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Firefox is by far one of the best browsers available but for many people it's still a hard browser to accept. Sadly Firefox still needs a lot of work and I'm not just talking about the god-awful load times, which are improving greatly. Overall the purpose of this write-up is just to enlighten others by bringing together some of the more intelligent browsing enhancements I've found. I'm also hoping that actual Firefox user-interface developers might consider setting the browser up as I have, but not everyone thinks like I do. Many others besides myself have suggested the following changes but I'm afraid those people and I may just be power-users.
CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES:
- Firefox Campus Edition
DEFAULT INTERFACE PROBLEMS: [ more ideas can be found here ]
BUTTONS:
- New Tab button
[ isn't a default but should be the first button on the toolbar ]
- Back and Forward buttons
[ could be integrated into one button, like how Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is ]
- Stop and Refresh buttons
[ could be integrated into one button, like how Apple's Safari browser is ]
- Home button
[ is a default that nobody probably uses ]
- Go button
[ if I take the time to type a URL then I'll likely use the "Enter/Return" key, how often does anyone use the mouse to enter a URL? ]
WINDOWS:
- Preferences, Add-ons, and Downloads
[ each opens a new window instead of using the tabbed browser interface, they should load in the sidebar or in a separate tab ]
- New windows
[ new windows should only be used/allowed for separate Firefox profiles, Tab Groups should supplant the necessity for windows ]
MENUS:
- Menus
[ on the Mac OS version of Firefox there are too many menus, I've yet to find an acceptable fix since Menu Editor made things even worse ]
- Send Link option
[ what is this? it never works, especially since I use Gmail ]
TABS & TAB BAR:
- Tab sizing
[ most websites only need an icon-sized tab like FaviconizeTab ]
- Tab group menu
[ this menu could allow users to switch between groups of tabs all within the same window, this would help avoid an overcrowded tab bar ]
- Floating tabs
[ it should be possible to float a tab, like picture-in-picture only for your browser ]
ICONS:
- Tab icons
[ inactive tab icons dim, I'd rather they didn't ]
- Bookmark icons
[ icons disrupt the flow and consistency of menus, they look good on toolbars not menus ]
- Menu icons
[ icons disrupt the flow and consistency of menus, they look good on toolbars not menus ]
- Loading statusbar and toolbar icon
[ each tab in Firefox shows the loading status, is it necessary to display this information anywhere else? Fission is the way it should be implemented if at all ]
LOCATION BAR:
- Integrate search
[ why would anyone want an error page in response to forgetting .com? I say make this the search bar ]
- Paste options
[ add a paste-and-go option to the contextual menu, like how Maxthon's location bar is ]
OTHER:
- Download manager
[ integrate (torrent / Metalinker) support ]
- OpenID integration
[ VeriSign's OpenID SeatBelt extension is really buggy but the idea is great, another tool is Sxipper ]
- Pop-up blocking notifications
[ it may just be me but the exclamation marks in the status-bar should probably be set as default, instead of the annoying bar that appears under the tab-bar ]
TWEAKS:
- Force link that open new window to open in new tab
[ set option to 0 not 2, works best when you disable the Javascript window resizing option ]
- Turn off Firefox Go Button
- Fastback
- Google Search from the Address Bar
- Type Less In Firefox With Address Bar Auto Completion
EXTENSIONS:
- Activities
- All-in-One Sidebar / Download Statusbar
- Autohide
- Better Gmail 2
- BugMeNot
- DownThemAll
[ resume/stop downloads, Metalinker support, could be better integrated ]
- FaviconizeTab
[ the only sane way to browse the internet ]
- Fission
- Flash Block
- Greasemonkey
- GMail Real Estate (Minimize Header, Nav or Ads)
- Google Reader Preview Enhanced
- HTTP-to-HTTPS redirector
- TinyURL Popup Preview
- Youtube HD
- IE Tab
- Link Fixer Thing
- Linkification
- Locationbar²
- Menu Editor
- Microsoft Activities for Firefox
- Options menu
[ quick and easy access to extension settings ]
- Organize Status Bar
- PdfMeNot
- PicLens
- Prism for Firefox
- Save Session
[ quick and easy way to abort browser, like when you need to restart your computer ]
- Screengrab!
- Split Browser
- Statusbar Clock
- Stop-or-Reload Button
- Tab Groups
[ this should replace any need for new windows, but currently causes problems with Greasemonkey ]
- Tab to Window
- Undo Closed Tabs Button
- Unified Back-/Forward Button
[ doesn't always work well with certain Firefox themes ]
- Update Notifier
[ way more reliable than the integrated Firefox options ]
- VeriSign's OpenID SeatBelt / Sxipper
MY TOOLBAR:
Image converted using: Seashore
Browser theme: iFox Graphite 2.4.2
[ from left to right: New Tab, Undo Closed Tabs, Separator, Back-Forward, Separator, Stop-or-Reload Button, Location, Options menu, DownThemAll, Save Session, Update Notifier ]
DISCLAIMER: I'm not encouraging the use of Adblock, that's just my personal preference. Also, the Back-Forward buttons on my browser are not Unified. They only look that way because of the iFox theme I'm using. The actual Unified Back-/Forward Button extension has problems with certain Firefox themes.
--Operations 19:41, 8 March 2008 (PST)