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I just upgraded to the latest and greatest Firefox. After the upgrade, the browser wouldn’t restart. After rebooting my computer twice, and uninstalling Firefox completely, I was able to get the upgrade to work. However, it’s been about 2 hours now, and it has crashed on me at least 3 times. Before tonight, it has been months since the last time Firefox crashed. I removed a good bit of my extensions to avoid unnecessary conflicts, but it’s still not quite as smooth as it was. Apparently, I’m not the only one to have trouble with this update. I’d steer clear of it if I were you—I’m sure they’ll have another one coming soon (I’m on Windows, by the way).

If I could get the del.icio.us extension and browser sync in Safari, I think I’d switch. It’s incredibly fast, and I like the way it renders pages. Also, the new Flock seems to be a reasonable alternative these days. I still don’t need all of that extra stuff, but it seems to be less obtrusive than it was before. I’m not a fan of the “my world” page (yes, I know it’s not mandatory), and I was informed today that it does finally have a spell-checker.

Media RSS is a RSS module for media. Currently, RSS2 has the enclosure tag to handle media, but it’s limited to only one slice of media per item. And not only that, there are only two pieces of metadata: MIME type and file size. Without getting into the details, MRSS simply puts more focus on the media and the metadata around media. It also allows more than one media item, per item, and can handle any/all types of media at once. For instance, if I traveled a lot, I could have a vacation feed that would show a photo gallery and several videos per vacation, rather than one image or one video. If you really care, read Yahoo!’s Media RSS FAQ (they pretty much invented it). Post preparation is now over. Sorry for that.

PicLens is a browser plugin that will provide a full-screen slide show for images on sites that support Media RSS. Anymore, slide shows are being designed in a way that actually makes them pleasant to use. Obviously, Flickr supports Media RSS, but I still choose their slide show over PicLens when browsing sets¹. However, I find PicLens especially useful for browsing image searches outside of Flickr.

¹ For testing purposes (if you do install the plugin), here’s a portfolio set by my favorite photographer.

I’m not crazy about opening files (.doc, .pdf, .ppt, etc) online. I would just rather everything happen fast and within the browser (unless I actually need to whole file, of course). I came across the Docufarm Firefox extension the other day. I’ve only tested it on a few files, but it seems like it solves my problem. It converts each page to an image and presents you with thumbnails of the document (example). The only downfall I’ve noticed so far is it lags just a bit when showing the larger page view. But that may be a small price to pay to keep it all within the browser.

While talking with someone back at the Rails Edge conference, the topic of Firefox vs. Flock arose. Both being avid users of the others non-choice of browser, where I prefer Firefox, we could not see eye-to-eye. While I can understand his use of Flock, I don’t think he understands my non-use of it, if that makes sense. So I thought I would share my reasoning as to why I won’t leave Firefox for Flock.

“Flock is the best blogging tool I’ve ever used”

It seems as though major proponents of Flock love to write about its blogging tool integration. I do post frequently, but not via a blogging tool. Firstly, I don’t need one because I run a custom-built site, and secondly, they can sometimes make posts appear sloppy. The “designer” in me couldn’t tolerate that. So that means I’d have to go into the admin section anyway to fix it. There’s nothing wrong with blogging tools, I just prefer to do it my way. My point? Flock being a blogging tool does absolutely nothing for me, so it’s irrelevant how good it is.

I prefer Google over Yahoo

Another reason I choose Firefox is the ongoing support from Google. I’m partial to Google and their search/applications. There’s something about Yahoo (or Yahoo!) that irritates me. The two services (Flickr and del.icio.us) I actually like (maybe love), they bought. I’d much rather have Google on my team than Yahoo!

Browser syncing

Something that has become increasingly important to me is keeping my browsers in sync among all three computers. Google browser sync does an absolute flawless job at this. I’ve never encountered one problem with it. It saves my history, bookmarks, cookies, etc. I’m pretty sure Flock is headed this way, if they’re not already there, but when I tried it, it didn’t even come close to working properly. And it wouldn’t even let me reorder my bookmarks on the toolbar (which I’m also picky about). So then there’s the Google browser sync extension for Flock, but it didn’t work right, either. And do you still have to “convert” Firefox extensions to work in Flock? Hopefully not.

Flock: Firefox for the social web

I think there are huge benefits in social software and collaboration, but I don’t necessarily want that social feeling around me all the time. The browser is heavily mixed-in with my job, so I don’t need constant distractions such as a New (13) label on my photo tool bar. I’d be distracted far too often. I’m an RSS junky, and having those distractions would result in me deliberately not adding my contacts because there would always be something to see. I like being able to choose when I want to be social, so I choose to keep my “Flickr friends” in my feed reader.

Integrated del.icio.us via the bookmark star

Granted, the integration with del.icio.us is a good idea, I don’t know that I like the bookmarks tool bar and my public del.icio.us account going through the same interface. I like to click and know what’s happening without having to think about it. A lot of my clicking is based on intuition, and I don’t need a choice everytime I post a bookmark as to whether or not it’s tool bar worthy. And if it is, what section of the tool bar? Personally, I prefer my 11 folders where I can easily drag a tab to the appropriate folder (i.e., less clicks—in fact, no clicks). Plus, I have both ma.gnolia and del.icio.us extensions, and I use them interchangeably. They’re side-by-side next to the address bar, subtle, convenient, and have nothing to do with my bookmarks tool bar.

Aesthetics

A lot of people are hung up on the aesthetics of Flock, but I actually think Firefox 2.0 (and 1.5) looks better. The tabs feel cheap in Flock (to me). And I love the way Firefox has managed to make less use of the tool bar / address bar area, giving you more room to browse—which is important to me. Now, with Firefox 2.0, there’s no chance I’ll leave. The subtle interfaces changes are great, the scrolling tabs are nice (as well as the tab selection drop down), and most importantly, the built-in browser spell checker! That alone seals the deal.

Conclusions

Probably the number one reply I get when I say I’m not leaving Firefox for Flock is “Why? It essentially is Firefox.” Then why not just use Firefox? It has done absolutely nothing wrong, and to be quite honest, it’s the one and only browser for web developer’s. Flock may finally support the web developer tool bar, Firebug, IETab, HTML validator, ImageSizer, etc., etc., but something just doesn’t feel right to me.

So, I’m an avid Firefox user, with over 25 extensions, 120-135 tool bar bookmarks, 7-10 greasemonkey scripts, completely synced up on all computers, backed by Google, so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, it boils down to personal choice. I choose Firefox for all of the reasons I’ve stated and more, but maybe above all, why would I switch? There isn’t near enough value add for me to convert my bookmarks, scripts, extensions, etc. to Flock, just so I can take a chance on a browser that has already failed me once. It’s just not worth it. I’m glad Flock exists, because a lot of people seem to really, really love it. And that’s important. Plus, it’s sheer existence actually can do something for me: make Firefox even better!

Have you ever closed a tab and didn’t mean to? Personally, I do it all the time. Not quite as much now that Firefox has the little “x” on individual tabs. Anyway, if it does happen to you, you can use CTRL+SHIFT+T to reopen the last closed tab. That’s a must-have feature for a browser that supports tabs. I think it’s been out for as long as the browser existed, but I never knew about it until today (CMD+SHIFT+T for Mac users).

Firebug has helped me out so many times. It’s probably the best tool I’ve used to assist me with development. If you don’t know what it is, here’s a video that illustrates Firebug and what it can do (warning: it’s close to an hour in length—I skipped through it).

Sometimes I want to find something in Google Reader. Something I read awhile ago, but don’t remember where. I star posts I think might be useful, but sometimes I don’t know they’re useful until I need them. Google, being the number one search company, does not provide a search for Google Reader. I’m not sure why. Nevertheless, I came across a Greasemonkey script to do just that. It takes a decent amount of effort, though (it’s easy, it’s just not a “click to install and you’re done” type of script). And I’m sure (if you wanted this) you could figure it out, but I’ll explain it anyway.

Here are the steps to add the custom search to your reader:

1. Download your OPML file from your reader to your Desktop (or wherever).
2. Sign up for a custom search here: Google Co-op—for your search, just fill in whatever you want as the name, description, keywords, etc.
3. Click “Next” then “Finish”. Then click on “control panel” then “advanced”. Look for the annotations section. Upload your OPML file you’ve just downloaded.
4. Install this Greasemonkey script.
5. Right-click on the monkey and choose “Manage User Scripts”.
6. Select the “Google Reader Custom Search” and click “Edit” to open the JavaScript (Note: if you haven’t chosen a default editor for Greasemonkey scripts, it will prompt you to do so the first time).
7. Near the top of the file, you’ll see a variable named SearchURL. This variable needs to have the address of your custom search. To get that URL, go back to your custom search homepage, and search for “anything”.
8. Copy the response URL and paste it in the JavaScript file as the value of the SearchURL. You’ll be replacing the text “REPLACE-THIS” that’s there by default (Note: don’t remove the quotes).
9. Lastly, remove the “&q=anything” from the URL you pasted in place of the “REPLACE-THIS” text. Save everything and “ok/close” all open windows.
10. Refresh your Google Reader and you should have a custom search at the top.

The down side? You have to do this on every machine where you use Google Reader. The ideal case would be for Google to go ahead and implement a search for their reader, as I’m sure it would work a lot better than this solution. Until then, this might get you by.

Maybe you’ve heard of GreaseMonkey scripts, but if not, it’s just a collection of user scripts (see userscripts.org) written in JavaScript that can be incorporated into the browser (Firefox and Flock). It’s been around for a while, but I’ve been neglecting it. It turns out that some of the scripts out there are very handy.

There are a ton for Gmail, but the one I find really useful is the multiple signatures script. I use Gmail to maintain all of my other email accounts as well, so you might want a different signature when sending email from another account (such as work). I know I do. Anyway, not often do you have to manually edit the script files, but in the event that you do, here’s how you do it:

1. Right click on the little monkey in the bottom right of your browser (after you install GreaseMonkey that is).
2. Select “Manage User Scripts”
3. Choose the script you want to edit
4. It will prompt you for an editor (first time only) to choose as your default to edit the scripts (I recommend PSPad)
5. Edit the file, save it, close it, then click “OK” on the GreaseMonkey window
6. Refresh your browser, and you’re good to go

Now, specifically for the multiple signatures script, you only have to edit three arrays: email_array, sig_array, col_array.

• email_array is where you have to put all of the emails you’ll be sending to (whatever shows up in your Gmail drop down list when composing).
• sig_array is the array that holds your signatures. Use \\n to split up multiple lines.
• col_array is an array that holds HTML color codes, and will highlight your browser when you select that signature. I hate this option, so I set all of my colors to “transparent” so it wouldn’t do anything.

Just remember to keep the arrays in the same respective order. So if you have two emails (email1 and email2), make sure the desired signatures are in the same order (sig1 and sig2). Once it’s installed, look for the “Use Identity:” list under the “From:” drop down menu. Just click on the email you’re using, and the signature will be appended to your email.

To receive a notification every time any one of my feeds are updated would be extreme. But at the same time, navigating to the Google Reader tab and clicking refresh get’s old (I’m not sure how frequent it refreshes itself, so I always click refresh). The perfect solution: Google Reader Firefox extension. It shows the little blue RSS icon from Google Reader with a count of the total feeds down in the right-hand corner of the browser. It’s very subtle, but exactly what I need. It auto-updates every 120 seconds, too (and you can change that). It also has a respectable amount of options, all of which add to its usefullness. The best part is when you hover over it, you’ll see the count broken down into your categories (but only if that category of feeds has been updated—see below for a screenshot). It’s a pretty handy extension. At least to me it is.

I bring up Firefox a lot, I know; but there are so many things that make it great. One thing I love is the ability to add extensions. I thought I would mention the extensions I use, just in case someone is missing out. Since there are like 4,000 of them, let me know if there are others you think are useful. Here’s my list (in no particular order):

1. Firebug – To say the least, a debugger, error console, command line, and inspectors for CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax.
2. del.icio.us – Post to your del.icio.us account with the click of a button. It’s very easy to tag and edit your current bookmarks. I use this one daily.
3. Google Calendar Notifier – Shows Google calendar events for today and all of tomorrow.
4. CookieCuller – Extended cookie manager that allows you to protect/unprotect certain cookies.
5. HTML Validator – Validates pages as you browse, and puts a little icon down in the right corner. Also, when viewing source, it displays the details (errors and warnings) of the validation.
6. FireFTP – A secure, cross-platform FTP client built right into the browser.
7. Professor X – Let’s you see inside a pages head without viewing the source code.
8. IE Tab – One of my personal favorites. This extension let’s you have a IE tab within firefox, and you can toggle back and forth with one click. This is extremely handy when designing/building CSS templates.
9. Window Resizer – Resize browser window to default screen resolutions. I know the web developer toolbar (next) allows you to resize to variable size, but this is nice for quick, default settings.
10. Web Developer – A must have for web development. This extension has an abundant list of features, half of which I’ve probably never used. Very useful.
11. Save Image As – Adds the ability to save pages, frames, or part of either as an image¹.

¹ Firefox 2.0.0 only

Well, that’s my list of valuable Firefox extensions. I use most of them daily. If you have any extensions that you’d like to share, please do so. I’m always willing to add more.

Update: One more I just installed: errorZilla.

I spend a lot of my time on a computer; and a lot of that time is spent in a web browser. It’s important for me to have a nice experience in the place(s) I spend a lot of time… agreed? Well, the Mozilla team thinks so as well.

I don’t have many complaints (if any) over my current version of Firefox (1.5.0.7). It’s by far the best web browser I’m aware of. I like the ideas Flock brings to the table, but it might be too much for me. I don’t need any “blogging” tools and I’m happy with the del.icio.us bookmarklet extension (rather than the star in Flock). To be honest, I probably would use it more, but it was a little buggy when I tried it. I’m not sure if they’re out of beta yet, but that was the extent of my Flock experience. Firefox just feels more stable to me. But in the end it’s a personal choice, of course.

Anyway, back to the subject. The new Firefox adds so much more to an already sweet browser. Here are a few of the changes:

• Google suggest integrated into the search box
• Built-in textarea spellcheck (I really appreciate this one)
• Built-in advanced anti-phishing (lightbox-style notifications)
• Tracks your closed tabs and allows restoring (you can also specify to load previous session when opening—similar to Opera)
• Specify your RSS reader and then the little orange icon in the right of the address bar adds it in with one click (perfect!)
• Visual effects when hovering over tabs (plus a “X” to close on each tab)

I think these changes make sense. It’s not too much, but just enough. There is talk of this being released officially very soon. I’m always reluctant to be one of those early adopters, so I’ll keep waiting for the official release. Good stuff.

I thought this was pretty interesting. On the 37signals blog, I caught a post about some stats for Basecamp, Backpack, Campfire, and Ta-da list. Firefox has climbed well above the other browsers… in every application. This means one of two things, or maybe a little of both. It could either show that Firefox is becoming a popular browsing alternative a lot faster than I had hoped; or, most of the people who use those applications understand what makes them so great, which in turn, might indicate they understand why Firefox is superior to IE. That’s definitely a possibility, because 37signals has a great audience. In either case, I hope Firefox (and others) flip the stats on IE completely. I vote for 0% MSIE. Even though IE 7 is supposed to be much better, look how long it took them to realize it. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want that kind of support for my browser.

I use Firefox as my primary browser and I love it. For whatever reason, I’m extremely picky about my bookmarks. I use folders on the toolbar to keep everything organized. I gave up on live bookmarking, because honestly, I would rather use my feed reader or just visit the site (I enjoy site designs almost as much as reading the content). Someone tried to convert me over to Flock, but it didn’t work. I completely see where Flock is going, and the benefits of what the browser can do, but I didn’t like the way it handled my bookmarks. Sometimes they wouldn’t be there, or they were in the wrong folder and so on.

Anyway, I maintain two computers consistently. Because of my compulsion’s, I have to update my desktop with any new bookmark my laptop get’s. That get’s old. So, you can imagine my excitement when Google came out with a browser sync for Firefox. I immediately installed it the day it came out, and I have to say, it’s been flawless for me. It not only updates my bookmarks, but it syncs my history, saved passwords, cookies, etc. It’s awesome. If you maintain two computers, use Firefox and not the browser sync, you’re crazy. Go get it.