RKNet Blog... Thing

Admittedly, I’m an Internet n00b (does anyone even say that anymore?) Sure, I was chatting away with the best of ‘em on AOL in 1995, but it’s only within the last year (since I began work at an internet marketing company) that I’ve thought to embrace any browser other than Internet Explorer, any email client other than hotmail. I shudder to think that just a year ago, good ol’ IE held my hand while I traipsed naively through the interwebs, but, since then I feel I’ve taken strides, leaps, cross-country flights in the right direction; and today I’m proud to say that, Internet junkie or not, I am a bit of a Firefox whore.

I’m not web-developer. I can’t code (yet). I dabble in SEO but have barely scratched the surface. No, I’m just your average Internet user, and below is a list of the apps I like. Applications come and go, and I’ll admit, I try more than my fair-share. But, some add-ons stand their ground and prove useful and pleasant day in and day out– even, or perhaps especially, for the Internet n00b like me.

Interclue

Mouse over a link and, in the top right corner of the term an icon indicating the location appears. Wikipedia shows up as a small W, Newsweek as a red box with a white N, and so on. Mouse over this icon, and a window pops up where the contents of the link is displayed like its own separate page. It’s not just a preview. Most of the time the entire contents of the page will be given; a scroll bar down the right side if necessary.

There are actually several link-preview applications on Firefox, but I’ve found Interclue to be the least intrusive. Many pop-up with an unintentional mouse-over and stay-up, blocking half the page and contributing to my overall level of irritation (one that sits quietly in the background of my average workday.)

Cooliris

I love this photo and video viewer. Cooliris turns your browser into a 3-D screen for viewing photos, images and videos. From browsing a friend’s Facebook album, to searching for videos on you-tube, Cooliris is convenient, easy and fun to use. It also features a “discover” section, where images and videos of the latest news, sports, art and entertainment are posted. Click on the image and you’ll be taken directly to its source. Only one complaint: a right mouse-click won’t bring up the option to save the photo.

Twitterbar

Post to directly to Twitter from your address bar. Your 140 characters count down as you type, and a clicking a conveniently placed green arrow signifies you’re ready to post. The login window pops up to confirm so you don’t end up posting random urls every time you hit enter. Quick and easy!

Colorful Tabs

Simple and pretty. Colorful tabs makes each tab you bring up a different color. Nothing fancy, but a pleasant add-on that might help you organize your tabs while browsing.

Better Gmail 2

Better Gmail 2 is a fairly straightforward enhancement of the web-based mail client of the same name. The application offers new skins (my favorite is the Gmail redesign: complete redesign), file attachment icons and hierarchical labels.

So there you have it, the beloved apps of an internet newbie.

A Mashable article from a couple days ago highlighted 30 nifty Firefox skins. I tend to stick to Opera, but I’m always on the lookout for interesting Firefox tools and skins since I know so many folks who are really into customizing their Firefox install.

Of the 30 listed skins in the Mashable writeup, my favorite has to be Littlefox for Firefox. It’s actually the closest I’ve seen thus far to my current Opera skin, Breeze II. The reason I like both skins is their extremely compact and efficient natures.

Despite having a pretty nice widescreen display, I like having as much window space as humanly possible while browsing. By reducing the GUI interface on the browser down to only the minimum necessary, the viewport for the web is maximized. Which is actually immensely helpful in a widescreen setting, since most sites are designed for viewports that are taller than they are wide rather than vice-versa.

Incidentally, if anyone can help me figure out how to get my panel display to look like the one shown at the Breeze skin creator’s site, please let me know. I’ve poked around and haven’t found anything like what they’re talking about.