Initially, when I heard about the idea of a browser on a USB portable pen-drive, I started questioning about its applicability. I mean, why would someone not install an actual browser on the machine itself, and rather have it on a USB pen drive. The answer is simple: Portability. Not only of your favorite browser experience, but also of all that comes with it – bookmarks, addins etc etc. The applicability does not actually matter much if you access internet only at home, through your own machine [ in case of which, its better to just install it]. Or if work does not allow access to USB ports and installing of any new browsers, you are indeed forced to use whatever is available. But, if you do have access to USB ports at work, and you do not want to install your browser [ or are not allowed so by corpo firewall] , and also share your history data, bookmarks etc on your work machine – Portable browsers are the way to go.
Good news is – all your favorite flavours are available in their portable avatars. And here’s the list.

1. Firefox 3.0 on USB:

Portable Apps bring the Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. So, now you can take your bookmarks, passwords, history, extension with you. Visit the PortableApps website - Mozilla page to download the browser. It is just 9 MB in size, and after installation it expands to 27 -77 MB. I really don’t know what that * sign, beside the 77MB figure, means on the Download button.
Works fine on Win XP SP2 onwards, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.

2. My favorite – Sabka favorite – Google Chrome 2 Portable

No installation required. Just unzip the files in the folder and you can get started. To download your copy of Chrome Portable, go to this site [ the site is in German ]. The download link is here. Don’t worry, the software is indeed in English.
All your Chrome goodness are saved on the portable device. User settings such as Web History, Cookies are saved in the ‘Profile’ folder. And Program Settings are saved in ‘Chrome’ folder. Works fine in Win XP SP2 onwards, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.

3. And finally, Opera10 @USB

Opera USB is actually a private project by an Austrian Web Developer called Markus Obermair. Opera@USB has been certified to be tested by Opera. The portable version of the browser can carry out all the usual functionalities, and stores all the user data in the portable device itself.
Go here to download the USB version. Languages supported are: Deutsche, English and Russian, and there is an International Version as well.
The developer’s webpage suggests the only requirements to install Opera@USB are: a computer with an internet connection, and a USB Flashdrive with about 15MB space left. And oh yeah, it works with every Windows PC. hmmm, not quite sure about ‘EVERY’ Windows PC, but it surely works on WinXP SP2, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.

P.S. Sorry Linux and Mac users. And oh yeah, talking of browser, I am at work, where I don’t have access to USB drives, nor the admin rights to install Chrome/Firefox. That means I am using IE6. And this is what Tumblr reminds me.

The new version of Firefox which is 3.5 is a substantial upgrade from the previous version and features a lot of new functionalities with the default install – yes without the addons duh! Here is a rundown of the ones to watch out for.

##Tab Tearing:
This is similar to the feature that Google Chrome has. Users will be able to hold a single tab and drag it to make it as a new Window. The reverse is also possible ie. opened browser windows can be dragged into tabs as well.  Here is a video exhibiting the same.

Tear tab feature in Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 from Percy Cabello on Vimeo.

##Session Restore – Restored.
The session restore in Firefox has a big issue. The tab which caused the browser to crash [ usually because of a Flash plugin mishap] is opened as well when the session is restored. This particular feature now smartly recognises the cause and prevents the browser from opening that particular tab. Kind of a controlled session restore or more like a crash recovery.

##Private Browsing.
This is the answer to Chrome’s Incognito Window – or the PORN MODE. No history recorded, no cookies stored. Also handy for checking email on a friend’s machine, or even a quick online transaction.

##Keyword AwesomeBar Upgrade !!!
The Auto-suggestive AwesomeBar of Firefox is cluttered with irrelevant suggestions for keywords, possibly because it is derived from History, Bookmarks and Tags. The special character filters which are included in the new Firefox fixes this issue. So, say goodbye to clutter.

##The Big One. HTML5 and Video PIMPED!
The keywords here are Opensource, HTML5, Oggvorbis, Theora. To put it simply, browsing a page encoded in HTML5, featuring a video in Oggvorbis or Theora – and the video can become a webpage i.e. carry act, look and behave like a webpage. I wouldn’t talk much and just let you watch this one.

So, what do you think about Firefox 3.5?

Good ol Megavideo is now a paid website. And hence to enjoy the full unrestricted video viewing, one would have to pay and subscribe. Unpaid or Free users are restricted to just 78 minutes of viewing after which, the video would be disabled for the next 2 hours.So, if a movie is say, 80 minutes long, you are going to miss the nail-biting climax(That sucks!). There is a work around for this in Firefox, which allows users to view unlimited number of videos for any desired amount of time. Just follow the instructions given below.

1.Choose the URLs of the videos you want to watch. It can be even just one movie, or multiple video URL pages. Open them in multiple tabs on Firefox.

2. Start the video as usual (Hit the Red Play Button to turn it into Green, and then Push Play).

3. Pause the Video to let it Buffer. Repeat this for all the open tabs of videos.

4. Wait until Video or Videos have been 100% buffered till the last bit. (You know how to detect that, yeah the seek bar would have a grey progress bar kinda thingie approaching right).

5.Once buffered, go to File menu of Firefox. The Dropdown Menu has an option called “Work Offline”. Enable it.

6. Enjoy uncut, unrestricted viewing on Megavideo.

7.Remember to go back and deselect Work Offline when you are ready for another Movie or want to Browse the Web again.”

This also works in IE and Opera.Chrome unfortunately has Offline mode for only Google Gears enabled sites. Finally, for Mac users, there is no Work Offline mode in Safari.

Firefox by default opens up Search results in the same tab, and this can be annoying at times, unless you open a new tab by yourself, before you type in the Search. This however can be easily changed by editing the configuration settings in Firefox. This would enable the users to open the Searches in a new tab by default.

To do this, type in “about:config” in the address bar of Firefox (of course without the quotes). This will open a list of configuration setting lists. In the Filter text space, type in “browser.search.openintab”. This will now show the preference name browser.search.openintab and against which the value is set to False. This means, that Firefox by default will NOT open the Search in a new Tab. To set to the desired setting, double click on the row, to change the value to true, and the status is changed to user set, and VOILA. Searches will now be opened in a new Tab.

A new add-on for Firefox is on the loose. It’s called Googlepedia and it lets users have Wiki written all over you when you do your Google search. Not really. This addon lets users have the advantage of skipping a click, by showing a wikipedia result to a search on the right hand side of the page. 

e.g. If you were searching for “Flights of the Conchords (which is a hilarious band and I love them), the fifth result on page 1 is the wikipedia page for the Band. Now, with this addon installed, you could view the wikipedia result on the right half of your search result page. How cool is that?

Definitely cool for those who wiki a lot (like me). For those who prefer surfing on their own, stay away.

Read more here: Googlepedia for Firefox brings Wikipedia to you

Okay, now it is official that there are at least a good 8 Million Firefox 3 users (as of June 17) and counting. (The number is being quoted as per the Firefox Download day figures available here) So proud to see India in the 500K plus region. And nothing can be better when your favorite browser wants to get cozy with your favorite mail.

Have a look at this post in Lifehacker and this one here at GMail Blog.

This is a very handy tip when you want GMail to be setup as your default Mail Client. And what is that? Say for a page has a “mailto:”  link. Firefox RC1 had an inbuilt support for Yahoo. But if you wanted to go for GMail as your default mail client (which I surely do), you can check out the instructions available on both the blogs, but I shall give a quick roundup in simple plain language. Follow the steps given below.

• Login to your GMail account in Firefox
• Now, in the tab where GMail is open, type the following command in the address bar.
  

  javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(“mailto”,”https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”GMail”)

• For people using Google Apps, please ensure that you replace example.com with your domain name
  

  javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(“mailto”,”https://mail.google.com/a/example.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”GMail”)

• All done and set, Firefox will prompt you to Add Application.Click it. Done!

Now, you can click any mailto link. Try this ONE. Firefox will now prompt you to select from the available list of options. Select GMail and you are all set. You can send a hi if you want to.

Lifehacker has some more remedies if this trick doesn’t work for you. GMail blog has added how to change this setting if you wanted to change it at all. Happy GMailing!

So it has been a year and a half since the last major release of the favorite browser of many- Firefox. We have gone through the different levels of Beta versions for the last couple of months, and now it has finally arrived. The Release candidate 1. There has already been a lot of buzz going on about the many improvements in this version, and here we are discussing them.

Mozilla’s implementation of JavaScript in the new version is claimed to be twice as faster compared to its predecessor. Now, we all know the magnitude of the usage of JavaScript in web content today. And in a way, that is why it makes Firefox WORK. And yes, they have introduced a Memory Cycle Collector (more on that here), which frees memory which is no more used by any modules. For example, if Firefox is kept open and idle for hours, it would no longer suck unnecessary memory- resulting in more Support from us Fanbois. Yayy!! Oh, and yes, PGO-Profile Guided Optimisations -available only for Windows at the moment, designed for significant upgrading of performance.

The Auto Complete Address Bar is way too cool. And guess what, it ain’t limited to just popular web-addresses, but also to Favorites, History and Tags. And now to the most important addition feature- PLACES.

Places is a Bookmark and History Manager. For people like us, who have cluttered Bookmark Bars and Bookmarks scattered everywhere, this is our Kryptonite. It is powered by SQL Lite, (which is also Open Source, and is a lightweight search engine with robust querying capabilities). It is where you can search your History, Tags and Bookmarks and yes, even search a particular Search as Smart Search. And in case you are wondering what Tag am I talking about for so long, Tagging is a new feature on Firefox 3. Much like what we do with blog posts , or Delicious or StumbleUpon, here we do it on our browser.

And yes, apart from all of the above mentioned points, it has got a new UI suited for your OS, an Addon Manager, a more secure Anti-Forgery Site Blocker.Phew. But yes, it has its share of bugs, and they are here in this link of the release notes. Apart from that, you’d like to read the following posts as well.

Full review of Firefox RC1.

Ostatic: A guided tour of Firefox RC1

Firefox is what I say is D-Best browser around, and it is my weapon of choice to surf through the Internet. GMail is my preferred (read only visited) mail service. And just when I thought things couldn’t be better, these guys have proved me wrong, yet again. Imagine a world where GMail and Firefox are a perfectly wed couple. Imagine no more. With the following Firefox extensions, not only your GMail experience will be enhanced by leaps and bounds, but also your entire Googling experience.This list is topped by Better Gmail ( Read the Lifehacker post on it).

What it does? All that the original designers couldn’t think of, and even much more. The addons are so functional and useful, makes me think , why weren’t they included in the official release of the New Version of GMail. For a brief preview: attachment icons, label colors, saved searches, keyboard macros and a whole lotta bunch. Here’s where you can download it.

P.S. This download is Better GMail 2 and is for the new version of GMail. For users who still prefer the older version, you can download the previous version here.

No.2 on the list is : Better GReader. (Lifehacker post here).

We all have our choices of RSS Readers. I personally prefer Bloglines because of it’s rather minimalistic sidebar which leaves out a huge reading-space and ease of navigation. Google Reader on the other hand has the same skin as that of GMail. Might be fancy to some, but I need something else. Seriously, I don’t like the idea of reading posts as if someone mailed them to me. Behold! Here comes the Better GReader.
What it does? Maximize the viewing area, edit the default Google subscriptions and add keyboard shortcuts as well. Woo Hoo! We all are winners now.

No. 3:  Ok, this one’s a Greasemonkey script. But it’s simply worth it. This one’s called Gmail Conversation Preview.

What it does? This shows a preview bubble( you need Javascript to be enabled on your browsers) of your conversations on GMail on the click of the right-click. Here’s where you can download it from.

Hope you found my post useful. Comments are welcome.

Pic Courtesy: Sparrow*