Category Archives: Firefox

Restore Default Search Engine In Firefox 5

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By default Firefox 5 browser location bar is associated with Google search.

This is a wonderful feature of Firefox which I love. But this feature disappeared after installing some software that hijacks this feature by replacing Google with Yahoo, Ask.com, or other search engines without our consent.

Apparently you have no options to restore this modification.

How to reset your Firefox default search engine or modified it:

  1. Open Firefox browser


  2. Type about:config in location bar and press enter


  3. Search for configuration key keyword.URL and select it


  4. Right click on the configuration key keyword.URL and choose Reset from the shortcut menu.

    • If clicking on “reset” nothing happens just write this string:

      http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&cp=4&gs_id=i&xhr=t&q=

    • Otherwise if you like Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky feature you have to write this line:

      http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

That’s all.

Make Firefox 4 Start Quickly: Start Faster

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Start Faster is an awesome add-on that it’s developed by an official Firefox developer.

In the beginning this add-on had to be integrated in the next Firefox 4 beta release, but it wasn’t so this guy released his idea as a Firefox Add-on so people can benefit from it while they figure out how to properly integrate it into Firefox.

Think of this as a work-in-progress technology preview.

  • How does it work?
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    • Play 35+ HTML5 Games

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    Game On Finalists

    Back in October I told you about the Mozilla Labs Game On competition. The guys at Mozilla now have selected 35 finalists in their game development competition and they are all online and ready for you to play. These games were the top qualified entries in the competition and are being evaluated for the prize awards. 

    If you want to go check them out, you can do so on the Game On website. Here are a few of my favorites:

    • A to B

      A physics based game where the goal is simply to get the ball from point A to B. Each level, you get a set of modifiers.

    • Dave’s Galaxy

      4x MMO Strategy game on top of a google maps style interface. Instead of sending bitmap tiles, the map is built client side with Javascript and SVG.

    • DrunkenWeb

      A game to test your mixology skills and help you learn how to bartend.

    • Favimon

      Favimon is a web-based game in which you battle your favorite websites, building a collection of icons as you attempt to conquer the web.

    • Grave Danger

      GraveDanger is an action puzzle game based on chaining color groups together to race against the clock. Created by two friends in about one month.

    • Mad Tanks TD

      Tower Defense game. Mad tanks attacks your base, you have to defend it. Please read in-game help for keyboard shortcuts.

    Go check out the rest of the submissions and let me know which ones you liked playing. The winners of the Mozilla Labs Game On competition will be announced on Thursday, February 3. 

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    © Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

     




    Firefox Facts

    Home Dash for Firefox 4

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    Home Dash for Firefox 4

    Mozilla Labs has released a very interesting new browser interface you can try out in Firefox 4.  Home Dash for Firefox 4 removes a lot of the Firefox user interface and gives you what they call "Browse-Based Browsing".  It really does bring a radically different way to use Firefox right to your fingertips.  Is it worth using?

    Once installed, you are left with what is really an almost empty Firefox window.  The only browser interface elements that remain are the title bar, the search box, the scroll bar and that is about it.  Here is a little more about the project from Mozilla Labs:

    Home Dash is the newest Prospector experiment to improve search and content discovery in Firefox. It removes all the standard web browser interface like the location bar, search bar and tabs; and leaves behind just a Firefox logo that is used to bring up a dashboard. Here on the right-hand side, Home Dash has found my top 24 sites and organized them based on my browsing behavior. While still far from it’s end goal, this was the original idea of making a browse-based browser (as opposed to a search-based one).

    Overall, I thought it was an interesting user interface to try out – but I am not ready to retire the current browser interface just yet.  I am excited to see what they do with it in the future.  Almost makes me think of Firefox as a operating system when you go full screen, rather than just a web browser.

    If you are running Firefox 4, you can try out this add-on immediately without even having to restart Firefox. Go pick it up at the Mozilla Add-ons website and learn more about it over at the Mozilla Labs.

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    © Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

     




    Firefox Facts

    Google Shortener

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    Shrink Links with GoogleLooking for an add-on that will let you use the Google link shortener (goo.gl) right from your right-click menu inside of Firefox? Google Shortener will get the job done. This simple little add-on for the Firefox browser simply gives you a browser-based front end to shorten your own links using the goo.gl link shortening service.  Is there more under the hood though to this amazingly simple add-on?

    Not only will the Google Shortener let you shorten links, it also adds a button to your address bar so you can shorten or expand the URLs in the address bar too.   Google’s URL shortener service is pretty simple itself, so not sure this Firefox add-on could do much more as far as features go, even if it wanted to.

    A nice feature they might be able to bring to it would be to show you the detail page of when the link was clicked and some of the basic statistics too.  I have been using the Google URL shortening service via FeedBurner for my Twitter posts for some time, and I do like having those basic features handy.

    You can pick up the Google Shortener add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

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    © Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

     




    Firefox Facts

    Firefox 4 T-Shirt Design Challenge

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    Firefox 4 T-Shirt Designs

    Are you a graphic designer looking for a new muse? Mozilla has a new contest going on for designing the new Firefox 4 launch t-shirt. All they need now is your submissions for some of the best and unique Firefox 4 logo designs.  The winning design will be printed as the official Firefox 4 launch t-shirt, a limited edition item featured in the Mozilla store and distributed to the world wide audience of Firefox fans.

    I always love these types of public events like this that Mozilla puts together because you see all kinds of unique and excellent designs.  Here are a few more things to consider and keep in mind when designing:

    • Ideal printing space is roughly a 10×10 inch square canvas on the front of the shirt.
    • You’ll be designing for the front only, as the back will already have the Firefox wordmark printed.
    • Please include a background color suggestion in your mockup. This will be the color of the t-shirt your design is printed on.
    • You can use a basic t-shirt template as a reference guide for placement and size when designing. But please submit only the design itself, not a mockup with the t-shirt.
    • Files should be uploaded as high-res (300 dpi) PNGs or JPEGs. But be sure to hold onto the original working files, because if you win we will need those. Be sure to optimize the file for print, and preserve all the layers.
    • Original artwork should be created using a scalable vector graphics editor program (SVG format), such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.

    The submission period ends on March 13, so act now and get your design together.  Let me know if you submit one too – would love to feature it here on Firefox Facts. To learn more about how to participate, check out creative.mozilla.org.

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    © Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

     




    Firefox Facts

    Firefox 4 Beta 10 Adds Stability

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    Download Firefox 4 Beta 10

    Firefox 4 Beta 10 has been released by Mozilla.  This update, on the heels of the Beta 9 release, really only brings more stability to an already amazing new browser interface.  The official release notes as far as changes go have been pretty sparse, but it seems stability is the big update this time around.

    Here is the official word from Mozilla themselves:

    This release continues our work to improve performance and stability in Firefox 4 Beta by including improved memory usage, remote blacklisting for hardware acceleration and better Flash support for Mac OS X users.

    How Do You to Upgrade to Firefox 4 Beta 10?

    You can go download the new beta to try it for yourself or if you are already using Firefox 4 Beta 9, click on the Firefox button, then go to Help > About Firefox to get the update.

    Notice any other big changes? Let me know!  Also, be sure to keep giving Mozilla feedback through the Feedback button in the Firefox 4 interface.

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    © Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

     




    Firefox Facts

    Backup And Export Firefox Bookmarks In An HTML File

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    If you want to export your bookmarks in an HTML file now is possible with Firefox with just a few clicks. This can be very usefull if you need to sync your bookmarks with another browser, backing up or moving from PC to PC.

    First you have to open “Bookmarks” and then click on “Manage Bookmarks“. This will open up the “Bookmark Library“.
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    Firefox For iPhone Is Coming: Firefox Home

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    Firefox Home is not another version of Firefox for Mobile, Fennec, its rather a window to access your Firefox world, making sure that you don’t miss any of your bookmarks, open tabs on other firefox and stuff.

    Already in May, Mozilla announced that they are working to launch a Firefox browser for Apple’s iPhone. But since the Apple’s software development kit prohibits a competitive browser, Mozilla couldn’t have come up with a complete browser to replace Safari.

    So they thought to come up with an App that enables the users to fetch their Firefox data from other devices on their iPhone, using Firefox Sync. (Firefox Sync, previously known as Weave Sync, syncs users data – open tabs, history, saved passwords, bookmarks, securely on a cloud which can be later accessed or downloaded by the user using the same application.)
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    Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta Now Released

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    Finally Mozilla has released the beta version of Firefox 4!

    I just red it and my first thought was to tell you to all Browserland readers. It can be downloaded here: Download Firefox 4 Beta

    There’s a lot of news in this version. It includes a redesign of the user interface (tabs are now on top like in Google Chrome), enhanced HTML5 support, hardware-accelerated HD video, WebSockets and enhanced add-on support via Jetpack.
    Continue reading →