Orangeinks

FireShot: Firefox Screenshot Editor Plugin

What makes Firefox so great is not because it’s a fast browser. From my experience, Opera is still a faster browser than Firefox and consumes even less memory. Even if the older versions of Firefox are having memory issues, a lot of people including me still use it as the primary browser. This is because of the huge amount of add-ons available for Firefox. Those add-ons are the key to the success of the browser.

Here’s another extension that you might find of great use, especially those who take a lot of screen shots. The add-on is called FireShot. It’s a screen shot editor which you can run along with your Firefox browser. You can use it to take quick screenshots of web pages and edit them right away. You don’t have to open Photoshop or other editing tools to crop and edit your screenshots. Just right click on the page and select capture and edit. The editor will pop out and you can make take advantage of the tools which lets you quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations.

Click Image for Larger Version

Another feature of Fireshot that I find useful is that it can take a screenshot of the entire webpage. This is very useful if you have a limited screen size and need a larger screen shot scale.

The plugin is free to download. The pro version will give you some upgrades but nothing that big if you’re not a heavy user. You will get the pro features for the first 30 days and will automatically switch to simple mode after that, which is still very useful.

Note: FireShot is also available for Internet Explorer users.

Tags: add-on, editor, extension, Firefox, fireshot, internet explorer, Plugin, screenshot

Vysr: RoamAbout Offers a Better Browsing Experience

Ever since tabbed browsing became a common feature for browsers, accessing information became a lot easier especially for heavy internet users like researchers, bloggers and information geeks. The problem today is that there are so many web services out there that you’ll often end up opening and closing a tab just to fit them all to your browser.

Vysr came up with a solution in the form of an application called RoamAbout. RoamAbout is a useful, non-intrusive browser extension which will allow you to access information in just a couple of clicks without leaving the page you are currently browsing. The application is equipped with webapps that you can access instantly through RoamAbout. A small overlay window will appear on the page you’re in once you clicked on a web app.

How to Use:

The application comes in two packs: the business pack and the social pack. You can download any of them for it makes little difference which one you choose. Once downloaded, you can customize either pack to fit your browsing need by clicking the green “+” button.

After installing the application (works with Firefox and IE) a small blue “R” button will neatly appear on the bottom right of your browser. You can toggle that button to show/hide RoamAbout.

When browsing, highlight a text from the page you are currently in and click a service (e.g. Wikipedia) from RoamAbout. A popup window will appear containing related information about the highlighted text. If you clicked YouTube, related videos about the highlighted text will appear on the popup window. It also lets you view the video from within the RoamAbout popup window.

I also find the map, weather and stocks feature very useful. Just the same, highlight a text (e.g. Address) and once you click MapQuest, the popup window will display the map of the highlighted address. A weather report will be given for a highlighted zip code or city and you can immediately access stock reports for a highlighted company name.

You do not need a highlighted text every time you want to use RoamAbout. You can do your own searches from within the popup window. Other features include Twitter Access, Roam About Games, Related News, FaceBook ang Gmail sharing and Related Photos from Flickr.

When I tested the application, I found some loading delays and thought that it could use a bookmarking service. I emailed the Vysr team and I got a reply from Guda (CEO of Vysr) through Bernadette of Vyser. Check it out below.

We will continue to deploy apps on a regular basis and will be releasing a
platform api and development kit for third parties to develop their own
apps. We also fixed the problem that was causing the sluggishness some
people noticed.

We have a number of exciting features in store. At the moment, however, we
are collecting feedback and suggestions from users on what is most important
and desired and will be prioritizing based on such feedback. We welcome any
and all feedback.

We are definitely looking at a bookmarking service in addition to a number
of other web services based on user feedback and evaluating potential web
services for this purpose. Our preference, of course, is to work with
existing third-party apps when available.

The application is very useful and can save a lot of time going from one service to another to access information. It is non intrusive and neatly placed on the bottom of the browser. What I like about the popup window feature is that it does not follow you around on other tabs. Once an overlay window appears on a page, it stays there (like I said, it’s non-intrusive). This will let you freely browse other sites without a small window following you around on other tabs.

Tags: app, browser, browser app, Firefox, internet explorer, roamabout, vysr

Mento: A Fresh New Bookmarking Service

There are lots of link sharing sites out there but Mento thinks that it could be better and simpler for users. Mento provides a lightweight, non-intrusive solution for easy bookmarking, sharing and tagging.

To use Mento, just register and download the Firefox or Internet Explorer extensions, or use their bookmarklet which works on all browsers. When you click the bookmarklet or Mento button, a small popup window will appear asking which Mento service you would like to use. The send feature will allow you to send the links (along with images and comments) to your Mento friends, groups, tags or email buddies. The save feature will generally save the link to your mento profile allowing you to place tags, images and notes along with the link. The reply feature will allow you to comment on the link(s) provided that it has already been saved by somebody in your network. This will also keep track of the linking activities of your Mento friends whether they have previously saved a particular link which will prevent duplicate link sharing in your network. The site also keeps track on how many times a link you’ve shared has been clicked, and which members have clicked it.

Mento also offers outside link sharing by allowing you to publish links to del.icio.us, FriendFeed, Magnolia, Tumblr, and Twitter. They also have a Facebook app that allows friends to view and comment on your links without having to install the application themselves. You can also use the AddThis widget to publish your links on other bookmarking sites. Talk about not being selfish.

Mento is another addition to the numerous social bookmarking services in the internet. The site is fresh looking and packed with sharing features which are also user friendly. If you are in the market for an alternative bookmarking service, Mento is definitely worth checking out.

Tags: bookmark, bookmarking service, Facebook, Firefox, internet explorer, magnolia, mento, social bookmaring, twitter