I already do all of these tricks.  Just thought I’d share them with the rest of you.

“Whether you’re working or wasting time, you spend a lot of time on the Web every day. You’ve already ditched Internet Explorer and switched to Firefox or Chrome; in fact, Net Applications’ browser marketshare stats show Chrome inched past Safari for the first time in December to take the No. 3 spot behind IE and Firefox. But are you using your browser’;s best features? Power Web surfers know the settings and shortcuts that make getting what you need online fast and efficiently. Here are five browser tricks that can streamline your surfing session, whether you’re on Facebook or the company intranet.”

via Five Browser Secrets of Power Web Surfers | Work Smart | Fast Company.

I want to focus on add-on’s and extensions.  The problem with the add-on’s to date is that their are so many and its hard to figure out which ones are actually useful.  Now the Student Nerds have created a collection so you can use the same ones we do. To see the addons that we recommend you can visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/studentnerds

1. Go to Tools, then Options in Firefox.
2. Click on the Applications Tab and in the Search box type “mail”.  You should see the following image
   
3. In the dropdown menu you can select to use Microsoft Outlook or you can select Gmail or Yahoo.  Since you should already be using Gmail, just select Gmail and you’ll be good to go.

On a side note, the blog might have less posts in the coming weeks as the team will be travelling. We’ll try, but no promises.

You can use it for Flickr or Facebook.  This is actually an extension for Firefox that allows you to this.  An extension is basically an program that works in conjunction with Firefox.  There are many very well created extensions as well as add-ons that we will highlight in the coming weeks.  Both Praz and I have found some neat tricks to tinker with Firefox to make your web browsing experience much easier, or customized to your liking.  If you have any questions feel free to hit us up on the twitter (twitter.com/studentnerds).

There are a few programs that help me with keeping track of all the little pieces of a reformat.  Here’s what I use:

1. Dropbox – I’ve talked about Dropbox before and it really does save a lot of time.  It keeps files synced between computers and also stores those files online for free (up to 2gb).  I use this to store settings and also a list of the programs currently installed on my computer.  I have substituted Dropbox for the My Documents folder which makes it one less thing I need to backup.
2. SyncBack – I’ve talked about SyncBack here, but it basically is a program that makes keeping folders backed up or synced very easy.  I use it to backup the following on my laptop: Music, iTunes settings, a list of programs I have installed and all of the Pictures I have.  It copies all of these to my 2nd computer which then backs up the files with Mozy.  If you don’t have a second computer, you can use the program to back up files to an external hard drive.
3. Firefox (w/ Foxmarks) – The most used program on my computer is Mozilla Firefox.  I have hundreds of bookmarks that I would never want to lose.  The Foxmarks plugin not only backs up my bookmarks, but it syncs my bookmarks between my computers.  There’s also an added bonus of them having a mobile version of their website so I can always get to my bookmarks when I’m travelling.
4. Windows 7 (or Ubuntu) – I use to worry about finding all of the drivers for my comptuer before formatting my computer.  I don’t anymore.  I first tried Ubuntu about a year ago and was pleasantly surprised how well it detected the devices on my computer.  I always wondered why Windows couldn’t do the same thing.  I’m now using Windows 7 and it’s even better than Ubuntu in recognizing all of my devices.  I’m very impressed with it.

These programs make it easy for me to not worry about the time when I need to format my computer.  They also make it an easy way to back up my important files without me having to do anything.

Feel free to Twitter or E-Mail me if you have any questions or want any clarification on any of the programs I use.

I try to keep my Firefox installation lean and mean, but sometimes I just have to have some new features.  Here are the Firefox add-ons that I use:

• Picnik – Adds a menu when you right-click on images so that you can edit those images online at Picnik.com.
• Save Image in Folder – Adds a menu when you right-click on images so that you can save images to custom folders that you set up.  It comes in handy when I save wallpapers I find and want to put them in the right folder.
• Foxmarks – I’ve talked about Foxmarks before and it allows you to sync your bookmarks between multiple computers and backs them up online.
• Ubiquity – This is an interesting add-on that really needs to be tested to see what it does.  It provides a natural language search for anything.  Check it out.
• Fission – Adds a progress bar to the address bar. Very simple and unnecessary.
• Greasemonkey – Allows you to run scripts written by other users to change the way websites work or function.
• Better GCal – Adds more functionality to Google Calendar.
• AVG Safe Search – Comes with the newest free version of AVG.  Keeps me safer online.

Let us know if there are any Firefox add-ons that you love and use everyday.