Amazon A9 & FirefoxPR
Amazon A9
A9 is little site I discovered today. It is a beta project from Amazon (the Internet retailer), a very clever and very fast search engine, with enhanced features for those who have an Amazon account. I particularly like how a single search brings up matching web pages (powered by Google) and also an image thumbnail gallery. You can optionally toggle other types of search to be visible too (like books, or reference searches). The project looks very promising, and I’ve added it to my Firefox search bar. It’s currently my default search engine. One to watch, but at the moment still clearly a beta. Don’t expect it to behave perfectly 
Firefox PR
Mozilla’s Firefox has finally hit the 1.0 branch, though this release is actually a Preview Release of the 1.0 branch. Feature set is now very nearly final, and it’s a step up from the 0.9 version. I am particularly fond of the new ‘Live Bookmarks’ feature, which is simply RSS feed integration into the bookmarking system. There are a few other enhancements beyond the usual bug fixing and shrinking of download sizes. Another new feature I find useful is that the address bar goes solid orange when you’re using a site with a secure connection. Very simple, but very handy. No more filling in passwords and so forth on insecure sites.
While I’m talking about Firefox I should mention some Extensions for the browser that I am really loving:
- Web Developer 0.8
- Web Developer is becoming an essential tool for me. It has a huge number of extremely useful functions including the ability to highlight CSS style information, replace images with Alt attributes, show image dimensions, access keys, cookie information, response headers, speed reports, validate the page you’re viewing, see topographic information, resize the browser window, outline table cells and block level elements, and much more.
- Bug Me Not
- I get tired of websites asking me to register before they’ll let me at their content. A swift right click on the offending web page and Bug Me Not fills in a user name and password for you, and you’re in. I should add that Bug Me Not only supports websites offering free content (i.e. NewYorkTimes.com) and you’re not going to get free access to pay sites with this.
- Image Zoom 0.1.7
- Image Zoom allows you to magnify or shrink the size of images in the browser. A simple right click and swish of the mouse wheel will magnify any inline image you hover over in steps of any increment you want.
- SpellBound
- Noticed how my spelling is a little better recently? This is an integrated spell checker, and a very good one too. It says it’s for Firefox 0.9, but it’s working fine in FirefoxPR too
- ReloadEvery 0.3.2
- ReloadEvery does as it suggests. If you’re a regular forum user you’ll find yourself continually refreshing pages to see who’s posted. This does it automatically, at a time interval you set
This one isn’t a Firefox extension, but it is really useful:
Mailinator is an email service with a difference. Sometimes you will have to provide an email address for something, but you don’t really want to give your own address. Trouble is you’ll need to because you have to read a verification email sent to the account. Step in mailinator. Completely insecure, but incredibly useful - a temporary email account you don’t have to set up and never have to check more than once.
Entry Information
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- Thu, 16th Sep 2004 at 19:09 UTC
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Comments
skip to comment formWell it’s nice to see your site up and running. Must admit i had not checked it all this week seems as you told me it would be completed this weekend sometime. Anyway very good Mr Wilcox. functionality, ease of use and visuals all happen here. The only thing i haven’t tried is the RSS Feed, but i will install my feed reader again and try it out, how kool Mr Wilcox straight to my tray……. *Jumps* with joy. Sarchasm !not!intended!!!!
Lol, typical, you decide to try the RSS feed right after I broke it.
It works but it’s generating a couple of duplicate enteries at the moment.
I’m planning on having a few different feeds
Well, that’s the RSS feeds sorted out
Yeah, saying that i still haven’t got around to trying it yet but will look at downloading the new Firefox after your recommendations!!!!
Mr. Wilcox, i have finally got around to testing the RSS feed which all works lovley except that it all seems to point to mattwilcox.net ? is that right doesnt seem to exist for me!!! Thats using thunderbird by the way. Seems to receive the header but then clicking the link to go to the page seems to point me to http://mattwilcox.net/blog/133 for example
Yeah, that’s correct. I have a sneaking suspicion there are some routing problems going on.
matthewwilcox.com ‘could not be found’ for me earlier, I think you’re troubles are linked.
RSS feeds are working here and at work. matthewwilcox.com is just a parked name on mattwilcox.net, so if the .com works then .net -has- to be working.
Yeah tried it again this morning and all is well. Just using IE6 at the mo and have just noticed that the Top Nav Doesn’t Show. Perhamps its IE (More than likely!!!) possibly u have just removed it for a reason!
Good to hear
No, that was an Internet Explorer bug. It decided rendering the menu was a stupid idea when you specify a list-style of ‘none’. God but I hate Internet Explorer at times.