Morning Cup O’ Joe

The UrlbarExt add-on for Firefox 3 is one of the handiest extensions I’ve seen.

The functionality of the default buttons include, from left to right:

1. Copy the current site URL or custom formatted URL.
2. Shorten the URL using your favorite service or right-click for more options.
3. Search the current site using Google for the selected keyword. Right-click opens a dialog for adding keywords.
4. Go up one level, or directly to the root of the current site with a double-click. Right-click gives you a list of levels to choose from.
5. Tag and bookmark the current page from a menu of tags.
6. Navigate through sequential URLs. (if the URL ends in a number, it will take you to the next numbered URL)
7. Surf anonymously using online phproxy servers. Right-click lets you view the Google Cache along with other options.

via Lifehacker

If you haven’t seen the buzz in the blogosphere yet, Google is releasing their own web-browser, dubbed Chrome, tomorrow. I just perused the info-comic (made by Scott McCloud of all people) explaining the ideas and architecture behind Chrome, and I must say that I’m curious.

Here is what stands out to me:

• Multi-process *and* Multi-threaded – Each browser tab will be its own separate process with its own thread pool. If a website causes a crash, the whole browser won’t go down–only that one tab. There will also be a built-in task manager that will enable you to kill processes and threads and also identify exactly what is causing the crashes. This will require more memory up front, but could potentially save memory in the long run.
• Process compartmentalization – Google reinforced process boundaries to an even higher degree to prevent malware attack and bad plugins from hosing the entire browser. The “sandbox” (as they call it) is completely user driven.
• Compiled Javascript – Instead of being interpreted, Javascript will be read once and then compiled into machine code. Huge performance increase potential here. Chrome will be using multiple garbage collection strategies to further optimize memory usage (e.g. precise and incremental)
• Using WebKit – The Webkit rendering engine is fast, light-weight and used in both conventional laptops/desktops and mobile devices. Potential iPhone app anyone?
• Omnibar - This will be Chrome’s equivalent to Firefox’s “Awesome” bar, or what we traditionally refer to as the location bar.
• Open Source – Google’s entry into the browser war can only help the internet as a whole. The entire Chrome project will be open sourced so I’m sure we’ll start to see some of these features absorbed into Firefox, Safari, IE (maybe), etc.
• Stability – Google has an index of, I daresay, trillions of webpages. Apparently they are subjecting test builds of Chrome to millions of websites each day and are approaching asymptotically that “100% compatibility” mark.

UPDATE (9/2/08):
Google Chrome is available for download now for Windows users.

Technorati Tags: chrome, google, open source, web browser

Firefox 3’s “awesome bar” is just that. If you start adding tags to your bookmarks, the awesome bar becomes a website launcher akin to Quicksilver for the Mac or Launchy for Windows. If you have a del.icio.us account and want to take full advantage of Firefox 3, check out this handy tool which merges your del.icio.us bookmarks with your Firefox bookmarks and preserves all of the tags.

Lifehacker has a roundup of the five most popular IM clients in use today. Personally, I use Adium on my laptop and Meebo on my iPhone.

What do you use?