Firefox Omnibar

While you could use an extension, here's an addition to my previous post on Firefox's Location Bar hidden features.

Chrome's URL bar has a lot of hype and excitement. But heres how to do it in Firefox without an add-on.

Mozilla Firefox had this feature all along. Go to your search bar and click the arrow. Then click Manage search engines.

Click on each engine and assign a keyword to it. I suggest a simple letter initial such as g for Google and w for Wikipedia.

Then head on to your URL Bar, and type in the keyword followed by a space, then your search term. If w was the keyword for wikipedia, I would type in w Mozilla Firefox, then Mozilla Firefox would be searched on Wikipedia.

Want to conserve screen space?
No problem! Just right click on the menu bar. Click customize. Drag the search bar into that window and voila! Omnibar! No add-ons needed!



Full details can be found in this video. Click here to watch on YouTube. Watch in HD if possible.



That's all folks for today! Please comment on tech as we need comments to improve on the tech guide. Don't hesitate to ask any questions. Thanks!
By - WinTechpedia™ 2009 Contributors

Firefox URL Bar: The Unknown Feature

There is a lot of talk about Chrome's new Omnibar, where you can type in anything and it would perform a search on the default search engine, which is Google by default. However, there is one hidden feature in Firefox's Awesome Bar that many have never known even existed. At first, Firefox search from URL bar seems to be like all other browsers, type something thats not a URL, then it searches your default search engine. But thats not how Firefox's one works.

Note: If the follow feature loads up a net error, an add-on may have corrupted your profile. This has occurred for me and I had to reset my whole profile or hunt down the corrupt file. Firefox Safe Mode doesn't fix the issue. This will also not function if you have the Omnibar extension installed.

Yes, if you type in terms, it would search the URL, title or bookmarks and history, etc... but try typing the name of a company in. Unlike other browsers which perform a search for the term, Firefox might do something special and smart.

Try it now! Type in weather into the Awesome bar. Just that, and nothing else. After loading a while, you end up... at Weather.com!

Type in gmail. It will load Gmail right there.

Type in wintechpedia. Since our blog is not as well known yet, it performs a search using your default search engine, just like most browsers would.

Type in WOT. Guess where you end up? To the home page of the Web of Trust!

This doenst' just work with names. Try entering: youtube.com Google. You end up at Google's YouTube Channel!

Firefox does a good job preventing you from visiting malicious sites. If you type in screensavers or screensavers dot com (exactly that), it doesn't go to the first search results because they are all malicious.

This is another awesome feature of the "Awesome bar." I know of no other browser that goes directly to a page. Most other browsers perform just a search. It pretty much finishes the .com, .org., etc... part for you in most cases without you having to press the auto complete shortcut.

Firefox takes your term and does what it thinks is best. If the search result that comes up first is a popular site (i.e. you type the name of a famous company), it would load their page. Otherwise, a search is performed. Pretty neat eh?

Continue reading. New Post on Built in Omnibar! Click here.

Enable Chrome's Omnibar Instead!
But if you don't want this feature above and you want the Omnibar, just install this extension. You might want to go to Manage Search Engines to edit the keywords first cause you'll need them. Then right click on the menu bar and click Customize. Drag the search bar away and voila you're done.

That's all folks for today! Please comment on tech as we need comments to improve on the tech guide. Don't hesitate to ask any questions. Thanks!
By - WinTechpedia™ 2009 Contributors

Must Have Firefox Add-on

Today, I (Creastery™) is going to share with you a few Firefox add-on.
(Okay..I said that my next post was going to be talking about other things..please be patient)
I wanted to talk about Cooliris but it seems that Freedomstar has already done that.
I will skip that...

15 MOST RECOMMENDED add-ons:
(Notice: This is the most updated for up to this date. [17 April 2009 - +8.00 GMT], please only download from here if you have the version stated in the below list)


1. Webmail notifier - Latest version: Firefox: 1.5 – 3.6a1pre
2. CSS Viewer - Latest version: Firefox: 1.5 – 3.0
3. DownloadHelper - Latest version: Firefox: 1.5 – 3.6a1pre
4. DownThemAll! - Latest version: Firefox: 3.0 – 3.1b3
5. FoxTab - Latest version: Firefox: 3.0 – 3.1b3
6. JSView - Latest version: Firefox: 2.0 – 3.6a1pre
7. Locationbar² - Latest version: Firefox: 3.0 – 3.6a1pre
8. Personas for Firefox - Latest version: Firefox: 3.0 – 3.5b4pre
9. Session Manager - Latest version: Firefox: 2.0 – 3.6a1pre
10. Site Launcher - Latest version: Firefox: 2.0 – 3.6a1pre
11. SkipScreen - Latest version: Firefox: 2.0 – 3.6a1pre
12. Surf Canyon - Latest version: Firefox: 2.0 – 3.1b3
13. Tab Scope - Latest version: Firefox: 1.5 – 3.5b4pre
14. WebMail Ad Block - Latest version: Firefox: 2.0 – 3.1b3
15. WOT - Latest version: Firefox: 1.5 – 3.6a1pre


1. Webmail Notifier:
This is one of the most useful tool I ever came across. It can check mails from: Daum, Naver, Empas, Nate, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and many more with scripts.
We can also check mails from multiple accounts at the same domain like Hotmail or Gmail. So if I will to have 5 hotmail accounts and 8 Gmail accounts, it could check mail from all accounts, NOT 1!.


2. CSS Viewer:
Well, this is only for HTML/CSS learners or professional. This give a view of the CSS in the page. Example, Click on the button to activate it.

Then after clicking on it, it will turn like this:
After clicking this, hover the cursor around the area where you want to clearify what CSS has been used there.

3. DownloadHelper:
One of the best tool to download videos immediately. With a click, the video will start downloading when the destination is located. Able to download some music.

4. DownThemAll!:
Best downloading tool I ever saw. Can locate files used in website and links too. Can download with a easy outlook.
You can also filter to massive download a file type. This is very useful to me as I like to download other's skin to examine..xD
Also there is a better function than Mozilla Built-in Download Manager.
It has the speed examiner.
>Comes with a average speed examiner--(This is usually does not give accurate results...)
Most recommended tool to download files.

5. Foxtab
One of the best tool to be recommended. Look through all your tabs with 5 different easy looks.

The above view is the 1 tab per view.

(5th option from the right bottom corner.)

The above view is the 3 tabs per view. - I only have 2 at that time....
(4th option from the right bottom corner.)
The above view is the 6 tabs per view.
(3rd option from the right bottom corner.)
The above view is the 15 tabs+ per view.
(2nd option from the right bottom corner.)
The above view is the 3 tabs overlapping per view.
(1st option from the right bottom corner.)

This allows us to browse through all our tabs easily.

6. JSView - Only for Html/Css/Java users...
This is a great tool for browsing html files/ css files or even javascript. Recommended and please download if you are a Html/Css/Java users only.

7. Locationbar²:
Quite a useful tool to view the subdomains or domain of a website as the address bar will fade off except for the main domain. Eg:

8. Personas for firefox:
Best and most recommendation. Allows the user to change with a live preview before changing a skin.

9. Session manager:
Great tool if browser crash. Can restore session like before. Recommended to all.

10. Site Launcher:
A add-on that aids in shortcuts...
Example:
By pressing the key, it will take to shortcuts put there.

11. SkipScreen
A free Firefox add-on that lets you skip all the clicking and waiting on sites like RapidShare, Zshare, MegaUpload, and Sharebee. Your downloads start instantly.

12. Surf Canyon:
Saw a arrow and a target? Yes...that's Surf Canyon similar and recommended site of what you have searched for...It's basically a useful research tool

13. Tab Scope:
This allows a sneak preview of the tab when browsing another tab. A zoom in function is also available.

14. WebMail Ad Block:
Using this, it allows blockage of ads from hotmail, gmail and yahoo mail. It clears up hell lot of space. Recommended add on to install.

15. WOT:
This is going to be the last part..Glad to tell you...WOT is a add-on that can monitor the risk of website that you are visiting. Also, Freedomstar is 14th in the whole world in the ranking and I am currently 4th...(Not deciding to improve my score for now...). It is strongly recommended as the reason is below: (You may have seen this before)
So, having WOT may reduce the 9 days of risk to maybe 1. Protect yourself, do the right thing at the right time.

That's all folks for today! Please comment on tech as we need comments to improve on the tech guide. Thanks!
By - Freedomstar & Creastery™ 2009