inside of Firefox.

Some of the features include:

• Color coded messages
• Search
• Can set to “download headers only”
• Delete messages from the server
• Address book

If you are used to using a heavy duty e-mail client, this might not be the addon for you.  If mail management isn’t that important to your day to day life and you just need an easy way of checking it, then Simple Mail is the client for you.

Put iGoogle in Your Sidebar

I got an e-mail from a Firefox Facts reader the other day that wanted to know if I knew of an easy way to add more of the iGoogle startpage tools in their sidebar. After seeing my other various Google sidebar tips and tricks.

Now we all know that iGoogle is probably not the best start page out there, but it does offer some unique plugins and tools that make it handy to have easily accessible. So what do you do, if you want to use iGoogle but perhaps you are a Netvibes fan?

The iGoogle Sidebar extension makes it to where you can enjoy the iGoogle experience in a side bar optimized to make it all look good.

Some of the features include:

• Un-squeezed modules – makes them fit in better to the sidebar
• Remove header, search box and footer; removed margins; (optional) reduced font size

It might also be worth making note of the fact that only the modules on the left side of your iGoogle page are visible in the sidebar. So you might have to do some customization and moving around before you use the iGoogle Sidebar extension.

ScribeFire – Any Blogger’s Right Hand Man

Digging through my archived posts I knew I had written something about ScribeFire before, but could not find it. How could I overlook one of the best blogging tools for Firefox? ScribeFire, which used to be known as Performancing for Firefox) is the hands down best blog editor that turns Firefox into a publishing machine.

To get started, all you need to do is download the addon from the Mozilla web site, restart Firefox and then launch ScribeFire by clicking on the orange task bar icon or right clicking on any web site and selecting “blog this page” from the ScribeFire menu item.

For the best blog updater I often recommend people uses Windows Live Writer. If it isn’t your cup of tea though my number two choice would definitely be ScribeFire.

Add Some Spice to Your Stop Button

Feel like the stop button is just a little too dull these days? Well if you want to add a little spice to the experience I have two Firefox extention additions that will get that done, or just drive you nuts.

Stop! Hamertime!

Yeah, I wore MC Hammer pants once upon a time, so don’t act like you didn’t. I’ve got a Firefox addon that allows me to peak inside your closet, I know they are there. With Stop! Hammertime! each time you hit the stop button, you hear one thing that both made and broke poor MC Hammer’s career.

Stop in the name of Love!

In the same spirit as Stop! Hammertime! this newer extension replaces your stop button with a heart and each time you hit the button Diana Ross and the Supremes will sing a little ‘bit of the “Stop in the name of love” song. Not something I’ll be jamming out to here anytime soon, but fun to use to pull a prank on somebody.

Both of these oddball addons were created by Ben Dodson, be sure to check out his site and give him praise for his unique addons for your favorite browser.