• The 100 Most Popular Twitter Applications
• 7 Fresh and Simple Ways to Test Cross-Browser Compatibility
• How strong are your passwords on sites like PayPal? These need to be impossible to remember because of the connection with your bank account. Check your password strength.
• 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn: Way beyond looking for jobs.
• 90-10 Rule for Successful Twitter Networking
• How to Promote on Twitter without Pissing People Off [Link: Amy Derby]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• ZooBorn: Awww… Just like it sounds… zoo newborns.
• Adobe Cards: Amazing animation with decks of cards. After it loads, move the slider all the way to the right to play the entire show.
• Twittering with Ben Franklin, James Madison, Aaron Burr [Link: Brad Shorr].

Our life on Monday…

This is the first Firefox book I’ve read, so it won’t have a comparison to any of the others — as a few books hit the market soon after Firefox started nipping at Internet Explorer’s market share of the browser market.

Chapter 1 kicks off the book with an introduction explaining why Firefox is a first-rate browser and how to install its Windows, Mac, and Linux releases. “Essential Browsing Features,” the next chapter, reviews tabbed browsing, searching, downloading, and other features.

I’ve used Firefox prior to the v1.0 release and I’ve picked up a few tricks in this chapter. The tips go beyond entering keywords into the search box or changing search engines. However, I found an error — the book says to left-click on a selected word on any Web page and run a search on the selected word — It’s right-click, not left.

“Revisiting Web Pages” dives into bookmarks and how to get the most out of your bookmark file. The tricks explain how to quickly find a Web page that is hidden in your bookmarks somewhere, and you don’t have a clue what it is called and the keywords aren’t giving you what you want. Also covered are RSS feeds, Live Bookmarks, and memory tools such as using history, managing cookies, using the password manager, and clearing tracks.

Many people love Firefox because it’s customizable. One way to make it your own is by changing the theme (look and feel). “Dressing up Firefox” explains how to find and change themes.

Another way to get what you want out of Firefox is through extensions, covered in chapter 5’s “Personalizing Firefox.” Yeow shows multiple ways of installing extensions and using the extension manager. The chapter works through the extensions the author recommends (he provides a good selection) and how they work.

Intermediate Firefox users most likely want to jump ahead to chapter 6, “Tips, Tricks, and Hacks” and maybe chapter 7, which is for Web developers. Chapter 6 looks at about:config and how to modify preferences through its interface. Then Yeow shows where to find the user’s profile, and covers what files are included in the profile and what they do. Find great tips on how to mark unread tabs, shift the sidebar to the right, and disabling annoying 1996 Web site features like blink and scrolling marquee.

“Web Development Nirvana” highlights the tools that come with Firefox for developers and which extensions make development easier including LiveHTTHeaders, Web Developer Toolbar, and Greasemonkey. The book closes out with troubleshooting and information about browser’s nightly builds.

The book only has minor shortcomings. The tips and warning sidebars text is smaller than the rest of the book’s contents. It might be difficult for some people to read.

While it’s nice that a bonus CD came with it, it’s outdated (v1.0.3 and current is 1.0.6. It also has Thunderbird 1.0.3 and the current is 1.5 Beta 1.). At least, it doesn’t increase the book cost and gives newer users an easier start as they don’t have to worry about downloading files.

It’s a well-rounded book written in a friendly and easy going style that should get new users up-to-speed and provide experienced users with tips to maximize the Firefox browsing experience. The book helps you discover this mighty browser outside of what comes in the box or download. The companion Web site has sample chapters available.

Title: Firefox Secrets
Author: Cheah Chu Yeow
Publisher: Sitepoint
ISBN: 0975240242
Date: June 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 292
Cover Price: USD: $29.95 Amazon: $19.77

For those who are unclear on the differences between the Mozilla package and Firefox / Thunderbird, here it is:

1. Mozilla is a complete package meaning it comes with email, browser, address book, newsgroup, and chat applications integrated.

2. FireFox is a stand-alone browser application. It doesn’t have email built-in. There is a chatzilla extension available.

3. Thunderbird is the stand-alone email application. It doesn’t have a browser built-in. The address book is included.

4. If you use Mozilla for email and click on a link within an email, it will open them in Mozilla not FireFox even when FireFox is the default browser.

5. The applications are similar, yet different. The look and feel is different. It requires experiencing it for yourself to understand this.

6. Commands and features are not identical. For instance, Mozilla has F9 to open the sidebar with search, history, bookmarks, etc. whereas FireFox only opens Bookmarks and History in the sidepanel via Ctrl+B and Ctrl+H respectively. There are a few extensions to do more with this.

7. FireFox has fewer options because it doesn’t have other applications integrated with it, which can make it easier to modify.

At this point, Mozilla is tapering off while Mozilla.org moves forward with its brightest start, Firefox.

Many people have written about their experiences with Mozilla and FireFox (FF). It sounds like about half of them have had no problems with FF while the other half experienced problems like I did. My household reflects the statistic since two of our four computers run FF without issues while the other two constantly fight fires with it. Read on for the good, the bad, the so-so, and the uncategorizable…

The good…

Ted Marsden says he has cut spam about 60 percent by switching to Mozilla, FF, and Netscape. Leigh Klotz has been using Mozilla for a long time and never uses IE unless a Web site doesn’t work with Mozilla. Izzie has been using FF for several months and has had no problems.

Jean Jacque Duguay loves FF. He has tried Netscape v7.0, but it was too big and too slow. He has tested Mozilla, which he believes is a better version of Netscape. He is hooked to tabbed browsing. Slim Browser is another he has looked at, but he later learned it uses the IE engine, which means it carries the IE security issues. After trying FF, he believes he is finally free of IE.

Jerome Miller writes he has been non-IE browsers for many years; Netscape, Mozilla, FF, and Opera. FF is the pick of the lot. For Jim Harkins, the switch to FF was seamless.

Dwight Romanovicz has been using Netscape as his primary browser since version 2. Through all those years he has never been bothered by an e-mail virus or a home page hijacker. In the past couple of years webmasters have become too slack to test their pages with Netscape so the visual may have problems but far more important is that some file types are corrupted upon download.

Michael B. Johnson switched to FF for the following reasons:

1. Security – For example, Mozilla won’t run Active-X controls without his permission. I’m using Win2K (not XP), so the shell exploit doesn’t affect him.

2. Ease of use – Mozilla’s tabbed browsing and background loading. Also the “just type and I’ll find it” feature. And the Ctrl+Grey Plus key zoom-in/zoom out feature. And the Adblock plugin.

3. Open Source – He supports the movement.

Jo Ann Weaver made the switch and use FF as the default browser with Avant as backup. Jo Ann hasn’t used IE in almost a year.

DeVaux McLean loves FF. Steve Hydrick has switched to FF and Thunderbird (email client) and has no complaints. Though it does take a PC-savvy person to explore its options for extensions etc, but he likes that option! And, it is somewhat faster than IE6 so that’s a good thing too. Ad-Aware doesn’t detect any spyware since he switched.

Wayne Tuttle has been using Mozilla for years and has replaced the suite with FF since I only used the browser. FF safely transferred all of his bookmarks and, more importantly, his banking certificate like a regular upgrade of Mozilla, and after a day, he removed Mozilla.

Geoff Loats has been using Firefox for about six weeks and finds it leaves IE for dead. The only problem he has with it is that a page must completely load before you can activate one of the links on that page. It beats having pop ups galore making surfing a nightmare.

Myrl changed to FireFox and was astounded when running anti-spyware and found not one new occurrence since the switch. Myrl has only one disappointment, the ability to send only plain text emails from the Yahoo account, no hyperlinks, no color, nothing unless I use an attachment.

The bad…

Dick Bellin understands the reasons for switching and has no arguments. He has tried Mozilla and FF more than once, and each time after frustrations and failure to get the programs to work as promised, he gave up and went back to IE. He uses Avant Browser, however, Avant uses the IE engine and inherits all of IE’s security problems.

Cliff Walker removed FF within 15 minutes of installing it because it presupposes that the designers already know how you want the browser configured. They assume that you want all these commercial links on your toolbar, leaving about one-third of it for custom links and no way to get rid of these commercial links that we’ll never use and, actually, would prefer not being reminded they exist. No, there’s no way to free up this space and there’s no way to add to what little space they leave you with.

Cliff says, “Conspicuous by its absence was ANY control over animated ads: there’s no way to disable these flashing, flickering, looping distractions (and leave them off). In an application that I would have hoped would be advanced enough to have actually figured out a way to turn off Flash at will, we end up having to try to scroll the lowly GIF off the screen in our attempts to read what’s on the page.”

The so-so…

Sid Huff reports a few problems at his office, a New Zealand University, as a few systems don’t work with FF, but work fine with Internet Explorer (IE). He says when he clicks on a link, he gets a ’save file’ dialog box. I have had this happen before and fix it by closing / re-opening FF. For him, FF takes longer to load. But others report it’s speedier. Sid says, “All in all, while I appreciate the theoretical advantages, I am not impressed with the practical on-the-ground results.”

Ben Trotter switched browser because of the warnings with IE. He chose Netscape and says it is acceptable, but not as convenient as the IE engine.

Ed Norris used FF occasionally and liked it. Somehow it became contaminated and every time he opened the program, it would also open all my favorites in IE, forcing me to close all the tabs individually. He uninstalled FF and downloaded it again, same problem.

Virginia Scofield changed to Firefox and it was working like a charm. Then she did an update on it and installed the security patch. She used it the next morning and it took about two minutes to load – then was almost impossible to use due to the slow reaction of the mouse with the menus. Since then, I have uninstalled, reinstalled, tried all the little tips, etc., etc. – and still cannot use it due to the jerky slow movements of the mouse/menu. It doesn’t get her vote.

Sally Davenport lost out on a good deal on eBay because of FF. She used FF to access eBay to complete a transaction. She ended in a loop between “Buy It” and the Legal Agreement page and couldn’t proceed with the purchase and missed out on a good deal. She contacted eBay and its prompt answer was that Mozilla/Netscape wasn’t compatible with its software. She likes the program in general, but not its method to add sites.

The uncategorizable…

Allan Erdman suggests using Deepnet Explorer, but the program shares IE’s engine and therefore, inherits its problems. Here is a quote from the Deepnet Explorer forums, “As Deepnet Explorer shares the HTML rendering engine with IE, it is exposed some security vulnerabilities from IE. However, these are confined to only vulnerabilities in the HTML engine. There are many other security enhancements in DE that makes it much more secure than IE. Please see this for more info.”