Portable browsers in USB

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured web browser that’s easy to use. It has lots of great features including popup-blocking, tabbed-browsing, integrated search, improved privacy features, automatic updating and more. Plus, thanks to the PortableApps.com launcher bundled in Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your favorite browser along with all your favorite bookmarks and extensions with you wherever you go.

1. Go to http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable14 and download Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition
2. Install it and run it so Mozilla will generate the default configuration files (Change Mozilla Firefox’s option as needed)
3. Finally, copy the whole folder to a USB or even a CD and enjoy!

If you will want to run your Google Chrome Browser anywhere by having the app in your USB and run from it.

Here’s how to make a Chrome USB Drive:

1. Download Portable Chrome and extract (un-zip) it.

2. Copy the files into your USB Flash Drive.

3. Run ChromeLoader.exe from your USB anytime you need to use it.

(Your Profile preferences are stored in directory called Profil in your USB)

4. Enjoy Google Chrome Browser anywhere by sticking your USB into any computer.

This is Portable Chrome. Just download & extract and start with ChromeLoader.exe. Chromeloader.exe is a simple AutoIt-Script – compiled to an exe-File. So – if you got an error from your AV: it’s just a false poitive, because ChromeLoader.exe was packed with UPX. All settings are stored in “Profil”-folder. Have fun!

Firefox 3.1 takes the browser war a step further

Yesterday Mozilla announced that Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 was available for download. This brings with it a whole new raft of features and improvements:

• Web standards improvements in the Gecko layout engine
• Added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties
• A new tab-switching shortcut that shows previews of the tab you’re switching to
• Improved control over the Smart Location Bar using special characters to restrict your search
• Support for new web technologies such as the

There is special character support for the Awesome Bar (for example, you can restrict the search to your history by typing ^, or search only bookmarks using *, or tagged pages with +, if you want to match only text in the URL type @, and for title and tags only use #).

Why tech websites and blogs should not use third-party advertising like AdSense

Technological websites are money makers. The more how-to related articles in your sites the more visitor you tend to get. Internet related sites too get good traffic.
So in order to monetize from it you need to put ads on it. The first choice is of course Google's Adsense due to it's good CTR and CPC. Then there are several like chitika, ypn, bidvertiser, etc.

However, the problem is that most of your users would be geeks,(not true for reviews website as non-geeks will also vist for reviews) they probably might have embraced Firefox and most probably might have installed addon called Adblock Plus which blocks most of these ads.
You might have noticed that impression shown in your adsense stat is less than the actual impression. So, how to go around this?

The option is to have direct advertising hosted on your own server. As the url of the ad will be different(adblock plus works by detecting ad url like pagead..... for adsense) adblock plus will not be able to block this. But, make sure your url does not contain the word "ads", "sponsored",etc.
However, visitors can block these ads manually. But then only regular visitors would do this. Search engiene visitors will see your ads and hopefully click it.

Block ads in Chrome

Those complaining about not having adblock plus in chrome here is a trick from Google Blogoscoped by Philipp Lenssen

How can I install an ad blocker for Chrome?

I received the following small tutorial on how to do this, but I can't guarantee it works and I don't know about potential side-effects... please use with care (quote HTML'ified):

1. Install free software Proxomitron. It stays in your system tray and only eats 3MBs of RAM.

2. In Google Chrome go to Options -> Under the Hood and click on "Change Proxy Settings".

3. A new window will open. Click on "LAN Settings", tick "Use a proxy server for your LAN". In the Address field enter "localhost" and for Port enter "8080". Also tick "Bypass proxy server for local addresses"

That's it really. It's not as effective as the Firefox Adblock extension but it works well nonetheless.

Will Google Chrome be a hit in browser market?

Google announced that the launch of it's browser or OS for the internet Chrome. This is a direct shot at Microsoft's IE as well as desktop dominance. However, surprisingly, this decision shocks me as it's partnership with Mozilla's Firefox was going well. Maybe the top brass at Google did not like the idea of depending on other company to extend it's Internet dominance.

What does this mean for Firefox long term? Google is one of the biggest supporters of Firefox. It has contributed financially and in terms of development talent. According to PaidContent, "just last week Google extended its support of the Mozilla foundation until 2011".

At CNET, Matt Asay writes

Nor can I imagine web developers getting excited about developing for yet another browser. It took years for anyone to start developing for Firefox, and no one got excited about developing for Flock or other spin-offs of Firefox. Google has the brand equity to make people pay attention to Chrome in the way start-up Flock never did, but could Chrome be Google's Zune moment?

In the media player world, the iPod reined despite Microsoft coming out with a good-but-not-good-enough alternative. Firefox has managed to gain a 20 percent market share after years of fighting: 72 percent of web users still slum with Internet Explorer. Are these magically going to dump Internet Explorer just because Google showed up to the party? Unlikely.

Google had many failures in the past. Google desktop, Videos,etc. Hope this does not becomes the same. However, Google has created enough buzz to ensure considerable amount of downloads on the first day.

I don't think the web developers of websites will be happy as they have to create websites suitable for several browsers and their several versions.

UPDATE: Download Chrome Here(windows XP and Vista only. No version for mac and Linux yet)
Chrome Features
Chrome's Code

My favourite firefox keyboard shortcuts

If you don't like to use mouse often then these keyboard shortcuts will help you a lot while browsing the internet. You can avoid strain on your arms especially while using touchpad mouse on a laptop.

Navigation bar:
Select location bar: Ctrl/Cmd+L or Alt+D
Select search bar: Ctrl/Cmd+K
Back: Backspace or Alt/Cmd+Left
Forward: Alt/Option+Right or Shift+Backspace

Search page:
Find as you type text: /
Find as you type link: '
Regular old find: Ctrl/Cmd+F

Opening pages:
Open link in new window: Shift+Enter
Open link in new tab: Ctrl/Cmd+Enter
Open address/search in new tab: Alt/Option+Enter

More:
Caret browsing: F7
Refresh: Ctrl/Cmd+R or F5
Refresh (override cache): Ctrl/Cmd+F5 or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+R
Switch tabs: Ctrl/Cmd+Tab
Select tab (1-9): Ctrl/Cmd+[1-9]
Compose email: Ctrl/Cmd+M

Mozilla's servers are down !!!!

Mozilla as finally released Firefox 3 at some US time. I have been visiting mozilla's website yesterday but there was no link about the download. Today it is 18th in India and now wen I am trying to download, it seems that their servers are down. So much for the world record.

Please do not forget about the download day

Tomorrow is the big download day for Mozilla Firefox 3. Mozilla is aiming to enter Guiness world book of records as the most downloaded software in 24 hours. Make sure you help the achieve that. I have tried the beta versions and the work great. Most of your favourite add-ons will be compatible with it.

Why you should download it?

More Secure

* One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to.
* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware.
* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. (Try it here!) * New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate.
* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
* Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.
* Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.

Easier to Use

* Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
* New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download.
* Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site.
* Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
* Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
* Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
* Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
* Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* Integration with Windows: Firefox now has improved Windows icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
* Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
* Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.

More Personal

* Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
* Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their frecency (a combination of frequency and recency of visits to that page) ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns!
* Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.
* Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. Create and restore full backups whenever you want.
* Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
* Download & Install Add-ons: the Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from our community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.
* Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.

Improved Performance

* Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.
* Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
* Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes

New search powers lead Firefox 3

The latest version of web browser Firefox will make changes to the way people search for information online, says its developer.

Mozilla has told the BBC's World Service that the new browser has been designed around the importance of search to users.

Firefox 3, currently going through its third stage of beta testing, will offer a combined search and bookmark tool via the url bar.

It will also allow offline working.


Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation Mitchell Baker told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme:

"It's clear that when people are looking for information on the web, search is the number one activity," she said.

"We've devised ways to bring that power into areas that are closer to your individual life."

'Faster, sleeker'

Typing "cameras", for example, into the url bar, will bring up a list of the sites that the user recently visited that have cameras in their names.

"If you buy shoes, that's all you need to remember - we will use search, as you've come to expect it, to help you find the places that you have been visiting," Ms Baker said.

Ms Baker said that other changes have been made that are invisible in terms of look, but will improve overall performance.

"It will be faster, sleeker, and even easier to use," she said.

"In terms of features, we've tried very hard not to bloat the interface but to keep it simple, the way people like it, and to have new things appear when you need them."

The other substantial change will be the ability to do much more offline, with the browser "remembering" key data that is usually lost when an internet connection goes down.

This is designed to allow the user to continue to work when travelling or in remote areas where wireless access is patchy.

Firefox is currently the second most popular browser, although its 12% share is dwarfed by that of Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

It has, however, substantially grown from its launch - first as Phoenix in 2002, then as Firebird, and finally ending up as Firefox in February 2004.

Ms Baker said that when Mozilla issued Firefox 1 they had one staff member, but hundreds working on different aspects of it.

Now they have 150 employees around the world, and "tens of thousands" working on the software.

Mozilla is run as a not-for-profit organisation, and advocate of open source coding.

Why Firefox is unsafe to use in cybercafes

Firefox has been trying to take on Internet Explorer in the browser war. I like it but I am afraid of it's one feature of restoring session when it is closed abruptly. Even password protected sites such as Gmail opens. If you use Firefox and there is power failure that your computer shuts down. The next person has a option of restoring your session. If he does it then you and your account is at his mercy.