Fireday - Firefox extensions for October 20, 2006

Friday, October 20, 2006 6:00 AM

Posted by Jonathan Danylko | Tag: Fireday | Comments: 0 | View blog reactions

This week: SeoQuake, Answers.Com, and DealMine

Happy Friday!

I was browsing around and found some good extensions this week. Check these out!

SeoQuake

Rating: 4/5

Everyone wants to know what their status is on the web. Do I have a great PageRank from Google? What's my status on Technorati? SeoQuake provides that data in a dashboard-style toolbar on the current web page.

On installation, the toolbar appears immediately. Actually, it took me by surprise because I was expecting a toolbar on the top where the other toolbars frolick and play. The transparent toolbar can become a little annoying, even in its shrunken form.

SeoQuake only displays on certain pages. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Is it because the web page isn't listed in their index?

Anyway, the toolbar, when expanded, gives you a quick at-a-glance view of your status on the web. The options available to you are enough to show where you need to focus your attention, whether it be Google, Yahoo, MSN, DMOZ, Rambler, Deli.cio.us, Digg, or Alexa. There are a couple other options that are useful to a point: an immediate whois on the current page, a robots.txt detection, and a way to view the source code of the current web page.

Another feature that stands out is the search results of your favorite search engine. SeoQuake attaches the same ranking details to the bottom of site listed in your search results. Nice to see how the competition is doing at a glance. ;-)

As I said before, the transparent toolbar may be more useful in the toolbar area as opposed to the browsing view, but shrinking it down allows you to move it so it doesn't interfere with your browsing.

Overall, I like the extension to glance at how everyone is rated in the blogosphere.

 

Answers.com for Firefox

Rating: 5/5

Answers.com extension for Firefox takes any word you highlight and provides a quick pop-up with a definition of what you highlighted.

After installation of the extension and restart of Firefox, Answers.com worked just as it should. While I was writing this, I tested Answers.com to see how up-to-date it was and highlighting the word "blogosphere." Just as I expected, it quickly provided me with the correct definition.

To start using Answers.com, hold down the left Alt key and start highlighting a word. As soon as you release the mouse button, you will see the Answers.com pop-up window with the complete definition.

The Answers.com extension is extremely useful for people just starting in the computer industry. With all of the acronyms in this industry, who can keep track? However, if you are using Firefox, there is a search engine for Dictionary.com where you can type in a word and find out the meaning in a new browser window. The Answers.com extension provides the same functionality without interrupting your work which I'm thankful for. If you want Answers.com to go to a full browser window, you can make that change in the settings.

The rating for this extension is definitely a 5/5 because of its simplicity, usability, and unobstructive nature of the extension. It displays what you need to know and disappears so you can move on to more important things, like surfing the web. :-)

 

DealMine

Rating: 3/5

DealMine is a site that provides deals on product discounts, miles, points, and other rewards. If you are searching for that one particular great deal, the DealMine extension may be for you.

After installing the extension, the icon appeared on the status bar. Clicking on the icon provides a pop-up of a mini search page. I typed in 'Digital Camera', erased it, and decided to put the Digital Camera down in the comparison edit box instead, but then it closed the window before I could even type in my query. I tried my search again, it seems if you get too interactive in the query window, it closes on you. Hmmm...

I eventually got the window working and received some results as to where I could buy my new digital camera. The deals displayed were pretty good and DealMine seems to aggregate a lot from around the web.

The DealMine extension for Firefox takes every deal site and provides a centralized location for the deal hunter in all of us. Aside from the hiccups in the query window, I would recommend the extension.

Have a great weekend everyone! If you have any comments, please post them below or Contact me directly.

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