Matt Mullenweg and Garrett Camp’s Favorites
Make sure you install the Classic Delicious extension - it’s cleaner, easier to use, and less prone to feature abuse. It also makes it possible to quickly and conveniently track down things resources you’ve used in the past, so you don’t waste time in fruitless searches. This is something we’ve discussed here before.ĭelicious lets you batch your daily read (I tag things with “to_read”) into one single task instead of an unending barrage of distractions or tangents.
Using Delicious, every article I’ve ever felt was worth saving is available to me anywhere in the world from any computer. It caches the most commonly searched words so it doesn’t waste your time. Definr is a company that takes clean interface to a new level – the homepage has four links and one of them is the search button. I’ve used clunky dictionary extensions for Firefox before and - in all cases - I’ve found simple to be better. Important: turn off this add-on when not in use. To supplement this, if serious about competitive research, I suggest viewing Quantcast when possible.
I use it for media and competitive research, as it allows you to see in normal Google results - once turning the add-on “on” - the resulting sites’ pagerank, links on Yahoo!, Alexa traffic rank, Compete traffic rank, Bloglines rank, Technorati rank, and much more. The SEO for Firefox add-on is used for search engine optimization. It’s the first step for me when evaluating media opportunities or baseless traffic claims, but I supplement Alexa with the following analytic tool: SEO for Firefox.
General Rule: Alexa is a valuable first-look tool to keep you from giving too much credence to a professional design, or - alternatively - being scared off by site that doesn’t care much for first impressions.Īlexa is not a complete rank, however, and is flawed in many respects.
In the mid-six digits (Ex: 200,000), you’re looking at people with sizeable audiences, and once you crack 100,000, you’ll begin to find professionals, some with readerships larger than most newsstand magazines. Some estimate that a million-plus rank is just a few dozen people a day. I often use the web for meme research, media filtering, and competitive analysis instead of web dev, and this tool is my first line of defense. As you surf, it gives you each site’s traffic rank (and historical chart of traffic, like a stock chart), based on several metrics, in the bottom right-hand corner. The Alexa toolbar – a small plug-in – lets you do that in a ruthlessly numerical way. Try and use simple tech tools to separate professionals from amateurs whenever possible. If you get stuck without FF, you can do the same in the Google search field on any browser with “parkour site:” to find parkour videos on YouTube, for example. Just hit Cmd + K to jump to the top-right search box, then Cmd + arrow up or arrow down to choose among searching on Amazon, Creative Commons, eBay, and more. Instead of going to to do your searches, you can search Google and others sites from a drop-down window in the top-right of any window. The FF search bar in the top-right corner is one of the most helpful features of the browser. I use Google Highlighter to find terms on pages with tons of text. Google RSS lets you read news without surfing and Google News and Blogsearch are two of the best methods for bloggers to track trends and events. Google Docs lets you store and collaborate with word processing without being tied to local Microsoft applications. It gives you one-stop access to Google RSS, Google Docs, Google News and Google Blogsearch. Installing the Google Toolbar is the key to Firefox efficiency.
Kid in a candy store time.Īfter you’ve made the leap and switched to Firefox ( download it here), here’s are the extensions you can use to take it to the next level: * Extensions (also called “add-ons” or “plug-ins”)Įxtensions lead us to this post. * Better than a college degree (some think)
If you aren’t using Firefox, here are a few short reasons to start: This post will serve two purposes: first, to introduce beginners to features of Firefox (FF) that make it worthwhile second, to introduce more experienced users to the favorite add-ons of Matt Mullenweg (lead developer of WordPress) and Garrett Camp (co-founder of StumbleUpon). It’s like buying a hybrid car for the gas mileage and then driving with flat tires and the doors open. (Photo: wildphotons)ģ8.16% of the people who visit this site are still using Internet Explorer (IE).