extensions

Whether you're checking your e-mail, looking through bookmarks or trying to find things on the Web, these extensions are built to save your precious time. Check out the list below and give them a spin.

1. Mail Checker Plus for Google Mail. If you have Chrome open often, there's no need for the desktop Gmail notifier once you have this extension. A chime will sound as a new e-mail arrives, and the icon will do a little dance back and forth. Not to mention the fact that you can pick from a range of color options indicating … Read more

Having multiple computers can be great when one of them is a laptop for mobile computing and another stays at home for the family. Fortunately, Google Chrome lets you sync your bookmarks and extensions so you don't have to add or transfer them to your other computers. So how can you turn on this feature? Follow these five quick steps for enabling sync on Google Chrome:

1. Open the Settings menu in your Chrome browser (the wrench icon off to the right) and choose "Options."

2. In the new Options tab that opens up, choose "Personal … Read more

Flagfox is what Firefox extensions are all about: ultracompact, free, open-source, and uniquely useful. When you visit a Web page in Firefox, Flagfox identifies the country hosting the site's server with a small national flag in the address bar. You can customize the information Flagfox retrieves and displays, too.

We installed Flagfox and restarted Firefox. The first thing we noticed was a small American flag in the Firefox address bar, just to the left of the Bookmark icon. Hovering the cursor over the flag icon produced a small pop-up listing the site's domain name, IP address, and server … Read more

Flash adds multimedia effects to Web sites, but not everyone wants that. Some people find Flash animations annoying or distracting, or they're concerned about privacy and security. And for some, it's all of the above. Developers have responded with a variety of tools designed to block all or some Flash animations from loading. We took a look at Flashblock, a free Flash blocker for Firefox and other Mozilla browsers as well as related browsers such as Netscape. It blocks Flash, Shockwave, and Authorware in both Macromedia and Adobe versions.

After we installed Flashblock and restarted Firefox, the first … Read more

Popular third-party password manager LastPass revealed yesterday that it may well have been hacked and that some e-mail usernames and master passwords may have been stolen. Does this mean it's time to migrate to another password manager, or even abandon the entire concept of online password management for a pen-and-paper solution?

Given the facts of the situation from LastPass' blog post explaining what happened, I'd say no to giving LastPass the boot, and definitely not to abandoning digital password management for a "little black book."

Leaving a paper trail is a horrendous idea for two reasons. … Read more

Though Google Toolbar 7 for Firefox launched several months ago, the Internet Explorer version (download) went live just this week. It brings Google Instant to the popular toolbar, along with more robust privacy options and a cleaner interface.

Although the support for Google Instant search is the most notable feature improvement in version 7, what appears most interesting is the way that the toolbar lets you know that features like Instant, which require tracking to work, actually do track you. While this might not be news to some, it's a strong reminder that many of the data-rich features that … Read more

While the launch services in OS X use file name extensions to associate files with various applications, generally users do not need to interact with these extensions and the system keeps them hidden by default; however, you can have the extensions shown, either globally or for specific files. If you edit the extension the system should prompt you for confirmation and then change the extension, but sometimes the system may revert the file name back or continually append the old file name to the new one.

For example, if you have a script file such as a JavaScript routine that … Read more

One of Firefox's most popular features is its add-on support, with its accompanying deep add-on catalog. The new Firefox 4 Mobile for Android (download) and for Maemo devices (download) also support add-ons, so we've got a collection of Firefox mobile add-on essentials for you that covers the bases, from useful ad blocking to interesting, mobile-specific password helpers.

The best-known add-on that's a must-have is Adblock Plus (download), ported by the developer from Firefox desktop to mobile. If you're not familiar with it, it blocks ads by using blacklists to filter out the ads. Once installed, the … Read more

Web browsers are ground zero for Internet security threats, and the debate over responsibility for preventing those threats has resulted in a Gordian knot. The people behind the new add-on for Firefox called Cocoon (download) want to cut through debate by serving the entire Web to you via proxy. (Cocoon is also available at GetCocoon.com.)

Made by Santa Barbara, Calif., start-up Virtual World Computing, Cocoon's goal is to put the Internet on a server to prevent individual users from having to touch it, Cocoon Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Jeff Bermant said in an interview today at CNET'… Read more