Posted 03/03/10 at 01:31:38 PM by David Murphy

It doesn't happen that often, but sometimes, you just need an FTP.  Or, rather, the problem is more like this: You need to access an FTP and you don't have a suitable software client on-hand for whatever reason.  Sure, you can usually access an FTP via your Web browser, but that just offers the most rudimentary form of functionality (read: downloads only) that you can get.  And that's even assuming that you can get into the FTP site you're trying to access--I've tested good ol' Mozilla Firefox on a few FTP sites that definitely work in a software client, yet do absolutely nothing when the ftp.*.* address is typed into a browser.

What do you do?  If you're a fan of Mozilla Firefox, all you need is but one simple extension to bridge both worlds together.  That's right--an FTP browser inside your Internet browser, which you can pull up into its own separate tab as if it was a new Web page, even though it's not.

What wizardry is this?  Click the jump to find out!

Read More

Posted 02/23/10 at 10:28:31 AM by David Murphy

Oh, BarTab.  I wish I had heard of you before I switched over to Google Chrome.  As a frequent browser-but-not-bookmarker, I'd often load up my Mozilla Firefox browser with upwards of sixty tabs per new session.  Yes, sixty.  I'd use tabs instead of bookmarks to keep track of, "stuff you should check out later," only I wouldn't actually get around to clearing through this backlog of open links until days later.  I'm a procrastinator for new content, what can I say.

You can just imagine the performance impacts this habit had on my typical browsing session.  It didn't bother me that much, performance-wise, on my tricked-out desktop PC.  You can bet that my poor laptop wanted to fall over and die at the thought of having to pull up a huge list of pages each time I clicked on the little Firefox icon in the corner of my screen.  And regardless of whether my computer could handle the many, many tabs or not, there was still the issue of Firefox having to actually load the content of these pages before I could go about more browsing.  Little is more frustrating than having to wait five minutes just to check out a link that a friend sent along because Firefox has to take care of 60 other pages first. 

Ugh.

So how, then, does BarTab fix this issue?  Why is it a must-have add-on for your Web browsing?  Click the jump!

Read More

Posted 02/04/10 at 10:00:00 PM by David Murphy

One of Mozilla Firefox's bigger advantages over Google Chrome has just been wiped away and, dare we say, Google Chrome has actually one-upped its rival in terms of overall usability and ease-of-installation. We're referring, of course, to Greasemonkey. You might have heard this name echoed across tech and tweak sites far and wide. As well you should have--the functionality you can achieve by this upgrade to your surfing experience is simply unsurpassed in its depth or scope by any conventional add-on or extension.

It's quite simple, really. You install Greasemonkey to gain access to a gallery of add-ons that benefit your browsing experience just as much as your favorite official "add-ons," if not more. By add-ons, we mean "scripts." In its conventional format, Greasemonkey is a browser add-on that grants you the ability to automatically integrate new Javascript-based modifications to a site whenever you load up the page. You don't have to design these modifications yourself--a huge gallery of scripts (more than 40,000!) have already been written for a wide swath of functions and locations. Consider Greasemonkey scripts to be analogous to extensions for Greasemonkey--itself an extension for your main browser.

Sound good? Because now, Google Chrome users have the ability to tap into Greasemonkey scripts as much as any other browser user. You don't even have to install a separate add-on, since scripts work natively in the browser! 

But here's the catch: not all Greasemonkey scripts work perfectly in Google Chrome. The running estimation is that roughly 20 percent of what's out there is currently broken for Google's browser. That's not great news for a person who's easily frustrated by failure. However, here's where Maximum PC comes into the picture. We've run through a large swath of awesome Google Greasemonkey scripts to achieve two key goals: to see what works and to see which scripts, of the 40,000+ available, are awesome tweaks for your browser. Click the jump for a look at some of the top Greasemonkey scripts you could (or should) be slapping into your Google Chrome browser right now.

Read More

Posted 02/02/10 at 12:45:41 PM by David Murphy

Do you want space or do you want security? That's the fundamental question posed by this weeks' spotlight Firefox addon, Gspace. If you think about it for a moment, you can probably get a pretty good inkling of what this addon actually does. If not, here are a few clues. It's USB week here at Maximum PC. But not all of us have access to a USB stick (or a Dropbox account) at all times. And it's not like you can just hunker down and email yourself a 100MB file at once--even Gmail itself has a pesky 25MB attachment limit for anything you send.

The point I'm trying to get at is that sometimes you just need a little extra oomph in the online file storage department. And that's exactly where Gspace comes into play. This simple addon opens up a gateway to file storage via your Gmail account, all handled through an FTP-like display directly in your Firefox browser. No longer will you use your Gmail merely for sending and receiving emails. No, it's now its own file server--free for you to grab and take files anywhere you have access to Firefox and the Gspace addon. Of course, you can also access the gmail address you assign to Gspace through a standard Web client and download (as attachments) any files you've uploaded under 19MB in size--anything larger gets split into Gspace-only archives.

Neat, huh? As always, that description is but the tip of the Gspace iceberg. Click the jump to see what else this awesome addon can do!

Read More

Posted 01/27/10 at 12:00:05 PM by David Murphy

One of Google Chrome's more useful features is its ability to display recently opened Web pages and your most-visited Web pages via a little visual table whenever you open up a new, "blank" tab. For the Web surfer with a limited range of interests or for those interested in a quick way to hit their favorite sites in one go, this functionality is miles ahead of Firefox's, well, blank tab. But here's the problem: You can't actually customize anything on Chrome's launching page. Or, rather, you can only pin and subtract.

What I mean by that is Chome lacks the ability to let you pick, from the start, exactly what you want to appear on your "new tab" page. If a site happens to make its way across your "most viewed" list and you want to stick it there, you can pin said side to your page by hovering your mouse over the image until its blue configuration frame appears. You use the same process to prevent certain sites from ever appearing on this page--I'm not going to ask what those might be. Other than that, you're stuck--unless you start refreshing a particular page to the point of annoyance just to get it to appear, you have no way to actually predefine or shuffle around these sites.

The Chrome Extension Speed Dial is your solution for complete and total customization of your new tab page in Google's browser. It's not perfect, but it's a welcome addition to any Chrome-tweaker's arsenal. Find out about all its features after the jump!

Read More

Posted 01/26/10 at 12:15:00 PM by David Murphy

"Gosh, I sure wish I could make Firefox look more like Google Chrome," you ask yourself. I'm not going to question your choice of browsers--however you decide to surf the Web is up to you. Nor am I going to point you in the direction of some kind of Google Chrome skin for Firefox. It's not like Chrome and Firefox are that radically different in regards to the look of their buttons and such. Differences exist, but nothing so groundbreaking as to warrant a customized skin for your Firefox browser. Plus, I think it would look lame. Case closed.

Or is it? Google Chrome does have a nice interface as a whole. I'm not talking about its colors or its icons, but its general layout. You do get a little bit more screen real estate to work with over Firefox's available space. Status bar? Gone. Giant bar of tabs? Relocated to the top of the browser. Favorites toolbar? Well, that's still there... but suppose you wanted to alter this, as well as Firefox's other GUI bars, at the touch of a button. You could jam on the F11 key to enable full-screen browsing, but then you lose the rest of your Windows interface in exchange for the extra browser room.

Now is the point in our one-sided conversation where a useful add-on called Hide GUI bars comes in to save the day. I'm not going to belabor the point too much, as I bet you can tell exactly what this extension does by the name itself. As always, I'll get into specifics after the jump!

Read More

Posted 01/21/10 at 06:00:00 PM by David Murphy

We've been treading in the waters of Google Chrome extensions since their "official" release to the browser's beta channel a few months back. With the number of legitimate Chrome extensions now pushing the 1,500 mark, it's about time for this relatively new soldier on the Web browser battlefield to get its own spotlight. Chrome extensions are here to stay--as well they should be. A number of excellent carryovers from Firefox's extensive add-on library have joined forces with a fresh batch of Chrome-only extensions to create a sizeable number of tweaks, hacks, and plug-ins for your enhanced browsing pleasure.

The inaugural extension in the weekly "Chrome Extension of the week" series does its part to reduce your daily repetition with whatever Web tasks you frequent. Sound confusing? I'd hate to spoil the story by saying that this extension allows you to record and play macros for whatever it is you do on the Internet, but I guess I just kind of did. The extension's called iMacros for Chrome, and its name does an excellent job of conveying just what this helpful little add-on does to your general browsing experience. Quickly fill out Web forms, perform usability testing, run a ton of searches, login to Web sites... the possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

Click the jump to find out how this extension works!

Read More

Posted 01/20/10 at 12:15:41 PM by David Murphy

Whenever you want to download a file in Firefox, you get a little gremlin tagging along for the ride. He's a helpful little monster, and his eerie resemblance to a common "download window" allows you to quickly see the status of, pause, and cancel your file transfers as you see fit. Easy as cake! Simple as can be! Insert more similes here! Seriously, how could one really improve a pop-up window whose sole purpose is to tell you how much time you have left on your download, only to scurry away into your browser's back pocket once the file is done?

I just gave you a clue. But this isn't a Sherlock Holmes mystery, so I'll jump straight to the big spoiler. Your download window in Firefox doesn't have to be a pop-up element that rests overtop your browser. In fact, this can be kind of annoying. Given that Firefox is all about the tabbed browsing, it makes much more sense to pull the download window out of the airspace and chain it to its own individual page amongst your plethora of open tabs. You can't do this via Firefox natively, and that's where this week's Firefox Addon of the Week comes into play.

Click the jump to discover this week's pick!

Read More