Clearing your data after browsing can be useful if you are using a shared computer. This will prevent the other users from knowing what you have been browsing. It will also keep the computer from storing any information you have input into websites, etc.

To always clear data everytime you exit out of your Mozilla Firefox browser, you need to do the following:

Open your browser window. Look at the menu bar and click on “Tools.” A drop down menu will appear and select “Options.” Click it.

Once the “Options” window is open, look for the tab that says, “Privacy.”

Click the box that is beside the option that says, “Always clear my data when I close Firefox.”

Click the “Settings” button next to this option and tick the box next to “Cookies” and you will also make sure that cookies will be automatically deleted as well.

If you need to tweak Firefox’s behavior more to your geeky likings, all you have to do is to access the in-depth configuration by accessing the about:config page. However, staring at all the properties and values in the page can still confuse users old and new alike.

Code wizards may be okay with the way the about:config page looks like but Firefox noobs might be quite intimidated by it. And intimidation always kills the curious cat.

Here’s a plug-in you might consider trying – gui:config. It organizes all of the options into tabs, options, checkboxes and lists. It gives you a more presentable (ergo palatable) about:config page.

Yes. For the first time here on LifeSpy, I’m making a bold prediction. Google’s browser, Google Chrome has made so much buzz over the web and the blogosphere that some even though that it’d smother Firefox and give IE a stifling kick in the nuts. For a minute there, I thought so too.

However, not even a couple of days into using Google Chrome, I found myself launching again. I thought it was simply a force of habit but for the subsequent days, I knew what was wrong with Chrome. I am a power user and my Firefox has been fully customized to my use. Aside from about:config tweaks, my Firefox is loaded with just about all the add-ons I need to quicken my web work. These things Chrome just doesn’t have.

Anyway, Chromium (from which was made) developers posted this web document on Chrome User Experience. It contains a lot of information regarding the reasons behind the UI but let me direct you to this quote in the Options section – “Over time, we hope to reduce the number of options further.”

they make valid points here. Not everyone’s a power user anyway. However, as is, Chrome just doesn’t provide the full control that Firefox allows. I have to admit that the speed and stability of Chrome blew me away. But speed and stability is variable depending on the things that you do on your browser. Not having my Greasemonkey scripts running made me feel crippled.

With Chrome headed to be a dumbed-down browser for the rest of the web surfing population (casual users), I’m sure power users will be content using Firefox. Unless some dude hacks into Chrome and gives it full customization, I’m sticking to my favorite browser. Now, wouldn’t it be nice to have Firefox’s tabs running as separate processes like Chrome?

A must install when working on shared and public terminals (provided that you can install Firefox add-ons). Keyloggers often target web browsers since it’s that particular interface where a lot of user authentication happens. Well sure, some jealous husbands and wives install them to check whether their respective spouses are cheating on them but if you are ever so loyal, then you should be more concerned with keyloggers making records of your online transactions.

KeyScrambler is a Firefox add-on that scrambles your keystrokes in the kernel driver level then decrypts them at the browser level. Keyloggers often situate themselves somewhere in between these levels. With KeyScrambler, keyloggers would just record gibberish.

Download KeyScrambler Firefox add-on here.

There’s also an IE and Flock add-on available and there’s also the Premium and Professional that offers a chock-full more goodies like support for other browsers, password manager link-ups, online poker, and MS Office support. Visit their homepage for more info.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

I always prefer to connect and log-in to websites via https. They’re a lot more secure and is highly recommended for those leeching off free Wi-Fi connections, using Internet cafe terminals, and to those who are just plain paranoid.

Previously, you can only do this by manually entering the https://mail.google.com in your URL bar, or perhaps bookmark it, or use a Firefox plug-in to automatically do it for you. But Google is kind enough to create an always https option inside Gmail.

Accessing Settings -> General in Gmail would show you this option at the bottom. By enabling it, Google will be kind enough to switch you to an https connection automatically.

Caveat for Gmail Mobile users though.

We’ve been getting a lot of comments over the weekend from people expressing their disgust with Firefox 3′s new location bar dubbed AwesomeBar. Sad to say, we also share their opinions and are out to find ways to make it less of a bother. Here’s one other thing that might need fixing – the “Go” button.

Some mousers (people who love to use the mouse) might complain that the “Go” button only shows up. It is replaced by the “Star” icon used to bookmark links. For mousers, clicking the “Go” button is more important than bookmarking so having the “Go” button displayed permanently is required. (Though keyboard ninjas would definitely say, “Just hit the damn Enter key!”)

Here are two things to go about it.

In Firefox, there’s this file called the userChrome.css that actually determines how display elements of Firefox are shown. For a detailed take on editing this file, visit our post on editing the userChrome.css file. It still works for Firefox 3.

All you have to do is to insert these line of code:

/* Permanently show Go button */
#urlbar[pageproxystate="valid"] > #urlbar-icons > #go-button { visibility: visible !important;
}

And here’s the nice and simple solution of just getting an add-on to do it. Show Go gives you a permanent “Go” button without the hassle of editing your chrome file.

Download Show Go Firefox add-on here.

Quite some time ago, we featured Cooliris Previews as a must-have add-on for Firefox. Knowing what the linked page contains before actually clicking it does have its perks. From the same company comes PicLens – another browser add-on (though not just exclusively for FF, you can get with for IE and Safari) that redefines how you view popular websites.

If you want that aero-feel to browsing web content, PicLens just gives you that. It gives you 3D browsing of photos and videos, say, in websites like YouTube and Flickr. New additions for the latest version are:

• Shop Amazon – The 3D Wall transformed image search. Now PicLens launches online shopping into the 21st century. Browse and buy seamlessly just like window shopping!
• Discover – MSNBC, ESPN, movie trailers…Get the latest news, photos, and video feeds.
• Return to PicLens – An essential for playing with pictures: toggle in and out of your desktop, the browser, and PicLens!

Now if it could just be possible to view every site via this interesting app.

Download PicLens here.

Ever since the release candidates were released, a lot of people were raving about the new location bar. For me, probably I’m suffering from transition woes. Still, I’m not liking it at all. I feel that the new drop-down that features two lines per URL (the URL with the page title and a description if found in your bookmarks) is very obtrusive. The auto-highlighting annoys me too. If you share my sentiments, then here are a few of workarounds to make your browsing experience just a bit more bearable.

The first workaround is to tweak the number of links to be shown. By default, mine shows 12 links with half visible before you have to scroll down. To tweak this, you have to access the almighty about:config page, which in Firefox 3 now shows a warning message before getting access.

1. In the filter bar, type in browser.urlbar.maxRichResults
2. Double-click “value” and put in the number of links you want displayed. I set mine to 3.
3. Click OK.
4. Restart Firefox to enable the changes.

You can also tweak the behavior of the bar to want only those entries that have been previously typed.

1. In the filter bar, type in browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped
2. Double-click “value” to change it to “true”.
3. Restart Firefox to enable the changes.

If still, you don’t really like how the location bar behaves and desperately miss the old location bar, then download oldbar – an add-on for Firefox 3 that gives you the old functionality of the location bar as with Firefox 2.