In Firefox, I use the InstantFox add-on to combine address bar and search bar into one item – like in Google Chrome.

But even without this add-on, Firefox allows you to restrict your search by adding a character in front of the search terms, like so:

Notice the * in front of the search term bugs. This restricts the search to bookmarks.

Here’s a list of the most important restrictions:

All these shortcuts can be edited in about:config under browser.urlbar.

In Google Chrome, there is an option to enable “Click to Play” for plugins, such as Flash, Java, or Silverlight. This makes the browser safer (especially after all the Java security vulnerability in the last time) and a little bit fast. Today, I found out that this option exists in Firefox too – although its a little bit hidden.

To enable “Click to Play” in Firefox…

1. go to about:config and click on “I’ll be careful, I promise!”

2. search for plugins.click_to_play and set it to true (by double-clicking the entry)

After that, when you get to a page that contains Flash (videos), Java, or any other plugin, you’ll get a “Click to Play” message for the plugin.

Das schöne an Firefox sind u.a. die sog. Add-ons (früher: “Erweiterungen”). Diese stellen neue Funktionen zur Verfügung, die Firefox von sich aus noch nicht hat.

Dieser Blog-Post enthält die Liste aller Add-Ons, die ich momentan benutze und empfehlen kann. Darüber hinaus habe ich auch einige nützliche Einstellungen aufgelistet.

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Nachdem der Firefox 3.6 nun schon seit einiger Zeit erhältlich ist, war es heute mal Zeit, meine Firefox-Addons zu durchforsten und sie zu aktualisieren. Im Zuge dessen habe ich auch meine Firefox-Addon-Liste mal wieder überarbeitet und ein paar Addons im Bereich “Tab-Preview” und “Tablet-PC” durch Firefox-interne Einstellungen ersetzt.

Ever since I updated from Firefox 3.6 to 4.0 (and now 5.0) I had an additional item called “Bookmarks” in my Bookmarks toolbar. For me, it was (and is) unnecessary because I have all my bookmarks on my toolbar (and none of them in the actual Bookmarks menu). So, I was looking for a way to get rid of this button. I did some searching on the Internet but found nothing. So, I just tried to ignore this button.

Today, however, I stumbled over a way to remove this button. Just right-click on an empty space on the toolbar containing the address bar (not on the bookmarks toolbar). A menu will pop up and there you choose Customize.

This will allow you to add and/or remove toolbar buttons to Firefox’ main toolbar. Strangely, a new “Bookmarks” button will appear – usually on the right side.

This is the “Bookmarks” button that is displayed in your Bookmarks toolbar. Remove it (drag it away from the toolbar), close the “Customize” dialog, and the “Bookmarks” button will be gone.

Note: There are actually two bookmark buttons available in Firefox. One with a pulldown arrow to its right and one without. Only the one with the pulldown arrow will be moved to the bookmarks toolbar.