Digital Streets

A few weeks ago, I blogged about putting Twitter in Firefox’s Sidebar, using the mobile version of the microblogging site. I have since changed to a much better Twitter client for my sidebar, namely Hahlo, a Twitter client designed for the iPhone.

Hahlo is superior in functionality to the mobile version of Twitter, its biggest strength is that it automatically refreshes to reveal new tweets. Along with that, it is much nicer to look at.

To add Hahlo to your Firefox Sidebar, drag the following link to your Bookmark Toolbar.

Hahlo

Right-click on the newly created bookmark. Select Properties. Check the Load this bookmark in the sidebar checkbox. Click the Save Changes button.

Launch Hahlo from the bookmark. Login using your Twitter username and password and you’re good to go.

By creating a bookmark in your toolbar, you can access Compose Mail to quickly send an email from your Gmail account, while never leaving the page you were on. This is because you’d be drafting the email in Firefox’s Sidebar.

First, you need to get the address (URL) of your Compose Mail popout window.

1. Go to Gmail.

2. Click the Compose Mail link on the left of the page.

3. When the Compose Mail page appears, click the popout icon in the upper right corner.

4. A new window will appear, containing the Compose Window page. Go to the address bar of the new window and highlight and copy the address (URL).

5. Close the new window.

You are now ready to create your bookmark.

1. Open Firefox.

2. Go to the menu, click Bookmarks and select Organize Bookmarks.

3. In the right pane, select Bookmarks Menu.

4. Click the Organize button at the top of the window, and select New Bookmark.

5. In the Name textbox, input Compose Mail.

6. In the Location textbox, paste the copied address for the Compose Mail window.

7. Check the Load this bookmark in the sidebar checkbox.

8. Click the Add button.

9. Close the Library window.

The next time you need to send out an email while your surfing the web, simply click your new bookmark. Gmail’s Compose Mail will appear in the Sidebar, ready to go.

Related Posts:
Put Twitter in Firefox’s Sidebar
Put de.licio.us in Firefox’s Sidebar
Use Mobile Versions of Web Sites in Firefox’s Sidebar

Firefox’s sidebar is a perfect tool for accessing mobile sites. By using these sites in the sidebar, you can utilize various web apps and sites without having to leave the page you are on. In fact, you can create your own personal Flock-type browser if you take the time to find the necessary sites. I have used both Twitter and del.icio.us in my sidebar and have been quite pleased with the results.

Here’s what Twitter looks like in the Firefox Sidebar:

And here’s del.icio.us in the sidebar:

Other sites with great potential for Sidebar usage:

To add the desired mobile site to your Firefox sidebar:

1. Open Firefox.

2. Go to the menu, click Bookmarks and select Organize Bookmarks.

3. In the right pane, select Bookmarks Menu.

4. Click the Organize button at the top of the window, and select New Bookmark.

5. In the Name textbox, input the name of the mobile site.

6. In the Location textbox, input the url.

7. Check the Load this bookmark in the sidebar checkbox.

8. Click the Add button.

9. Close the Library window.

Now go select your newly created bookmark. When the page loads in the sidebar, login to your account and your ready to go.

If you use de.licio.us to store bookmarks to your favorite sites (or you like to use someone else’s de.licio.us links), then placing it in Firefox’s sidebar makes perfect sense. Once they’re in the sidebar, you have instant access to your favorite pages. Placing de.licio.us in Firefox’s sidebar is simple, just follow these steps:

1. Open Firefox.

2. Go to the menu, click Bookmarks and select Organize Bookmarks.

3. In the right pane, select Bookmarks Menu.

4. Click the Organize button at the top of the window, and select New Bookmark.

5. In the Name textbox, input de.licio.us.

6. In the Location textbox, input http://del.icio.us/html/username/?tags=no&rssbutton=no (change username to your de.licio.us username).

7. Check the Load this bookmark in the sidebar checkbox.

8. Click the Add button.

9. Close the Library window.

Now go select your newly created bookmark. When the page loads in the sidebar, login to your account and your ready to go. The de.licio.us links will open in the main window of your Firefox browser.

I use Twitter quite a bit to keep up with the rest of the Tech-Recipes crew. Since I always have my Firefox browser open, it is beneficial to run Twitter in my browser’s sidebar. That way I post a quick tweet without having to leave the page that I am on. Placing Twitter in Firefox’s sidebar is simple, just follow these steps:

1. Open Firefox.

2. Go to the menu, click Bookmarks and select Organize Bookmarks.

3. In the right pane, select Bookmarks Menu.

4. Click the Organize button at the top of the window, and select New Bookmark.

5. In the Name textbox, input Twitter.

6. In the Location textbox, input http://m.twitter.com/home.

7. Check the Load this bookmark in the sidebar checkbox.

8. Click the Add button.

9. Close the Library window.

Now go select your newly created bookmark. When the page loads in the sidebar, login to your account and your ready to go. Twitter’s page for mobile browsers is an excellent fit in Firefox’s sidebar.

I have run into several situations where I have found some useful information that I wanted to text message to a friend’s phone (and sometimes my own).  I would have to pull out my phone and plug away.  I recently came across the Google Send to Phone extension for the Firefox browser that lets you select text from a web page and then send it as a text message to a mobile number.

To install the extension, open your Firefox browser and go here.

Go down to the Install Now box and click the google-sendtophone.xpi link.

Read the privacy notice and the terms of service and then click the Agree and Install button.

When the Software Installation window appears, click the Install Now button.

The Add-ons window will appear.  Click the Restart Firefox button to complete the installation.

When Firefox comes back up, you will notice a new button (with a cell phone icon on it) in the upper right corner.

Now when you find info on the web that you wish to send to a mobile phone,  simply highlight the text on the web page and click the new button.  The Google Send To Phone form will appear.

Input the target mobile number, select the carrier from the dropdown and input a subject and any additional text that is to be sent.  Click the Send button and the message will be sent to the mobile number.

Whatever URL you set for your web browser’s home page ends up being the page you will see most often, since it will come up each and every time you fire up your browser.  However, if you’re like me, this can be counterproductive.  For instance, I have Gmail as my designated home page, using the logic that I will always need to check my email.  While this can be useful for keeping my email account managed, it does little for helping me manage my unread items in Google Reader or catching up on the latest tweets from the Tech-Recipes crew.  No matter what I use as my home page ends up causing neglect of the other important pages.  Using multiple home pages doesn’t solve the problem as I am usually distracted by the site on the front tab, still neglecting the others.

The solution I found is at URLSplit.  What URLSplit does is generate a single URL that will split the hits among a list of websites (up to 7) that you designate.

At first, I was without a clue as to how such a feature could be used, then I started analyzing my browser activity.  Once I noticed how often the home page takes my attention off of other sites, I decided to try URLSplit as a solution.

It’s easy to get your url, simply create your account, input the sites and click the Create My New URL button.

As an example, let’s say I want to keep tabs on my regular email account, junk email account, Twitter, and Google Reader.  Since I have 7 slots but only 4 sites, I can put the most important sites in more than once.  For this example, I put Gmail in 3 times, Google Reader in twice and the other two are only single entries.

After I have input all of the addresses, clicking the Create My New URL will take me to a page with my new url on it.

By copying this address as the new home page for my browser, I now have my important sites coming up at varying frequencies.  Each time I open my browser (or hit the button that takes me to my home page) I will go to a different url from the list I generated.

If you are a Twitter user and Firefox is your web browser of choice, then you might want to check out the TwitterFox extension.  This add-on makes reading and posting tweets easy to do without ever going to the Twitter site.  It adds a small Twitter icon to your Firefox status bar and notifies you when your friends have updated Twitter.

To install the TwitterFox Extension, go here and click on the green Install TwitterFox button.  A software installation window will appear, click the Install Now button.

The Add-Ons window will appear, click the Restart Firefox button.

After Firefox comes back up, go to the menu bar, click Tools and select Add-ons.

When the Add-ons window appears, scroll down to TwitterFox and select it.  Click the Options button.

The TwitterFox preferences window will appear.  Input your Twitter login information.  Also set the interval for it to get tweets and the popup interval.

Click OK.

Now click the Twitter icon in your status bar to view and submit tweets whenever you want.

easyGestures is a great extension for the Firefox browser.  What this ingenious add-on does is pop a a well thought out pie menu when you click the mouse.  Through this pie menu, you can perform a multitude of actions with hardly any mouse movement at all.  While all actions are customizable, the default actions can save you from having to go all the way up to your menus and toolbars, which in turn, saves you time.

After easyGestures is installed, clicking the middle button on your mouse will provide you with this:

By clicking on one of the icons on the menu, it will perform the designated task.  However, it doesn’t stop there.  Right-clicking the center of the menu will produce this:

While clicking the More… icon on the original menu will produce this:

And right-clicking the center of that menu will produce this:

easyGestures is definitely worth a look.  I haven’t been using it very long, yet I am already hooked.