Make Tech Easier » extensions

Mac: Load Flash only when you want to with Clicktoflash

Sharninder — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:23:00 +0000

Adobe’s Flash technology is pretty much THE standard when it comes to delivering video over the Internet. A number of high profile sites like YouTube, hulu and metacafe use flash to display content to their users and the flash plugin is quickly becoming a must have for every computer user.

Flash is not being used just for videos, it is also used around the Internet for creating casual games, advertisements and pretty much anything that you can think of.

In spite of all the advantages of the Flash platform, the problem with flash is that other than Windows, it really doesn’t run well on any other platform. Flash is also a notoriously heavy user of your system’s resources.

If you’re a Linux or OS X user like I am, you can forget about timely updates and can also expect your browser’s memory and CPU usage to go through the roof if you like visiting flash heavy websites. In my opinion, that is reason enough to get rid of Flash.

So, what do you do if you’ve had enough of the flash advertisements and videos making an appearance on every website that you visit ?

You give ClickToFlash a try !

ClickToFlash is an extension for Safari on OS X that blocks Flash from appearing on any site that you visit. With ClickToFlash loaded, this is how a site using flash will look like.

So, what’s the great deal about ClickToFlash, you ask ? You could have gotten rid of flash by just removing the flash plugin, right ? And to block advertisements, there are already some excellent freeware out there.

Well, I agree, but with ClickToFlash you don’t have to remove the flash plugin and that is the flexibility that it provides. The flash plugin will not be loaded up with every page you view of YouTube, for example, but you can still see the flash elements on the web page, if you want to, by just clicking on the element. So, to start playing the YouTube video above you can just click anywhere inside the gray area and the video will start playing.

Infact, in the case of YouTube, ClickToFlash also gives you an option to view the higher quality the H.264 video stream using QuickTime instead of Flash. Just right click the inside the gray area and select the H.264 option.

Isn’t that awesome ?

But, if you’re a heavy flash user, the constant clicking required to view the content on all your favorite sites might annoy you a bit. In that case, ClickToFlash provides an option to add certain websites to a Whitelist.

A Whitelist is a list of all websites which ClickToFlash excludes from blocking. Adding a site to the Whitelist is easy too, just right click the flash element on the particular site and select the Add to Whitelist option, as you can see in the image above.

ClickToFlash will then add the site’s URL to it’s Whitelist and the next time you visit that site, you’ll be able to enjoy all flash content as if ClickToFlash never happened to you ! I can already see myself making use of this feature for atleast a couple of sites.

So, do you guys find flash videos and ads annoying ? Have you ever though of ways to get rid of them ?

Note: A similar plugin for Firefox is Stop Autoplay

Mac: Load Flash only when you want to with Clicktoflash originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Firefox Extension Adds Functionality to Google Analytics

Shevonne — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:30:34 +0000

If you have a web site or blog, you probably rely on web analytics to understand about your visitors. It provides a way for you to know

1. How they found your site
2. The items on your site they find interesting and
3. Location information about your visitors.

The best known and most widely used web analytics tool is Google Analytics. There are over 80 reports that can be accessed to track and analyze the health of your web site/blog. Additionally, it also has an ad hoc reporting function that allows you to further tailor these 80 reports, or create your own from scratch. There are other tasks that allow you to monitor vistors’ paths on your site/blog, monitor your AdWords, group similar visits together, etc. What if you were able to extend the functions that Google Analytics offer? There is a Firefox add-on that will allow you to do that. It’s called the Better Google Analytics Firefox Extension.

What does it do?

Better Google Analytics Firefox Extension enhances Google Analytics by using a variety of GreaseMonkey user scripts. The add-on uses user scripts created by different developers into one area. It gives Google Analytics some of the user-friendly and additional features that are missing.

What do I need to do before I start using it?

The first thing you need is to go to the FireFox add-on page, and install GreaseMonkey. After GreaseMonkey is up and running, install the Better Google Analytics Firefox Extension add-on.

How do I personalize it?

After installing Better Google Analytics Firefox Extension and GreaseMonkey, go to Tools->Add-Ons->Better Google Analytics Firefox. Press the Preference button. There are three tabs: General, Reports, and Other.

What do I do in the General tab?

Go to the General tab. There are three options: automatically entering Google Analytics; automatically expanding the sub-navigation items; and increase the text boxes.

If you want to automatically enter Google Analytics whenever the button is displayed, then check the check box next to this option.
If you want to have all the sub-navigation expand automatically, then check the check box.
If you want to increase the text boxes, then check this check box.

What do I do in the Reports tab?

In the Reports tab, it provides you additional report features that will make the Google Analytics’ reports area, more powerful. It adds search functionality, export capabilities, full-screen reader, profile enhancements, table sorting, and social media metrics. If you want to select one or all of the options, check the check boxes next to them.

What do I do the in the Other tab?

In the Other tab, it allows additional features to other areas of Google Analytics. It provides two Google Analytics Conversion University functionalities: “Expand All” button and the time. Also, it has a URL builder override for the “utm_nooverride” url variable.

What did I think?

I really love this Better Google Analytics Firefox Extension. It gives extra functionality to Google Analytics that makes it more user friendly and easier to navigate. Before I found this add-on, I was using the basic functions that Google Analytics had to offer because I didn’t really understand how to use it. With this add-on, I am using it more, using more reports, and even the goals/funnel features. If you have never use it, and you have a web site and/or blog, install it.

How do I get more information?

To learn more about Better Google Analytics Firefox Extension, please visit: http://erikvold.com/tools/firefox/betterga/index.cfm
To learn more about GreaseMonkey, please visit: http://www.greasespot.net/

Firefox Extension Adds Functionality to Google Analytics originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Enhance Your Browser with Greasemonkey

Joshua Price — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:26:25 +0000

How would you like to be able to customize the layout of the Google homepage? How about add better video controls and a download button to YouTube? Or set a profanity filter that works across all websites? Maybe remove all the “What type of leafy vegetable are you?” quizzes from Facebook? These are very few of the things that can be done with Greasemonkey.

By itself, Greasemonkey does essentially nothing. At least, nothing that you as a user would notice. To really use it, you download Greasemonkey scripts which all have some special purpose. For example, right now I’m writing this from a browser with Greasemonkey installed, and I’m using scripts to enhance YouTube, Facebook, and Google Images.

The Greasemonkey website describes the general function pretty well -

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function.
Hundreds of scripts are already available for free. And if you’re the tinkerer sort, you can also write your own.

I should note that some other browsers support these scripts, but often in a limited fashion. Opera can run some Greasemonkey scripts, and Safari has Creammonkey to achieve a similar end.

Installation

You can download the Firefox extension from the Greasespot homepge. It will install normally just like any other Firefox addon, and you’ll likely have to restart your browser. Once it’s back open, you should see a Greasemonkey icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Adding Scripts

Once installed, you can begin adding in scripts. The scripts will not require a browser restart, but if you’ve already got the page open that the script is meant to act on (such as YouTube), you may need to refresh the page. To get an idea of the type of changes Greasemonkey can do, here’s a comparison of the same YouTube video page with and without the YouTube Enhancer script.

First the normal YouTube play screen…

And now with Greamonkey enhancements…

As you can see, this gives you a LOT more options in terms of video quality and control. This is just one of MANY great user scripts available from userscripts.org.

Recommended Scripts

No Greasemonkey article would be complete without a list of some of the most useful user scripts. Here I’ve listed some of the ones I’ve found to be particularly helpful.

YouTube Enhancer – Demonstrated above, adds new video controls and download option to YouTube.
TinyURL Decoder – Shows you what’s behind those TinyURL redirects so you’ll never get Rickrolled again.
Textarea Resize – Allows for a larger text area in websites that only provide a small text box.
Folders4Gmail – Allows you to organize your GMail labels into a category hierarchy so you can use “sub-labels”.
YouTube Cleaner – Removes some of the extra cruft from YouTube (like comments) that you may not want. Can be easily enabled/disabled.
Pre-Fill Comments – If you frequently comment on blogs like MakeTechEasier, you can use this script to automatically fill in your name/email/URL.

And many, many more.

Do you have any Greasemonkey scripts you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!

How to Enhance Your Browser with Greasemonkey originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Easily Create and Insert HTM signature For Your Webmail

Damien — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:01:53 +0000

If you are bothered that you can’t create html signature in Gmail or other web-based email accounts, WiseStamp could probably be the answer to your problem.

WiseStamp is a Firefox extension that allows you to create and insert rich HTML signature for your Web-based email accounts, including Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL mail. After you have installed and get it running, you can create your own signature with a rich text editor and optionally, fill in your social network detail and get them to show up in your signature.

The WiseStamp Email Signature Firefox extension is still an experimental extension that is not yet approved by the Mozilla team. To install, you will have to create a Mozilla account and log yourself in before you can access the installation link. Alternatively, you can bypass the logging in by installing via the WiseStamp site.

Once you have installed and restarted your Firefox, you can access to the rich-text editor to create your html signature.

You can also fill in your social networking detail and display them in your signature.

The Setting tab allows you to configure how you want to display the signature, whether to show an icon, text or both for the IM and social services. By default, WiseStamp include a promotion link in your signature. You can remove it by unchecking the box beside “Promote Wisestamp Project“.

WiseStamp email signature works on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL mail. There is no extra steps required to insert the signature. Whenever you compose a new message, the signature will automatically be inserted to the message area.

If you are using Gmail only and are keen to create multiple html signatures, Blank Canvas Gmail signature would probably be a better choice.

Easily Create and Insert HTM signature For Your Webmail originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

5 Useful Extensions That Still Work in Songbird 0.7

Damien — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:26:21 +0000

Whenever Firefox releases a new update/version, some of the extensions are bound to break. Similarly, in Songbird, when I upgraded to the latest 0.7 version, some of my favorite extensions are no longer working. While we are waiting for the developers to fix them up, here are some of the useful extensions that still work in Songbird 0.7

If you have not try out Songbird, here is a quick and easy way to install Songbird on your Ubuntu machine.

1) iPod device support

Not everyone will find this useful, but if you are an iPod owner, this is the extension that you don’t want to miss. Plug in your iPod and have Songbird play all the songs in your iPod.

2) Media Flow

Ever since Apple released Cover flow technology in the Mac Leopard, this new style of flipping the cover to find the file you want has become very popular in many applications. In Songbird, the Media Flow add-on replicate the cover flipping technology and allows you to browse your music collection by their album art.

3) Lyrics master

Whenever a track is played, the Lyric Master will grab the lyrics from the track meta-data and display it on the sidebar. In the event that the track does not have any lyrics, Lyrcs Master will use the track meta-data to search and retrieve the lyrics from the Web and display it on the sidebar. Whenever a new lyrics is found, you can choose to save it to the database so that next time when the same track is being played, the lyrics will show automatically.

4) MashTape

What mashTape does is to gather information from different sources and mash it up for your viewing. Residing on the bottom pane, mashTape uses Last.fm to retrieves the artist bio, upcoming concert, similar artists and tags applied to the current song, Lyrics Wiki to retrieve the lyrics, Flickr to retrieve the photo of the artist and YouTube to retrieve all videos of the artist. A very good way to get maximum information about the track and artist with minimal effort.

5) Last.fm

This addon publishes your playback history to last.fm so that it can track your playing habit and recommend songs that are of your liking.

What’s your favorite Songbird extensions?

5 Useful Extensions That Still Work in Songbird 0.7 originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)