24 Oct 08 Be a Power Surfer!

(Recommended for: Novice - Intermediate)

Surf’s up is one of my favorite movies. I love the way Cody Maverick enjoys his passion and becomes a great surfer. If I ever get a chance, I will love to enjoy the adventure of surfing (real sea water surfing) as well!

However, we all surf another sea - everyday - without fail. We call it Internet! In Surf’s Up, ‘Big Z‘ explains Cody that to master the art of surfing one needs to carve out his own surf board. Similarly, to be a power (web) surfer we also need to customize our virtual surf boards - the browsers - to our own taste.

So you mean, I need to take ‘How to Surf - 101′ lesson?

No, definitely not! However, getting familiar with the concept of surfing and browsers can help you in:

1. Shielding yourself from - viruses, spyware, malware and phishing.
2. Getting more out of your time - making you more productive.
3. Exploring more out of word wide web - filling in your knowledge tanks with more speed.

There are different browsers which you can customize according to your will to get a better surfing experience. In this post I will focus on “Mozilla Firefox” which is the most customizable browser today.

Mozilla Firefox has a very interesting history. It is an iconic browser, literally raising out of ashes, outwitting and innovating in face of tough competition and capturing a big chunk of browser market. The greatest thing about this browser is its extensibility. It has a huge community that develops wonderful extensions (also called add-ons) spanning multiple categories. Extensions or add-ons allow the user to extend or add new functionality to the browser. The breathtaking pace of innovation in developing new extensions for this platform is something that has never been seen before for any other platform. So as a first step, if you don’t have Mozilla Firefox installed on your system then download and install it right away.

Operating this browser is really simple. User Interface is like any other tabbed browser you have used before. However, if you feel uncomfortable with the browser then have a look at the basic functionality of the browser.

Am I safe? I hope I am not playing with ‘Fire’ here?

Firefox is a very trusted and reliable browser. Mozilla claims Firefox to be the safest browser on earth. However, there is no software that is 100% perfect, same is the case with Firefox. It is not a panacea for all your safety concerns out there but it does a good job at closing all the gaps.

Getting more out of your time - making most of your browser!

As I said before, the best thing about Firefox is its extensibility, so now its time to get down and discover some great extensions out there that make our life easy!

• Adblock Plus - After installing this extension you will realize how beautiful the web is! The real web, the web without those annoying ads everywhere! This extension blocks most of the annoying ads on any webpage, saves you on bandwidth and makes the overall experience a lot easier on eyes.
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater - This extension is a companion extension for Adblock Plus. It automatically keeps updating the Adblock Plus filterset and keeps your browsing experience ads free. (You must have Adblock Plus installed for this extension to work).
• Cooliris - This nifty extension has now turned into a beautiful mini application that runs atop Firefox and transforms it into full-screen 3D wall for searching, sharing and viewing images & videos. Surfing web albums or performing an image search was never this fun!
• DownThemAll - This extension is suitable for anyone who is heavily into downloading. Its a mass downloader and helps you download files quicker than the browser’s in-built download manager.
• Fire.fm - If you are a fan of streaming music then this is the extension you were looking for! This extension turns your browser into a virtual radio by streaming audio content live from last.fm (the best audioscrobbling service out there). It lets you listen to your favorite singers or genres from within your browser itself. (A note of caution to folks with bandwidth limits, audio streaming will use up quite a good chunk of your bandwidth so use this extension wisely).
• Forecastfox - Curious about weather? Wanna get the latest weather updates instantly? Try this clever extension and keep a tab on the latest weather scene.
• FoxyTunes - Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.
• Google notebook - Google has developed a great companion notebook that allows you to take down notes as you browse. These notes are automatically stored on google’s server and you can access them anytime you want to. The interface is slick and provides a good way of managing small pieces of information.
• GooglePreview - Inserts preview images (thumbnails) and popularity ranks of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages.
• Image Zoom - Ever wished you could zoom that small image on a webpage to sooth your eyes? Image Zoom is here to help you out, using a combination of “right click+mouse scroll” you can zoom in and out on any image on a webpage.
• PDF Download - PDF Download allows you to choose what to do with a PDF file; download it, view it with an external viewer or view it as HTML. Also, it enables you to save any webpage as a PDF document (adds “Save Page as PDF..” in Firefox file menu).
• Right-Click-Link - Plain and simple, it allows you to select any piece of text on a webpage and open it as a URL in a new tab or window. Pretty useful.
• Speed Dial - This is a feature borrowed from Opera browser. This extension allows you to create a cell phone like speed dial system in any new blank tab or window. By default, it displays a 3×3 matrix on a blank tab which you can assign to your most visited web pages. Gives you direct access to your most visited websites.
• Video DownloadHelper - So you want to download that youtube video on your machine, eh? Not a problem, Video DownloadHelper at your service, it presents you with a simple toolbar button that lets you download nearly any kind of media that you might find on a website. One click and you are on your way to download that video!
• WOT - Short for Web of Trust. This extension presents a ring of trust symbol for almost all the links that you see on a webpage. Green ring signifying a safe link and a red ring signifying a potentially dangerous site. It also adds a WOT button on your toolbar that keeps you abreast with status of the site you are browsing. You can also give your input to improve the site ratings and mark sites as dangerous or safe.

This is a very small list of extensions compiled down from thousands of useful extensions at Firefox’s website. Check out the Firefox add-ons website for more. This was a basic introduction to this wonderful browser and was meant to make you familiar with Firefox. Be proactive, play around, get more control and become a power surfer!

Getting more out of the web - filling up your knowledge tanks

The traditional way of exploring the web has been either

(a) by visiting a website directly, (usually recommended by a friend or by some random adverts etc.)
or (b) by visiting a search engine and searching for what you are looking for.

However, with evolution of the web, the methods of content discovery are also evolving. Advent of blogs have spurred a content revolution, creating a flood of information. Oncoming of broadband has revolutionized the concept of audio/visual media delivery. There is so much more out there that you can explore. But the question is how do we manage to get hold of the best of this content?

There is no objective answer to this question. However, there are certain tools and techniques that can help you grab the content you like the most. RSS feeds have changed the way we keep track of latest updates on various sites (check out Firefox’s Live Bookmarks!). Firefox extension like StumbleUpon help you discover web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more. There is a superb extension for Yahoo’s del.icio.us(a social bookmarks manager). Go ahead and explore all these options, they will provide you with wealth of information!

Is that all?

Firefox is huge and Internet is even bigger. So, it’s definitely not the end and I will be writing another post targeted on extensions for web developers covering more advanced extensions and features soon, so keep checking the site often or subscribe to the feeds. Please feel free to add more to this post by sharing your views in the comments section below!

Oh! By the way - You’ve got to see the ending of this movie.. You got the music in you! 

Tags: browser, mozilla firefox