Download Helper Extension

I had great success in downloading content from video portals using the excellent Grab++ application that is part of Orbit Downloader. That is, until I came to a website that did not allow me to download the videos even though Grab++ was running. To explain it a bit further, Grab++ is observing the Internet traffic and lists links that meet certain criteria such as videos.

I began my research and stumbled upon the Firefox extension Download Helper which supports lots of sites, several hundred would be my estimation. The site list is divided into normal video sites and adult video sites. The process however is the same.

Once you install Download Helper it will add a icon in one of your toolbars. If you can’t find the icon you need to right-click a toolbar and select customize from that menu. Then drag and drop the icon to one of your toolbars.

Disable Adblock Plus on all bookmarked pages

I guess most of you are using the Adblock Plus Firefox extension to get rid of most advertisement on websites. I especially dislike aggressive ads like layer ads, popups and the like that force the user to act to be able to view the website.

As a webmaster I make a living from these ads however and have to ensure that they are working fine. I could do that manually and add all my sites, and the sites of the companies I work with, to the Adblock Plus whitelist so that all Ads are displayed. I just have to verify from time to time which ads are displayed to be able to remove offensive or inappropriate advertisements from my websites.

Adblock Plus offers a online script that transforms all your bookmarks into a handy list that can be imported into Adblock Plus which has the result that those domains are whitelisted. This means Adblock Plus will not disable the ads on those websites. You can naturally remove websites from that list again before you import them all.

Multiple Cookies for one site

Firefox Facts mentioned Cookie Pie in their latest article and I thought it would be nice to review it as well because I’m using one website where this does make sense.A friend of mine is visiting me from time to time and we normally do not use the computer when she is there. We both do have Gmail accounts however and like to check the account from time to time.

Instead of using two different browsers to login into both Gmail accounts we simply use Cookie Pie and two separate tabs to access both Gmail accounts from one browser. I suppose there are other applications where this would make sense, maybe one where the administrator of a website is also a user of it and does not want to communicate and post as a user.

Usage is pretty straightforward. Just install Cookie Pie on your computer and activate it by right-clicking an open tab. Activate it again in another tab and you are free to visit the same website using different accounts.

How to synchronize Firefox profiles

You might want to synchronize your Firefox profile folders if you use Firefox on more than computer. This is handy for instance to always have the same bookmarks and extensions available no matter on which computer you work with Firefox. The easiest way to sync your bookmarks, passwords, cookies and history would be to use the Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox which has to be installed on all computers that you want to share those files with.

A Google account is required if you want to use the feature though which might turn some users away from this solution. It could not be easier to use it though. Download the Google Browser Sync extension, install it, enter your Google account information, select a PIN for additional security and repeat the process on every computer that you want to sync the profile with.

Passwords and Cookies are always encrypted and you can opt to encrypt all other data as well. The syncing process is completely automatic. Whenever you start Firefox the extension compares the current data with the one stored on the Google Server and synchronizes all data that is not the same.

One Password for all websites

A lot of users tend to use the same password or a few passwords for all the websites that they created user accounts for. I would bet that most users tend to use more usernames than passwords simply for the reason that usernames have to be unique on each website.

Password Hasher could probably become the most important extension for those users who want to increase the security but keep the few passwords that they have been using on all of those sites. The concept is pretty simple. Different passwords are generated from a master password and used as the password for the websites that the user is a member of.

The user needs to remember the master password – and only the master password – to login to the website in question. The great benefit is of course that the password that was generated for that website is unique and can’t be used to access accounts on other websites or in real life.

Display Loading Progress in Address Bar

I’m sometimes astonished that I never heard about a Firefox add-on before. Fission is one of those add-ons that add a real cool effect to Firefox. It displays the loading progress in the address bar of Firefox which means that it becomes more visible this way.

The display effect itself looks nice as well and can be customized further. The transparent color that is used to visualize the loading progress can be changed and an image can be used as well. Instead of using the full address area users can opt to only use the right side of it.

I prefer to use the full address bar location though because it does look nicer and it is at the same time easier to spot.

Improve the Autocomplete Feature of Firefox

To be honest I do not like the Firefox autocomplete feature which tries to match the url that you type in with urls that you have already visited. The Firefox Autocomplete Manager add-on adds functionality and comfort to autocomplete. It does match the phrase that you type against bookmarked items, page titles of websites that you have visited and even bookmark names.

While the autocomplete feature in Firefox matches the url from the beginning the improved autocomplete feature matches any part of the url which is great if you can remember part of the url only.

The add-on can be configured further to change sorting criteria, excluding pages and lots more. It does however use way to many resources in my opinion which is a shame if you consider the usefulness of this add-on. If you do have enough resources though you might want to use it anyway.

FoxLingo a must have Language Translator

The developers advertise FoxLingo as the ultimate language tool for Firefox and I must admit that they might be right about this. I sometimes come upon websites that I can’t read because I do not speak the language that the text is written in. I can recognize the language most of the time but I have no easy way to quickly translate the website to understand roughly what it is all about.

I did use Google Translate but this had the disadvantage that I had to visit the Google Translate website to use it and that it did not support that many languages. FoxLingo supports 45 languages and 34 translation services to deliver the best and most reliable translation possible.

You can mark any text on a website and translate it from one language to another one in just a few seconds. FoxLingo has a button called AutoTrans which translates a website automatically if pressed from one language to another.

Copy Tab Urls

I sometimes find a useful link list and open many tabs at once quickly looking at the websites leaving those open that look interesting enough and closing those that do not seem to be. This leaves me with lots of open tabs at the end and I find it pretty useful to create a list of urls that I found quickly.

I use a Firefox extension called Copy Tab URLs to copy the urls of all open tabs at once instead of manually copying and pasting those urls or adding the sites to my bookmarks who would soon grow to a huge size. You might be wondering why I need to copy and paste the urls. I sometimes do some research for companies and individuals and the url is always an essential part of the report that I create. 

Zotero a must have add-on for Students

Doing research has become a tad easier with Zotero which is not only useful for students but also for everyone else who is doing research. One of the main features is the ability to save book information from sites like Amazon, libraries and newspapers. Those information can be sorted in different categories, tagged, extended with notes, edited and attachements can be added as well.

What I like is that you can add multiple sources at once which is useful if you found a good reference list of books on a website.  Zotero adds an icon on the right side of the url whenever it senses information that can be added. A click on that button automatically saves the information if one item has been found. In the case of more items a list of those items is displayed with the option to save all or some of them.

The created references can be exported which is excellent if you want to go shopping or visit your local library searching for those books or papers.