Back in July Google announced that they would no longer update the Google Toolbar add-on for Firefox, which meant that anyone using a version newer than Firefox 4 was out of luck. This might not have been as big a deal if Mozilla hadn’t accelerated their updating schedule right around that time, meaning that users had to make a choice: keep the Toolbar functionality or use the newer, better Firefox.

For those of us that find the Google Toolbar eminently useful and worth the loss of those extra pixels up top, this news was a giant bummer. Lest you think that the GT is useless or easily replaced, just look at this long list of add-ons Google suggested for duplicating the functionality.

Up until this weekend I refused to update Firefox so I could keep the GT. Then I came across a post on Techie Buzz (a good source of tips and tricks) that solved the entire problem and allowed me to use the toolbar in Firefox 6. The best part: this trick will work with any add-on that hasn’t been updated yet.

Re-Enable the Google Toolbar in Firefox 5 and up

1. Before you upgrade Firefox, install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension. Do NOT uninstall the Google Toolbar.
2. Upgrade Firefox normally. You will see a warning that Google Toolbar is incompatible and will be disabled. That’s fine.
3. Once the upgrade is complete, go to Add-ons under the main menu. At the top of the screen a yellow alert triangle will tell you that you have incompatible add-ons. This is normal.
   
4. Each add-on row now has a new button: Compatibility. Scroll to the Google Toolbar add on, click it, and choose “This add-on still works.”
   
5. Restart Firefox. The Google Toolbar will appear just as before with all settings intact.

As I said, this works with any add-on, not just Google Toolbar. It’s useful for times when the developer isn’t as quick to update as Mozilla. It’s also great if you’re into checking out beta builds before the official release.

How To Use The Google Toolbar in Firefox 5 and Firefox 6 is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Firefox 4 Launches with New Interface, Speed and Features is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Mozilla has finally graduated its Firefox 4 browser out of beta and the Mac, Windows, and Linux edition of the popular Internet browser is now available as a release candidate in over 70 languages. The browser brings a new look and additional features, chief of which is faster speeds. With a new Javascript engine, Firefox 4 RC is faster than the beta editions and is up to 3 times faster when benchmarked with Sunspider. According to Mozilla, “From faster start up times and graphics rendering to improved page load speed, you’ll notice the difference instantly.”

Firefox 4 retains support for third-party add-ons and Mozilla says that about 70% of the add-ons from Firefox 3 are compatible with the new browser. Additionally, there are security improvements and broader support for HTML5 on the Internet, including compatibility with HD videos and Google’s WebM format.

You can visit Mozilla to download Firefox 4 for your system.

Mozilla Firefox 4 Exits Beta as Release Candidate Version is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

Mozilla has released a new beta version of Firefox 4, the company’s next iteration of the popular Firefox browser. The latest beta version of Firefox 4 includes improvements to startup speed, bookmarking and animation smoothing as well as delivering many new features that you won’t find in the existing Firefox 3 versions.

In the Firefox 4 beta the tabs have a new location, shifted above the search bar like we see in Chrome and in addition tot he movement, you can also switch to an open tab when you search for something in the search bar. For example, if you have a Wikipedia tab open and begin to type in Wikipedia you have the option of switching to your open tab instead of cluttering your tabs bar.

Also cleaning up the user experience is the introduction of App Tabs. App Tabs allow you to keep frequently used programs always open and somewhat minimized so that you don’t accidentally close them and so they don’t take up a bunch of room on your tab bar.

Another new feature in the Firefox 4 Beta is syncing which allows you to keep your tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords in sync across computers and other mobile devices with Firefox. Here’s a video of how to set up Firefox Sync.

The latest version of Firefox is still in beta which means it is for testing and shouldn’t be used in critical situations involving your day-to-day work. While the word “beta” has lost it’s edge and many times the “beta” versions are safe to use as your primary tool we recommend installing the Firefox 4 beta alongside your existing browser.

If you want to install Firefox 4 alongside your existing Firefox 3 installation simply choose custom install and pick a new location for your Firefox 4 beta installation.

Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta Arrives with Sync, App Tabs and More is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Mozilla’s own Aza Raskin revealed a new feature for the Firefox browser called Tab Candy. This new feature allows Firefox users to organize and browse more efficiently and effectively.

Nearly all current browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Opera include a tab feature. This allows users to open many different webpages without opening up a separate browsing window, thus de-cluttering the user’s workspace. However, this feature can be counterproductive when too many tabs are open.

Still in development, Tab Candy offers similar functionality in the Firefox browser that Mac users experience in the desktop with Spaces and Expose. With one click or keystroke, Tab Candy lets you view all of your current tabs, as well as organize them into different groups. This could be a very useful feature, especially for those who have a netbook or notebook and are lacking extra screen real estate.

Tab Candy Features:

• Instant Overview – Press Option-Space / Control-Space to zoom out and view thumbnails of all open tabs.
• Lightweight Grouping – Create groups and name them by dragging two tabs together. Automatic grouping is currently in the works, though not yet ready.
• Only the Tabs You Want – When viewing a tab that is part of a group, only the tabs that are part of that group are visible.
• Organize Your Space – Tabs and groups can be rearranged and resized.

Tab Candy is currently available for download, though there’s work that still needs to be done. Firefox is looking for more input from everyday users.

You can download Tab Candy Alpha for Firefox, here. Don’t have Firefox yet? Download the latest beta version prior to downloading Tab Candy.

Via Aza Raskin’s Blog

Make Firefox Sweeter with Tab Candy is a post by Carter Sprunger from Notebooks.com.

One of the easiest ways to boost your web-productivity is to ensure that you aren’t using a painfully slow browser. Sadly, most computers come bundled with what is commonly recognized in the tech world as one of the slowest modern browsers (and the one with the least web-standards compatibility), Internet Explorer. Older versions of Internet Explorer are also very insecure by today’s standards. Boosting your web productivity is as quick and simple as downloading a new browser (for free) and installing it. A faster browser will save you time in everything that you do on the web. You can even install all of them and find which works best for you. After checking out a new browser, find out how to sync bookmarks across multiple computers from one of our other helpful articles.

First, a simple overview of the browser, courtesy of Google:

Now let’s take a quick look at three of the major browsers (click on the title text to be taken to the official website):

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox was one of the first browsers to break Internet Explorer’s dominating grip on browser market share. It was the first to really demonstrate that the browser can provide a lot more functionality than a simple URL bar, and that it could be much faster. They also helped make the web better by ensuring that their browser is highly compatible with web-standards. Without Firefox, we might still be using Internet Explorer, and that thought alone is quite frightening.

One of Firefox’s defining features is it’s ability to run add-ons, which are extra bits of software that you can download to provide additional functionality within your browser. There is a large library of add-ons, and one can find anything from a twitter client to an in-browser blog writer.

Firefox is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Apple Safari

Apple has long been using Safari as the default web browser on Macs, but in 2007 it was announced that Safari would be made available for Windows systems as well. Since then, Apple has continued to update it, keeping it on par with Firefox and Chrome performance. One of it’s defining features is the unique visual way that it displays your top visited sites and browser history.

Safari is available on Mac and Windows.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome was released in 2008 for Windows. Because much of Google’s business relies on the web, they decided that making a fast browser would help their users use their products, and ultimately help their company. Thus, Google Chrome was born and it’s zippy speed challenged the status-quo, leading to a brief period of intense competition between the major browsers which resulted in a raising of the bar for browser performance. Two of Google Chrome’s defining features are simplistic design (with the ultimate goal being speed) and extension support (similar to Firefox add-ons).

Chrome is available on Windows and is currently being developed for Mac and Linux (test versions are available for download).

Easily Increase Your Web-productivity for Free is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

Many people use more than just one computer throughout the day. Perhaps you have a home desktop computer, a laptop, and even a work computer. Chances are, you use each of these computers to access the web. What can be frustrating is attempting to keep your bookmarks in order. On just one machine alone this can be daunting, but to have them organized across all machines is even tougher. Luckily there are some great free options out there for effortlessly keeping your bookmarks synced for whatever browser you are using, and we’ve compiled a list of three, just for you.

Google Chrome Integrated Syncing

If you are using Google Chrome, you don’t even need to install any addition software. Google Chrome has bookmark syncing baked directly into the browser. Enabling it is as simple as plugging in your Google account information.

At the top right of the browser, click on the wrench button, then find Synchronize my bookmarks…”

A new box will pop up which will ask for your Google account login info.

After entering your Google credentials, bookmark syncing will be handled automatically from this point on. Simply go to any other computer that you’d like to keep bookmarks in sync with, and follow the same steps with the same Google account. Bookmarks should be merged, so if you have different bookmarks on multiple computers, everything will mesh together, then you can use the Bookmark manager to organize (ctrl+shift+b in Chrome). Be sure to double check that bookmarks are merging and not being replaced, just in case you have important bookmarks on one of your computers. Carefully read the prompts as you set up the syncing.

Google stores your synced bookmarks on Google Docs, which means if you are ever on another computer that you aren’t syncing with (perhaps a public computer) you can always go to docs.google.com to get access to your bookmarks from any web connect computer (just remember to log out of your Google account when you are done!)

Mozilla Firefox Weave

Weave is an official project from Mozilla which is designed to keep your Firefox sessions in perfect sync. Weave does a little bit more than just syncing bookmarks. Have a look at this diagram which is featured on the Weave website.

Weave is a Firefox add-on which can be easily installed by visiting the Weave website and clicking Get it now!” You’ll need to be running the latest version of the Firefox browser (to check, go to the Help” menu at the top of the browser, and find Check for updates”). Once the add-on is installed, you need to set up a Weave account:

Start by opening the add-ons manager and clicking on Options” on the Weave Sync add-on.

Click the button to create a Mozilla Weave account.

Fill in the required information and hit next. After this window, you’ll have a few more fields to fill out until everything it set up.

Once the account is set up, use the dropdown box to decide what Weave will do for you. You can choose between syncing everything, or choose Use my custom settings” to decide exactly what gets synced. Once this is done, install the add-on in the same way on other computers that you’d like to sync with and use the account that you just created to fill out the User Name and Password fields in the first step.

Xmarks Multi-browser bookmark syncing

If you use Firefox or Google Chrome exclusively across all of your computers, the two above options will probably work well for you. However, there are a myriad of reasons that someone might use more than one browser across multiple computers, or even on the same computer. If you find yourself in this group, Xmarks is the solution for you. Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) started as a very good Firefox-only bookmark syncing add-on. It has since then evolved to support the four major browsers, most recently Chrome. Follow the links below to get the Xmarks add-on for your favorite browsers and start syncing bookmarks:

• Xmarks for Internet Explorer
• Xmarks for Safari
• Xmarks for Firefox
• Xmarks for Chrome

Again, you’ll need to install Xmarks on each computer and for each browser that you’d like to sync with. You’ll create an Xmarks account to keep everything in order, and if you find yourself on a computer which doesn’t have Xmarks installed, you can visit my.xmarks.com to access your bookmarks.

Three Ways to Sync Browser Bookmarks is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

If you use the web regularly, pay attention. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts that will help you navigate with your browser and complete web based tasks more quickly than ever before! The best part about these shortcuts is that most apply to nearly every major browser out there, so whether you are using Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or even Internet Explorer, you’ll be able to move between your favorite sites with great fluidity. What’s more, if you have a mouse that has extra buttons, you can often assign those buttons to these keyboard shortcuts to be even more efficient.

• Open new tab: ctrl+t
• Close tab: ctrl+w
• Move to right tab: ctrl+tab
• Move to left tab: ctrl+shift+tab
• Move cursor to address bar: ctrl+l

I’ve prepared a short video showing the different between browsing with and without keyboard shortcuts. It isn’t exactly a practical example of browsing, but the goal here is to show how quickly you can navigate between tabs and websites.

Zoom Around the Web with Keyboard Shortcuts is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.