Notices tagged with firefox
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Tantek ()'s status on Friday, 12-Jun-2026 22:35:00 EDT 
Tantek
How to add Google News, Google Books, and Google Scholar search directly in your browser, to search those sites with fewer steps, and less chance of being distracted.
One of my hobbies is contributing to Wikipedia, and more so, creating new Wikipedia articles. Citations of reliable sources are key to both good contributions, and new articles, especially in making them stick (not get reverted/deleted).
I use Google News to search for citations, and depending on the topic, sometimes Google Books and Google Scholar.
Unfortunately, to search Google News, you have to first go to Google News (news.google .com - deliberately unlinked here), upon which you are immediately shown distracting (if not dire) news photos, headlines etc. which present a non-trivial challenge to staying focused.
If only there was a way to directly search Google News from your browser search box / address bar (like you can search Wikipedia from your browser).
Unfortunately, there is no site-specific search option for Google News (like there is for YouTube, e.g. see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-or-remove-search-engine-firefox#w_add-search-engines) that you can select an add to your browser in one click (enabled by OpenSearch support, link in footer).
This is another technology I use for category 2 (defending focus) that I mentioned in my previous post on focus.
Steps to add a Google News search option to Firefox:
1. open Firefox Preferences ("Firefox" menu, "Preferences" item)
2. select "🔍 Search" from the left column
3. scroll down to "Search Shortcuts"
4. click the "Add" button under the list of search engines which opens a dialog
5. enter "Google News" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
6. enter "https://news.google.com/search?q=%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
7. enter "gn" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
The dialog should look like this:
8. click (Add Engine)
Now you can go to your address bar, type in "gn " (without the quotes), your news search term or phrase, e.g. "Broken Arrow Skyrace", and press return to directly see search results.
Similarly for Google Books, follow the same steps except:
5. enter "Google Books" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
6. enter "https://books.google.com/books?q=%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
7. enter "gb" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
And similarly for Google Scholar:
5. enter "Google Scholar" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
6. enter "https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
7. enter "gs" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
Thanks to folks in the #indieweb informal chat who reminded me (when I complained about the distracting Google News home page) of this way to add new site-specific search capabilities to the browser even for sites (or subsites) without explicit OpenSearch support.
Looking forward to using these capabilities to more quickly find citations for updating and creating new Wikipedia articles.
Previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/158/t2/three-insights-improving-focus
* https://tantek.com/2024/287/t2/setup-search-shortcuts-firefox
OpenSearch FYI:
* https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XML/Guides/OpenSearch
#focus #Wikipedia #Firefox #GoogleNews #GoogleBooks #GoogleScholar #search #siteSearch #AddSearchEngine #searchEngine #searchEngines #OpenSearch #webSearch #SearchShortcuts #browserTip #FirefoxTip #searchTip -
Tantek ()'s status on Wednesday, 10-Jun-2026 20:25:00 EDT
Tantek
The Snooze Tabs browser add-on is a key technology I use for category 2, defending focus (and prioritizing) from my previous post (link in footer).
I noted in the #indieweb informal cafe chat that "I am going to snooze the tab for a month and re-evaluate then" (about purchasing a potentially focus-enhancing electronic device), and was asked how do I snooze a tab for a month.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/snoozetabs/
I noted the Snooze Tabs browser extension does this, i.e. one-click to snooze a tab for
* later today
* tomorrow morning
* the weekend
* a week from now
* a month from now
* or a custom date and time
I have used it for years and as someone who opens LOTS of tabs, it has been essential for quickly closing tabs (for now) that are not my current (now, today, this week) priority.
A few regular use-cases which are all one-click from my Firefox toolbar:
* snooze work-related tabs until the next day, when I'm wrapping up work for the day
* snooze personal projects tabs until the weekend
* snooze lower priority work-task related tabs for a week
* snooze product tabs for a month when I want to wait (procrastinate) to see if I still want/need an item that seemed interesting in the moment
One key use-case I have which I have to set manually:
* snooze work-related tabs to Monday when it’s the weekend
There is an issue to swap the "next weekend" menu item to "next weekday" when it’s the weekend which would be a nice improvement:
* https://github.com/bwinton/SnoozeTabs/issues/393
This add-on is a good example of open source that “just works” even if its source code repository has not seen recent activity.
It’s also a good example of “good enough” rather than perfect.
If I get around to it, I may explore what it would take to help resolve issues, commit code, and do another release, at least to make progress on that one issue.
For now however, I am snoozing that GitHub tab for a month.
Previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/158/t2/three-insights-improving-focus
#focus #priorities #prioritization #Firefox #snooze #SnoozeTabs #browserAddOn #browserExtension -
Tantek ()'s status on Wednesday, 13-May-2026 11:25:00 EDT
Tantek
Please update your Firefox to 150.0.3.
Details why: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2026-45/
Step-by-step instructions:
* open your Firefox application
* choose/click menu "Firefox"
* choose/click menu item "About Firefox"
If it says:
✓ Firefox is up to date
then you’re all set.
If there is a button that says:
( Check for updates )
then click that.
Or you may see it automatically download an update and see:
* Downloading update — nn.n of nnn MB
* Applying update…
If you see a button that says:
( ↻ Restart to Update Firefox )
then click that!
Aside: #pwn2own is TOMORROW and they hit capacity for the first time in their 19-year history.
https://hackread.com/pwn2own-berlin-2026-hits-capacity-hackers-0-days/
Today’s a good day to get/install OS and browser updates on all your critical devices.
Consider turning off wifi on non-critical devices (putting to sleep is no longer enough because many devices still listen to or contact the internet while asleep) until you have had a chance to safely update their software (perhaps after software updates are available in response to pwn2own demos and disclosures).
#Mozilla #Firefox #browser #cyberSecurity #cyber #security -
Tantek ()'s status on Sunday, 13-Oct-2024 19:08:00 EDT
Tantek
You should setup Search Shortcuts in #Firefox, they have sped up my web browsing experience considerably.
James (@jamesg.blog) wrote up a great summary of how to do so and his experience:
* https://jamesg.blog/2024/10/13/search-engine-shortcuts-firefox/
I use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine, so here are the Search Shortcuts I have setup when I want to explicitly search/lookup something elsewhere, roughly ordered by my perceived frequency of use:
i - IndieWeb - https://indieweb.org/
w - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
g - Google - https://google.com/
d - MDN Web Docs - https://developer.mozilla.org/
m - Google Maps - https://maps.google.com/
b - Bing - https://bing.com/
a - Amazon - https://amazon.com/
x - Twitter - https://twitter.com/search
If you don’t see one of these search engines in your Firefox Settings: Search Shortcuts, you can visit its URL above and then follow the instructions in James’s blog post to add it to your browser’s list of search engines. Once added there, it will show up in the Search Shortcuts table and you can double-click it and add a one-letter (or more) shortcut as you wish!
What Search Shortcuts have you setup in your browser?
#search #OpenSearch #webSearch #SearchShortcuts #browserTip #FirefoxTip #searchTip -
Tantek ()'s status on Friday, 10-May-2024 07:51:00 EDT
Tantek
For #webDevelopers who like to try out pre-release features in #browsers, in addition to the numerous #Firefox experimental features which everyone has access to in Nightly Builds (as documented by MDN¹) did you know that #Mozilla also has Origin Trials?
Instructions and how to participate on the Mozilla Wiki:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Origin_Trials
In addition, we’ve linked to the #originTrial documentation pages of #GoogleChrome and #MicrosoftEdge if you want to check those out. Linkbacks welcome of course.
#webDev #originTrials #webBrowser #webBrowsers
References:
¹ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Experimental_features -
Tantek ()'s status on Sunday, 08-Mar-2020 15:58:00 EDT
Tantek
Congratulations to@optoutoolson their anti-misogyny browser extension release for #IWD2020!https://twitter.com/optoutools/status/1236253985457295360
#opensource& works in #Firefox(see tweet video)
Disclosure: we hosted an Opt-Out hackathon@IndieWebCamp@MozillaBerlinlast November. -
Sorokin Alexei (xrevan86)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jul-2019 20:05:49 EDT 
Sorokin Alexei
@inditoot @alexl What does that even mean, considering !firefox does have agreements with multiple search engines? -
Antón (antonlopez)'s status on Friday, 17-May-2019 12:28:48 EDT 
Antón
Is there any #Firefox addon that forwards Google Maps links/embeds to @openstreetmap counterparts, like the ones for YouTube and Invidious? Thanks.
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Tantek ()'s status on Wednesday, 31-Jan-2018 07:42:00 EST
Tantek
Also helping with DOM planning for@Firefox.
Web designers/devs, what Web API & DOM features/specs should we (@Mozilla/ #Firefox) prioritize in 2018?
#openwebcc:@overholt@bz_moz@annevk@thedomstandard
https://twitter.com/t/status/939273644043366400 -
Zed Ex Fuuma (fuuko)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jan-2018 15:28:40 EST 
Zed Ex Fuuma
Good afternoon #sdf and the wider #fediverse! I'm getting back into the swing of things finally! Altho it seems Mastodon doesn't like #Firefox ESR, so I might have to download and use Firefox 57! I've switched from #ubuntu to #debian, but debian doesn't seem to like my #printer. Well, it doesn't really matter as I can always print using my #phone. #OpenBSD is next on my #todo list. I've also got to start #phlogging every day again! Can't forget about #gopher. Anyways, it's good to see everyone!
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MMN-o ✅⃠ (mmn)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jul-2017 12:04:38 EDT 
MMN-o ✅⃠
@grmpyoldman That newspaper doesn't want me to read their news on this javascrippled computer that I'm using. Fortunately #Firefox has its "Reader view" that removes the big "YOU NEED TO WHITELIST US" blob. -
Former Bob Jonkman -- Please use the new server at https://gs.jonkman.ca (bobjonkmanformer)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Dec-2016 18:23:01 EST 
Former Bob Jonkman -- Please use the new server at https://gs.jonkman.ca
@steve Does this happen with all browsers? I've got something similar, but only with #Webkit based browsers; #Firefox and #IceCat are fine -
Former Bob Jonkman -- Please use the new server at https://gs.jonkman.ca (bobjonkmanformer)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Sep-2016 13:48:02 EDT
Former Bob Jonkman -- Please use the new server at https://gs.jonkman.ca
@lnxw48 @strypey #IceCat (and presumably #Firefox) has a setting to disallow that behaviour: "Edit, Preferences, Content, Enable Javascript Advanced, Disable or replace context menus" (uncheck to prevent sites from disabling copy'n'paste). But #NoScript is a better solution. -
MMN-o ✅⃠ (mmn)'s status on Friday, 03-Jun-2016 16:22:54 EDT
MMN-o ✅⃠
@maiyannah The people search is available by an OpenSearch definition, so #Firefox at least lets you automagically add it to your search toolbar. -
MMN-o ✅⃠ (mmn)'s status on Friday, 15-Apr-2016 18:50:38 EDT
MMN-o ✅⃠
@einebiene I subscribe to all my RSS feeds in #Firefox ("smart bookmarks" or whatever they're called). As mentioned by others a podcast is just ordinary RSS with a media file attached, so it should work fine for that too. -
Johan Vervloet (johanv)'s status on Friday, 25-Mar-2016 09:43:04 EDT 
Johan Vervloet
Now since #firefox will disappear from #fdroid, which browser would you recommend? -
MMN-o ✅⃠ (mmn)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Nov-2015 20:36:34 EST
MMN-o ✅⃠
Using #wmii leaves my fingers wanting to press SUPER + L to switch window column. I'm just happy #Gnome has "lock screen" mapped to that, compared to the ^W combo I keep hitting in #Firefox when trying to remove the last word just like in a CLI environment. -
Manuel Ortega (manuel)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Oct-2015 03:59:52 EDT 
Manuel Ortega
Share on !gnusocial from #Firefox #post2gnusocial https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/post2gnusocial/ Adds entries to the context menu that allow the user to share the page URL or a selection on his GNU social account easily -
Manuel Ortega (manuel)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Oct-2015 03:59:52 EDT
Manuel Ortega
Share on !gnusocial from #Firefox #post2gnusocial https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/post2gnusocial/ Adds entries to the context menu that allow the user to share the page URL or a selection on his GNU social account easily -
Manuel Ortega (manuel)'s status on Monday, 26-Oct-2015 20:03:36 EDT
Manuel Ortega
@gustavo @club Qué bueno! y qué casualidad, ahora mismo estaba subiendo esto https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/post2gnusocial/ al repositorio de extensiones de Firefox :-) para compartir en !gnusocial desde #Firefox
Y qué intriga, que aplicación estas desarrollando :D cuenta cuenta :-)
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