8 Mac Browsers You May Not Know

Safari is a great web browser and works perfectly for many Mac users. Whilst there are a few popular alternatives such as Firefox, a number of less widely known browsers are also available. These range from safety conscious variations for children, through to applications targeted at research and powerful searching.
General web browsing is probably best served by one of the major players in the market, but it is fascinating to know what else is out there should the need arise. I’ll be looking at 8 niche applications, each with their own individual twist to assist with browsing the web.

Camino

Camino

Camino aims to provide the power and flexibility of Firefox, coupled with the interface style you expect from a Mac application. Camino combines the awesome visual and behavioral experience that has been central to the Macintosh philosophy with the powerful web-browsing capabilities of the Gecko rendering engine.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
Developer: The Camino Project

Bumpercar for kids

Bumpercar

Bumpercar is aimed at providing a safe and secure place for children to browse the web. With content-control and customization features, BumperCar is the Mac web browser for concerned educators and parents alike. Built on Webkit, it offers a visually bright and appealing interface for kids.
Price: $29.95
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: Freeverse

Devon Agent

DEVONagent

Providing a different and interesting take on browsing, DEVONagent is a full featured tool for conducing online research. With powerful search interface tools, the ability to save and repeat actions, and more than 130 plugins, it’s very much an artificially intelligent browser. Such functionality does come with a hefty price-tag.
Price: $49.95
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Developer: Devon Technologies

Social browsing with Flock

Flock

Flock is heralded as the ’social web browser’, featuring full integration with popular social media applications (MySpace, Flickr, Blogger, FaceBook, Digg, Twitter and many more). It’s built on Firefox, and aims to streamline your whole experience of the Internet.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Powered By: Mozilla

Omniweb

OmniWeb

OmniWeb has an unique interface with advanced features for navigating through tabs and blocking advertisements. It’s also able to save browsing sessions automatically, allow the creation of ‘workspaces’ for different browsing tasks, and handle RSS news feeds.
Price: $14.95
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later
Developer: Omni Group

Shiira

Shiira

Simply put, “the goal of the Shiira Project is to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari”. No minor task! It features numerous transition effects, an Expose style tab interface, and a dynamic sidebar capable of performing different functions. Maybe not as simple and slick as Safari, but very full featured.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: HMDT

iCab

iCab

iCab has 10 reasons why it differs from other browsers. My favourite features are advertising filtering, a ‘kiosk’ browsing mode (great for showing off a site to clients), download/link management and the ability to download a website as a zip file.
Price: Shareware ($25)
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: Alexander Clauss

Fluid

Fluid

Fluid is a completely different take on a browser, creating a separate desktop application for different websites you frequent on a regular basis. It’s great to use for web applications such as Flickr, Facebook and Twitter to keep them separate from other web browsing.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Developer: Todd Ditchendorf

How do you browse?

As you can see, there’s no shortage of individual and niche browsers for the Mac. Some are certainly better than others for general use, but they’re all interesting in their own way. I use Fluid and Camino on a regular basis, along with dipping into Flock occasionally. I’m primarily a Safari fan, and never seem to stray away from the simple and effective interface for too long.
So… what do you use for browsing? Do you stick to the classic Safari like myself, or do you enjoy the bright colors and safety of Bumpercar!?

35 Mac Apps to Improve Your Web Browsing Experience

Now that widespread connectivity means you’re rarely without a web connection, the Internet has become a huge part of the way in which we use our computers. Out of the box, your Mac is a powerful machine for making the most of everything the Internet has to offer, but there are a few tweaks, plugins and applications that can make it go a little bit further.
Today I’ll be taking a look at 35 different plugins and applications that will help improve your web browsing experience. Both Safari and Firefox will be covered, along with a few tools relating to networking, search, bookmarking, and – of course – taking a break from the Internet!

Safari on Speed

Safari is undoubtedly the most popular browser on the Mac, and also a fairly difficult application to extend. It lacks a “add-ons” system and directory in the same vein as Firefox, though does still have several useful plugins available. Here are a selection that can significantly improve your “browsing experience” (though don’t run them all at once – it’s a recipe for a very slow browser!)
Click to Flash – Click to Flash is a plugin for disabling Flash on every webpage by default, providing a simple placeholder instead. If you’d like the Flash content to display, just click the placeholder. You can also right-click and add a site to your white-list, always automatically displaying Flash content in the future.
1Password – A Safari plugin which can help enormously with password storage, and remains incredibly secure. It allows you to store multiple logins for a site, set a “master password” to unlock all your saved details, and will automatically fill and submit login forms for you.
Glims – Glims offers a wide “cocktail” of different features to Safari and can improve many different aspects of the user interface. After using it for a few weeks, you may wonder how you ever managed without it.
Safari 140 – A basic plugin to Safari, which will auto-fill a new tweet with the current URL (automatically shortened, of course). After setting it up with your Twitter login credentials, it can save a huge amount of time. Safari 140 won’t replace a dedicated desktop client, however — it’s purely for posting quick links.
Safari AdBlock – A simple, free plugin that aims to strip advertisements from websites as you browse. It works surprisingly well and can lead to a far less cluttered web experience.
CosmoPod – Able to download video content, and with one click the plugin can download the file, convert it to an iTunes/iPod compatible format, and place it in your iTunes library. Everything integrates with the Safari interface for a seamless downloading experience.
SafariCookies – Safari Cookies is the only cookie manager built to integrate directly into Safari, for minimum disruption to your browsing experience. It makes it simple to accept only certain cookies, automatically remove cookies, and more.
Keywurl – This app adds simple way of performing searches in Safari by letting you type short keywords as queries. Type a keyword and a query in the address bar, and it will be expanded into a predefined search. An incredible time-saver.
TabExpose – A Safari add-on that enables you to view all open tabs in Safari the same way Exposé displays all open windows on your Desktop. A beta is available for Snow Leopard.
Word Browser Plugin – Displays a preview of Word, Rich Text Format, OpenDocument and OpenXML documents inside the Safari browser window. Saves you needing to launch the monolith that is Microsoft Word!

Fully Functional Firefox

Although there are thousands of Firefox add-ons available, I’ve hand picked a few that I find to be particularly useful. Your needs may vary, but I hope that one or two will appeal.
Greasemonkey – This plugin allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using snippets of JavaScript. If you’re not particularly tech-minded, don’t worry – hundreds of scripts are already available.
Ubiquity – A revolutionary new technology from Mozilla that allows you to “command” the web rather than surf it. You can use natural language to translate to and from most languages, add maps to your email, edit any page, twitter, check your calendar, search, email your friends, and much more. Revolutionary.
Feedly – A magazine-like start page for Firefox, offering a fast (and great looking) way to read your favorite sites and services.
FoxTab – Bring Safari’s “Top Site” functionality across to Firefox, so you can see a list of your favourite sites in an impressive 3D “wall”. Unlike in Safari, a variety of different 3D views are available to switch between.
Flashblock – Similar to Click to Flash on OS X, Flashblock hides any Flash content from displaying until you explicitly tell it to do so. A great way to avoid distraction, and speed up your browser.
URL Fixer – A plugin that corrects typos in address bar URLs. For example, if you type google.con, it will correct it to google.com (asking first, if you enable confirmation).
CustomizeGoogle – Quickly enhance Google search results by adding extra information and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam). An impressive range of customisation options are included.

Searching and Finding Information

Cooliris – A 3D Wall that speeds up search on Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and more. A really rich way to view photos from Facebook, Picasa, and even your computer. Funky!
Google Quick Search Box – Google Quick Search Box is an open source search box that allows you to search data on your computer and across the web. Very handy for initiating a search directly from your desktop.
QuickSilver – No longer in active development, but still a great tool for searching from your desktop. A huge range of plugins are available to extend functionality further.

Bookmarking Tools

XMarks – A fairly powerful search and bookmarking tool, that is capable of keeping your favourites in sync between different browsers and different computers.
DeliciousSafari – This app allows you to use and create Delicious bookmarks from the Safari web browser. It sits in the menu bar, and offers a simple interface to the powerful online bookmarking app.
Cocoalicious – Cocoalicious is a del.icio.us client for Mac OS X. It acts as a desktop interface to your del.icio.us bookmarks, and comes with a handy bookmarklet for saving new sites.
Postr – Essentially a “social bookmarking bridge”, Postr makes it easy to post links from an application such as NetNewsWire to a variety of different online bookmarking websites.
Pukka – A full featured client for Delicious and other compatible social bookmarking services. It’s lightweight, works great with multiple accounts, and features fast, offline search. It also offers Growl notifications, and integrates with various RSS readers for posting.

Networking & Wireless

AirRadar – Designed to scan for open wireless networks and tag them as favourites or filter them out. View detailed network information, graph network signal strength, and automatically join the best open network in range.
APGrapher – A freeware app that searches for and displays nearby wireless (AirPort/WiFi) access points along with information about their percent availability, maximum signal strength, and last contact time.
NetworkLocation – Set up “locations” to represent the different environments in your life. When you visit a particular location, the app can change system settings or set things in motion; launch applications or scripts, connect to servers, toggle Airport and Bluetooth power etc.
Broadband Tuner – If you have a really fast broadband connection, this utility may help to speed things up on your Mac. No guarantee, though, and it’s not recommended for Airport connections. Could be worth experimenting with!
Hotspot Shield – A security-enhancing app, that protects your web session with HTTPS encryption, hides your IP address, bypasses firewalls/censorship, and protects you at Wi-Fi hotspots. Really useful when using public internet, or for accessing foreign video content.

Taking a Break

Occasionally, it can be a good thing to step away from the Internet and take a break. Here are a few handy utilities for adding an element of enforcement to the “break” you’re meant to be taking…
Freedom – Disables wireless and ethernet networking for up to three hours at a time. Freedom will free you from the distractions of the internet, allowing you time to code, write, or create.
Concentrate – Block certain websites at certain times, to ensure you aren’t tempted to check Facebook rather than work on an important document. Remove the urge!

Other Applications

Fluid – A fantastic way to turn your favourite websites and web applications into their own individual desktop applications (through a “site specific browser”).
Gmail Browser – A dedicated browser for using Google Apps, aimed at keeping it distinct from your other web browsing activities.
Google Gears – A utility for allowing you to interact with various web applications even without an internet connection. Particularly useful for accessing Gmail when offline.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve found a few applications that will help you with day-to-day browsing, and that you can benefit from a slightly improved Internet experience!
I’m aware that I have only scratched the surface of what’s available, so please do share your own personal favourites in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and learn about a few new applications I haven’t come across before.

Thanks for reading!

50 Ways to Enhance Your Browsing Experience in FireFox

I fondly remember when Firefox first came on the scene and it changed my Internet usage with tabbed browsing, themes and extensions. Years later, I primarily use Safari on my Mac, but I still have a lot of respect for what Mozilla did for the browsing world by developing Firefox. It was the start of a whole new round of the browser wars which eventually got Microsoft to start focusing on their browser once again.

And once you get past the better security and usability that modern browsers brought to the table, Firefox takes it to another level with the extensibility it provides by way of extensions — or what Mozilla now terms Add-ons. Today we’ll look at fifty of the best extensions for Firefox that can improve your usage and experience when browsing the web.

A word of warning — several of these add-ons are labelled experimental and may cause problems with your Firefox configuration. Each link provided goes to the official Mozilla Add-on page, each of which give a good overview of the particular add-on. But still, backup your Firefox configuration (and the rest of your computer while you’re at it) and install at your own risk.

Tabs

Firefox really brought tabbed browsing into the mainstream. Personally, it really changed the way I used the web and the browser. The following extensions all focus on tabs.

Control your tabs.

Tab Mix Plus

Tab Mix Plus simply expands on what you can do with your tabs. Color coded progress indicators on each tab, tab clicking options, and undo closed tabs are just a few of the options available.

Restore those tabs.

Undo Closed Tabs Button

If Tab Mix Plus is overkill for you, perhaps the Undo Closed Tabs Button is for you. Rather than going to your history to open a previously closed tab, use the button this Add-on provides.

Keep your essential sites always open.

PermaTabs Mod

To take it another step further, if you have tabs you never want to close (perhaps for running web apps), then use the PermaTabs Mod Add-on.

Need IE?

IE Tab

In another direction, there are those sites out there — you know who you are — that still only work correctly in Internet Explorer. Use IE Tab to run Internet Explorer inside of Firefox. You could add this one under the category of web development as well.

User Styles

One of the more interesting areas of development with Firefox Add-ons was that of augmented browsing. These tools allow you to change the behaviour and appearance of any particular web page when loaded in your browser.

Enhance web sites and apps.

Greasemonkey

One of the earlier Firefox extensions, Greasemonkey allows the user to customize the look and functionality of any webpage. It was the first in this genre and you can find plenty of compatible scripts for many of the more popular websites around.

Create your own styles.

Stylish

Stylish is in the same category, but it focuses more on the CSS (the look) of a page, where as Greasemonkey uses Javascript and is more focused on function than form.

Managing Mail

People are always looking for ways to get a better handle on their email. There are several extensions that are focused on just that.

Improve the Gmail web interface.

Better Gmail 2

The project of Gina Trapani, Better Gmail 2 brings a lot of tweaks to the Gmail web interface. Nested labels, row highlighting, and an unread count in your tab are just some of the enhancements included.

Keep on top of your mail.

WebMail Notifier

A more basic tool, WebMail Notifier simply sits in the status bar and updates your email count. It supports various webmail clients, including Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.

Support for multiple accounts.

Gmail Manager

Gmail Manager is focused on … you guessed it — Gmail. The basic premise of this Add-on is support for multiple Gmail accounts and offers a nice range of features.

More Gmail controls.

Gmail Notifier

Another of the earlier Firefox extensions, Gmail Notifier is very similar to Gmail Manager and supports multiple accounts.

Web Development

The area of web development is one that has seen a lot of innovation in the form of browser extensions and bookmarklets. Current day developers and designers are blessed with some high caliber tools that work right within the browser.

The original extension for web devs.

Web Developer

One of the first I remember hearing about and using is the Web Developer extension. While learning the basics of CSS, this extension was a great tool to view the CSS of designer I admired. A solid tool all around.

Essential tool for debugging.

Firebug

Another top tool is Firebug. Many designers use Firefox as their primary browser simply because of this extension. Debug HTML, CSS and Javascript. Traverse the DOM. It’s all possible with Firebug.

Fool those sites.

User Agent Switcher

Similar to IE Tab, User Agent Switcher allows you to set your user agent to show agents other than your browser. It even includes an entry for iPhone 3.0. Handy for sites that block their content based on your browser of choice.

Find out that exact color on any page.

ColorZilla

Perhaps more aimed at designers than developers, ColorZilla allows you to click on any element on a page and get its rgb and hex values, as well as x and y coordinates on the page. And handy addition.

Uploads straight from the browser.

FireFTP

FireFTP is simply a FTP client from within the browser.

Working with Text

For those of us who make a living in the browser, working with text that we read is an every-day activity. Here are a few tools aimed at making that a little more painless.

Strip out unwanted formatting.

Copy Plain Text

Copy Plain Text to the rescue. The name says it all (does not currently work with Firefox 3.5).

A nice touch.

AutoCopy

AutoCopy is a simple extension that works as so: select text and it’s automatically copied to your clipboard. If you don’t already have a system wide tool installed for this sort of thing, this is a good alternative for Firefox users. In fact, it comes with a good number of options as well, including copy as plain text.
Ever wanted to copy some text off a page, but without funky formatting or a bunch extra bits in between? AutoCopy gets the job done.

Lots of options for text on the web.

Hyperwords

Hyperwords is another great text focused tool. But rather than do one or two things, it offers a plethora of options (tagging, reference, search, translate and more).

Social

What would an article about a web browser be without talking about social web applications? No worries — we’ve got that covered too.

A unique approach.

TwitterBar

Just in case you hate all the great Twitter clients out there, here’s one that works right within your browser. From the Address bar in fact.

For all the addicts.

Shareaholic

As the Add-on page states:

Shareaholic is the ultimate add-on for the link sharing addict!

Need I say more? It has all the web services you could want and more.

Easy access to your Delicious account.

Delicious Bookmarks

This one is a little more focused — it allows you to post to your Delicious account. It’s for the well balanced social media expert.

Chat within the browser.

Meebo

The Meebo extension allows you to use the mulitple protocol IM client within Firefox. And it’s more than just the client running in a tab — it includes a sidebar for contact statuses and notifications in the status bar.

Another Twitter option.

Echofon

Another Add-on focused on Twitter, Echofon is basically a small Twitter client running in Firefox. It also offers syncing with your iPhone using the Echofone Pro iPhone app.

Security and Privacy

There are a lot of extensions that focus on keeping your Firefox installation secure. Whether managing your passwords or bypassing firewalls, you can find an extension that will get the job done.

Keep a clean trail.

Stealther

Stealther is one of those tools. If you’re working on a shared computer, you can use Stealther to erase what you’ve done in Firefox. When active, it disables browser history, downloads and the browser cache. If you’re on a public computer, this extension is a good option.

Essential - block that Flash.

Flashblock

If you dislike websites that make extensive use of Flash, take a look at Flashblock. Then you can load Flash elements only if you want to. I use a similar tool for Safari and it’s a welcome addition on my computer.

More proxy options.

FoxyProxy

Another helpful extension, FoxyProxy is good for those situations where you are stuck behind a frustrating firewall.

Manage your log-ins.

LastPass Password Manager

And the last in this category, this extension is a simple password manager. It allows you to use one password to manage all your various log in’s. For people not already using an application like 1password, this is an attractive Add-on.

In case you dislike remembering keyboard shortcuts.

Clear Cache Button

This is dead simple — rather than having to open your preferences to clear your cache, you can simply click the button this Add-on creates. Done.

Bookmarks

Still a staple of web browsing, bookmarks have remained through all the changes in the world of web browsing. These following extensions are nice additions for managing your bookmarks.

Xmarks

Sync your bookmarks across computers AND browsers.

For anyone who uses multiple computers with multiple browsers, Xmarks is a wonderful tool. It backs up and syncs across computers and supports Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Keep a journal of interesting pages.

ScrapBook Plus

Scrapbook Plus is a nice utility for capturing web pages and saving them in a older hierarchy.

ClipMarks

An interesting tool for sharing only what you want from a page.

Clipmarks is focused on sharing. But, unlike more traditional social bookmarking services, Clipmarks allows you select portions of a site and then posts your selection to Twitter or Facebook. A nice way to share with others the exact piece of information that caught your attention.

User Interface

One of the most interesting categories of extensions for Firefox are those that greatly alter the interface or add very unique functionality. Actually, they almost don’t fit into a category of all, yet offer some of the more enjoyable alterations to the browser.

Cooliris

Browsing images and online shopping on steroids.

If you like viewing photos on the web, then you’ll love Cooliris. Available for other browsers as well, Cooliris has an extension for Firefox that allows you to view images on sites such as Flickr or Picasa as a 3D wall. You pretty much have to try it to get the full picture. It’s quite impressive — and a nice way to shop online.

Viamatic foXpose

Expose for the browser.

Another great addition, Viamatic foXpose will tile your open tabs and show a thumbnail preview for each. Think Expose for OS X.

FastDial

Bringing Firefox on par with Safari and Opera.

Opera and Safari users will be familiar with the concept behind this extension. FastDial mirrors the functionality of Safari’s ‘Top Sites’ and Opera’s ‘Speed Dial’, giving you a tab filled with thumbnail images and links to your most visited web sites.

Automation.

iMacros for Firefox

Just as the title suggests, this extension will automate tasks for you in Firefox. If you have repetitive tasks to perform in the browser, you have options to speed up your workflow. Check this one out.

Fotofox

For those who deal with images a lot.

Another extension dealing with images, Fotofox allows you to organize a group of photos and then batch upload them to various web based image sharing services.

Access all Firefox settings in the sidebar.

All-in-One Sidebar

Various extensions place menu options in the Firefox sidebar. The All-in-One Sidebar extension brings everything into the sidebar. You can even perform menu options such as manage themes and extensions right in the sidebar with this Add-on.

Many options for handling links.

Linky

Linky is a very simple tool in that it only deals with links on a page. But it extends the default actions available in Firefox and allows you to perform a myriad of options with any link.

Miscallaneous

Lastly, there are a good number of nice Add-ons that don’t fit into the categories above, but are still worth checking out.

PDF Download

Makes working with PDFs on the web more manageable.

Do you ever get irritated when clicking on a link, not realizing it’s a PDF? Then you have to wait while your browser slowly loads the PDF file in a new tab or window. PDF Download can alleviate that issue and gives you more options for how to handle PDFs on the web.

Get your weather report.

Forecast Fox

Forecast Fox is another extension that has been around for a long time. And, as the name suggests, it simply brings you the weather reports of the location you choose.

If only I had time to read …

Morning Coffee

One of my favourites — possibly just because I like the idea of reading and coffee together — is a basic button, that when clicked, opens up a set number of web sites in their own tab. Perfect for that early morning reading session.

Control your media player.

foxytunes

Yet another of the more aged extensions, foxytunes has been around almost as long as the browser itself. What does it do? It gives you control of your music player right in the browser.

Control startups and crashes.

Session Manager

Session Manager is intended to make crashes or browser restarts easier to … manage. It will automatically restore all windows and tabs after a crash and can do the same when the browser is first started. There are a good number of options with this Add-on.

For heavy screenshot users.

FireShot

Fireshot is an interesting one — it gives you the ability to take screenshots in Firefox. But it doesn’t stop there. You can then edit and annotate those screenshots, save them to desk is several formats, upload them to online services, or email them.

Better options for saving files.

Automatic Save Folder

This extension basically gives you some more options for saving files. Rather than the default “Save As” dialogue the browser gives you, use Automatic Save Folder for more options.

Better control over what to save.

DownThemAll

DownThemAll is in the similar vein — it manages your downloads from various pages. It claims to speed up your downloads as well as give you more control over what you can download.

For all those pesky log-ins.

BugMeNot

This extension is intended to make checking out web apps and other sites that require a log-in easier to deal with. It uses the web service BigMeNot to fill in the credentials on a site without you having to sign up and make credentials of your own.

Find your way.

Directions with Google Maps

A really simple premise here — this Add-on gives a contextual menu option (right click) and will take any address on a page and open it in Google Maps. A simple idea, but one that takes a step out for you.

Enhance your search options.

Customize Google

Again working with Google, the Customize Google extension adds some options to your returned Google searches. For example, it gives you links at the top of the page so you can try your search on an alternate search engine.

And There’s Plenty More

Perhaps this list isn’t long enough for you. If you’re still looking for some more great ways to enhance your Firefox usage, be sure to take a look at the Collections on Mozilla’s site. These collections are groups of Add-ons that focus on one category or another.
Firefox evangelists will tell you that it is the Add-ons that make it so they will never move to another browser. Once you begin to depend on some of the tools that you can use within your browser, it would be hard to move to an alternate browser that doesn’t give you that same functionality.
Mozilla made a smart move with making their browser so extensible and a great community grew up around that. And whether you use Firefox now or now, we’re all better off when it comes to web browsing, largely because of Firefox. Kudos to them!