Firefox Tips-n-tricks

[abhay 0]

Write your name in the Firefox code

Mozilla Foundation is offering to "immortalise" people's names in the code of Firefox 2.0, if they manage to persuade a friend to download its Firefox Web browser before 15 September

To commemorate the creation of Mozilla Foundation three years ago, Mozilla announced on 15 July that if Firefox users persuade a friend to download Firefox, both the user and the friends' names will be added to the source code of the latest version of the browser, Firefox 2.

"Share Firefox with a friend. If your friend downloads Firefox before September 15, you'll both be immortalised in Firefox 2," said Mozilla Foundation in a statement.

Firefox has steadily gained market share since its launch in November 2004. According to recent statistics from Web analytics firm OneStat, Firefox has a global usage share of 12.93 percent, with Microsoft Internet Explorer dropping to 83.05 percent of the market.

Apple's Safari browser had 1.84 percent global usage, while Opera had one percent.

[Vishal Gupta 4]

thnx for the info abhay

DONE!

[abhay 0]

Microsoft's redesigned site to not support alternative browsers?

It's becoming more and more apparent that Microsoft isn't pleased with how well alternative browsers are doing, primarily Mozilla's FireFox. It was still a shock, however, to learn that Microsoft may simply deny services on their site to FireFox users. If you happen to have both FireFox and Internet Explorer on your machine, you can try it for yourself. Visiting Microsoft's preview page for their redesigned site in IE presents you with their new tools and the new site. Visit it with FireFox, Opera or a number of other browsers and you get “page cannot be found”.

Interestingly enough, even telling Opera to identify itself as IE 6.0 still results in the page not loading. Cracking open IE, however, has it working just fine. While Microsoft is fully within their own rights to design their web pages how they wish, it does have a hint of them trying to lock in a userbase. No word from Microsoft yet.

http://www.techspot.com/news/22333-microso...e-browsers.html

TEST LINK << test it with FIREFOX & IE << check out urself

but i think its just a temp thing!! somewhat similar to windows live which dint support FIREFOX in the start

Edited July 25, 2006 by abhay

[rEdshiFt 1]

Contrary to the news on techspot news, The microsoft test links provided - http://preview.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx works just fine when browsed on firefox

[abhay 0]

nah it dose'nt

if you look closely at the url

in firefox until yesterday it was "PAGE NOT FOUND ERROR" ! today they might have realised it and now the page is ROUTED to HOMEPAGE

in IE the page is still the preview page WITH all the ajax and stuff

below are the pics for IE and firefox

IE PREVIEW

FF PREVIEW

Edited July 26, 2006 by abhay

[abhay 0]

New Trojan Acts as Firefox Extension

A new Trojan known as FormSpy is targeting Firefox by installing itself as a Firefox extension, McAfee warns. The security firm said that it has found Web sites linked to the virus.

Upon successful execution, FormSpy hooks mouse and keyboard events in the Mozilla Firefox web browser. It can then forwards information such as credit card numbers, passwords and URLs typed in the browser to a malicious website hosted at IP address 81.95.xx.xx.

Typically, Mozilla Firefox components are installed via .xpi files where users are prompted to confirm the installation. FormSpy writes and modifies Mozilla configuration files directly which bypasses this confirmation process, said McAfee.

Mozilla Firefox has become a popular alternative to Internet Explorer, and it has now become the target of spyware and Trojan attacks. McAfee advises users to exercise caution in downloading and installing unsigned extension components from unreliable sources.

http://www.sda-asia.com/sda/news/psecom,id...,Singapore.html

Firefox 1.5.0.5 released

BUGS FIXED

MFSA 2006-56 chrome: scheme loading remote content

MFSA 2006-55 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.0.5)

MFSA 2006-54 XSS with XPCNativeWrapper(window).Function(...)

MFSA 2006-53 UniversalBrowserRead privilege escalation

MFSA 2006-52 PAC privilege escalation using Function.prototype.call

MFSA 2006-51 Privilege escalation using named-functions and redefined "new Object()"

MFSA 2006-50 JavaScript engine vulnerabilities

MFSA 2006-48 JavaScript new Function race condition

MFSA 2006-47 Native DOM methods can be hijacked across domains

MFSA 2006-46 Memory corruption with simultaneous events

MFSA 2006-45 Javascript navigator Object Vulnerability

MFSA 2006-44 Code execution through deleted frame reference

download it from here

Edited July 27, 2006 by abhay

[MVP 3]

Why Firefox is NOT 'Safer,Faster,Better'

http://www.almostheadline.com/site/AlmostH...94D07B451C.html

[abhay 0]

Firefox hits 200 million downloads

Mozilla announced that the Firefox web browser has been downloaded more than 200 million times since its launch in November of 2004. And Firefox isn't slowing down: The latest 50 million downloads were added in a record time of less than five months.

According to the download counter posted on the spreadfirefox.com website, 150 million downloads were reached in the week of 6 March of this year, which came about five months after the 100 million downloads announcement in October of 2006. It took Firefox to cross the 50 million and 100 million barriers a little more than six months in each case.

This morning, the counter is approaching 200.3 million and Mozilla posted a note confirming the count: "(...) today we celebrate. Congratulations to every single person who made Firefox the success it is today."

Mozilla conceded that 200 million downloads may not translate into 200 million users "because this number includes both Firefox 1.0 and Firefox 1.5 (soon Firefox 2,) because not every one completes every download, and because not every download results in a new Firefox user."

According to a survey conducted from OneStat.com, Firefox accounted for a global market share of 11.79% in May of this year, while Internet Explorer was estimated to stand at 85.17%. However, each web analytics firm comes up with slightly different numbers, as the browser market share heavily depend on the websites that are being monitored. For example, 39% of the visitors of TG Daily currently use Firefox.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/08/01/200_mill...efox_downloads/

Edited August 1, 2006 by abhay

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Firefox 1.5.0.6 released!

Firefox 1.5.0.6 is just a stability update, which fixes an issue with playing Windows Media content.

D/l it from here...

[abhay 0]

Photos of the Firefox crop circle

Mozilla Firefox fans have always been a loyal lot, and they're fond of letting the world know of their allegiance. But the Oregon State Linux Users Group has taken this show of pride to new heights.

When the open-source browser reached 50 million downloads, the group celebrated with a huge sidewalk painting in the Oregon State quad. Then, at 100 million, they launched a giant Firefox weather balloon.

But true inspiration struck the group as it marked the 200 million milestone: an enormous crop circle measuring more than 45,000 square feet. The small town of Amity, Oregon, may never be the same.

http://news.com.com/2061-11200_3-6106069.html

IMAGE :-

[abhay 0]

What's New in Firefox 1.5.0.7

Firefox 1.5.0.7 is a security and stability update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version.

* Improvements to product stability

* Several security fixes

Release Date: September 14, 2006

download it from here

Edited September 15, 2006 by abhay

[Vishal Gupta 4]

thnx for the update, but me using ff 2.0 BETA 2 it rocks

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Firefox 2.0 RC1 has been released!

Download here

[ani_meher 42]

I tested the Firefox 1 RC1, but it is not supporting many plugins yet. So i m staying on 1.5 for a while.

Also, when I update my firefox from the help menu, it downloads the complete 4-5 mb file of firefox than to download just a few kbs as expected! why is it happening?

[Vishal Gupta 4]

For the unsupported extensions, u can try Nightly extension, which allows to use unsupported extensions without any problem!

And regarding to the full setup file, it happens sometimes for me too! may be it'll be fixed in the final release!

[abhay 0]

Firefox 2.0 Inches Closer With an RC2 Download

Mozilla just came by to talk about Firefox 2.0 and casually mentioned they were making release candidate 2 available today. You can download it now from Mozilla's site, or if you're already using last weeks's 2.0 release candidate 1 you should eventually get prompted to install the new version. I just manually ran a check for updates under the Help menu and got it.

Release candidates are for polishing and fixing before a final release, so RC2 should look almost exactly like RC1, which I wrote about in a previous blog post.

Mozilla said there might be one more release candidate before the final 2.0 version, which should be out in the "next few weeks."

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/002909.html

[Vishal Gupta 4]

thnx for the news Abhay

[ani_meher 42]

I am actually quite sceptic about these RC versions. not because I hate FF, it is my primary browser, but how many betas n RCs are gonna be there? I don't remember the number of betas, but first there was an RC of RC1, then there was RC1, then now RC2, next is RC3......come on, fix a big number of bugs in one release only, n not squat a few in each RC!

(The main reason behind this is, somehow my FF installation is changed, so I can't download the few kb update, n i have to download the hefty 4.7mb file. that's why i m waiting for FF 2).

[abhay 0]

Firefox 2.0 Released: 'Bon Echo' Lives!

Last week, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7. Today, Mozilla, the spawn of Microsoft's 1990s' browser nemesis Netscape, released Firefox 2.0.

The browser wars are back.

The official Firefox 2.0 release (FF 2) is the culmination of months of effort from Mozilla that spanned at least three alphas, two betas and three release candidates.

Firefox 2.0 began under the code name Bon Echo and released its first public alpha milestone in March.

FF2 includes new features, a new look and more stability and performance than its predecessors in the 1.5.x Firefox branch, which debuted nearly a year ago; Firefox 1.0 was officially launched the year before 1.5.

"The focus of Firefox 2.0 overall is all about how do we take the core things that people like about Firefox and enhance them and at the same time enhance the quality of the overall platform," Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president for engineering, told internetnews.com.

One of the items that people love about Firefox is a tabbed browser, which got a much-needed overhaul in Firefox 2.0.

Also, active tabs are now more easily distinguished from dormant ones, and the long standing issue of tab overflow has finally been fixed.

From the first implementation of tabs in Mozilla browsers until Firefox 2.0, the tab bar could only support a finite number of tabs after which tabs are lost.

Tab overflow in FF 2 allows users to have more tabs open and accessible than are actually viewable on the screen, a fix that appeared in the Beta 2 release .

FF 2.0 also boasts a visual refresh over FF 1.5.x, though it's relatively subtle and is aimed at improving usability more than it is about changing the look.

Security received a boost FF 2.0, thanks to the inclusion of Google's safe browsing technology, which was first implemented in the Alpha 3 release . Safe browsing is an anti-phishing technology that notifies users if they are visiting a suspected phishing site.

The biggest change that users will likely to experience though is the stability and performance of the browser, which Schroepfer said has been much improved.

"Because we weren't making huge changes in the rendering engine and things like that we were really able to concentrate on crash fixes, tuning memory performance and making sure we can add new features without impacting overall performance in a negative fashion," Schroepfer said.

"We fixed many hundreds of bugs that were in existence before the dev of FF 2.0 started," Schroepfer added. "It's the summation of all these little things that just make the product feel really good."

The "feel good" aspect is a key component of Mozilla Firefox's success, according to Schroepfer.

"What we've really tried to do in 2.0 is not the big flash bang of new features that kind of jump up in your face, but more about how do we build a product that people love," Schroepfer said.

The Firefox feature list once help a wide gap over Microsoft's IE, but it's a gap that has narrowed somewhat with the IE 7 release.

"They [Microsoft] have copied a lot of features from Firefox which is good," Schroepfer said.

"Most importantly I'm excited to see them back in the game. They took a five-year hiatus from the market, they were in maintenance mode and that really put a huge break in productivity and innovation on the Web."

With the IE 7 release and now the FF 2.0 release, innovation is back and is likely not to be on hiatus in 2007.

Microsoft has said that it is already planning IE 8 and 9, though it hasn't yet published any release dates.

Mozilla isn't resting either; the organization is actively at work at FF 2.0's successor, Firefox 3.0, which is expected to appear in 2007.

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3639591

[ani_meher 42]

Instead of using nightly plugin, just add a boolean integer to your about:config page named

local_install.extensions.checkCompatibility

with value FALSE.

and

extensions.checkCompatibility

with value FALSE

Edited October 24, 2006 by ani_meher

[anujit 0]

Its not the best idea to disable extension version checking... well because some of them just won't work in FF2.0 (irrespective of version checking).

If extensions are a major problem the best thing to do is to keep using the the older version 1.5.0.7 till they release the new extensions.

[abhay 0]

WEB 2.0 - Flash and Firefox to unite

Adobe Systems Inc. will contribute source code to the Mozilla Foundation as the two organizations aim to establish a standard scripting language that developers can use to create interactive applications for Adobe's Flash Player and Mozilla's Firefox browser.

The plan calls for Adobe to hand over source code from its ActionScript Virtual Machine, the scripting language engine in its Flash Player, the organizations will announce Tuesday at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

With the Adobe source code, Mozilla will host a new open source project called Tamarin to implement the final version of a standard scripting language in Firefox's ScriptMonkey JavaScript engine.

Adobe will participate in Tamarin as well. Adobe's contribution is the largest made to the Mozilla Foundation since its inception, according to the organizations.

The standard scripting language that Tamarin will implement in Firefox is ECMAScript 4, now being developed by standards body Ecma International. Sun Microsystems Inc.'s JavaScript and Microsoft Corp.'s JScript are both based on ECMAScript, which is currently in its third version.

Tamarin's ultimate goal is to "unify" scripting across Firefox and Flash and thus give Web developers an open source virtual machine for developing and deploying rich, interactive applications across both platforms, according to the organizations.

The effort should yield better compatibility, integration and stability between Flash and Firefox and make it easier for developers to work with the two environments, said Michael Goulde, a Forrester Research analyst.

More information about Tamarin can be found here.

Other announcements planned for the Web 2.0 Conference on Tuesday include:

* Turn Inc., led by a former Altavista chief executive officer Jim Barnett, will launch an ad network that automates the targeting of ads and management of keywords and charges advertisers using a cost-per-action payment model.

* Automattic Inc. will unveil a partnership to promote the use of its WordPress blogging software in the enterprise market, said chief executive officer Toni Schneider.

* HCL Technologies Ltd., an India-based company, will promote First 2.0, a suite of engineering services for Web 2.0 technologies.

* Mashery Inc. will show its new set of tools for managing application programming interfaces (APIs), including API access control, provision of keys to developers, usage tracking and metrics, and management of developer communities.

http://www.infoworld.nl/idgns/bericht.phtm...025721F00048429

[abhay 0]

10 best extensions for Firefox 2

The latest major update of Mozilla Firefox incorporates functionality from the most popular extensions for the previous version. So, what will the future bring? To use the potential features of the next version of Firefox today, install the Firefox 2 extensions that won the hearts of Download.com editors Seth Rosenblatt and Peter Butler. And if you haven't tried Firefox yet, download it here.

FoxyTunes

Why bother switching to another application to manage your music player when you've got this extension? This summer's update to version 2 added a host of Web functionality, such as searching for artists, photos, lyrics and albums on a variety of sites.

Click here to learn more and download FoxyTunes.

Tab Mix Plus

Don't like the new close button on each tab? Do you miss the multiple rows of tabs when they exceeded the width of your screen? This add-on can change those settings and almost everything else associated with tabs. Use your scroll wheel to browse through open tabs, or control tab switching via mouse gestures.

Click here to learn more and download Tab Mix Plus.

MR Tech Local Install

Not only will this extension-manager extension give you comprehensive control over all aspects of your add-ons, it can override the MaxVersionNumber of older extensions that haven't been updated for version 2. It's worth installing for the "Restart Firefox" functionality alone.

Click here to learn more and download MR Tech Local Install.

Download Statusbar

Download Statusbar takes the idea of the Download Manager, sticks it in a minimizable toolbar, and then tacks on some cool functionality. From the full mode, you can rename or delete downloaded files, or copy the source URL to the clipboard. Mini-mode changes the app to an unobtrusive progress monitor, with the full mode a click away.

Click here to learn more and download Download Statusbar.

ForecastFox

With this option-laden weather-monitoring plug-in, you can choose between Celsius or Fahrenheit, create different location profiles and adjust when and how the extended forecast appears. There also are customizable icons, optional labels, day and night settings, and ForecastFox even differentiates between today's forecast and current conditions.

Click here to learn more and download ForecastFox.

All-in-One Sidebar

Firefox users who get accustomed to this wonderful extension rarely go back to the clunky default Firefox add-on window. From one clickable and customizable sidebar, you can access your history, bookmarks, downloads, extensions and themes, as well as an endless amount of content via other extensions.

Click here to learn more and download All-in-One Sidebar.

IE Tab

Extremely useful for those sites that require Internet Explorer and for testing purposes, this add-on loads any Web page as IE would display it, in the Firefox browser. A simple button in the Firefox status bar quickly and easily switches sites to IE and back. You also can specify some sites to always open with IE Tab.

Click here to learn more and download IE Tab.

Firefox Showcase

Despite some strong competition from Tab Catalog, this tab-thumbnail extension still gets our pick for its strong customization options and ability to show collections of tab previews in a variety of browser locations. One neat tip: clicking the scroll wheel on a thumbnail magnifies it.

Click here to learn more and download Firefox Showcase.

StumbleUpon

As a social networker, bookmarker and site reviewer rolled into one, this extension wears many hats. "Stumbling" takes one click, and interactive icons make rating sites a cinch. Combined with the topic chooser, the additional one-click features give Web surfing a useful unpredictability TV just can't match.

Click here to learn more and download StumbleUpon

Ook? Video Ook!

This extension for downloading embedded media is preferable to similar add-ons because it lets you go bananas with video. It offers one-click downloading, and it can save videos in their native formats--Flash video, WMP or MOV. Also, it saves YouTube videos with their original file names or those of your choosing--not some nonsensical code.

Click here to learn more and download Ook? Video Ook!

http://news.com.com/2300-1032_3-6135076-1....?tag=ne.gall.pg

Credit: CNET Networks

i have been using FoxyTunes, Tab Mix Plus, Download Statusbar, IE Tab, Ook? Video Ook! which ones do u guys use ?? MR Tech Local Install << just started using it cool extension try it out

Edited November 20, 2006 by abhay

[Vishal Gupta 4]

thnx for it buddy

I don't use any extension in firefox

[ani_meher 42]

Why??? Firefox is useful because of it's plugins only! Otherwise why not Opera? Come on, atleast adblock is very important.

I use adblock, flashblock, img like Opera (allows to disable image download etc, saves bandwidth), PDF download, restarter, Video downloader, and a very cool plugin called Answers. If you want to have more info on a word on any page (its meaning, use, relevence etc), u just neet to alt+right click on that word, without even selecting it. A popup box opens, that displays the info obtained from Answers.com. Very useful plugin for me. Do try it.

Is this video ook better that videodownloader? cause the later uses its website to obtain video addresses.