Firefox Friday Five - making your weekend foxier!

by Jay Hathaway on February 19, 2010 at 03:01 PM

Hey, Firefox fans! Our fearless Firefox columnist, Mr. Sebastian Anthony, is on vacation this weekend -- a free and open-source vacation with tons of add-ons, of course -- so I'll be filling in for Seb and delivering your Firefox Five this week. Fear not, for the column will return to his wacky British hands next week.

Okay, let's count down some Firefox news!

1) Firefox Mobile for Android ... this year?!

Do we dare to dream that our favorite browser might be coming to Android phones sometime soon? Darn right we do! Download Squad's Brad Linder reported that Firefox Mobile (aka Fennec) will hit Android devices this year. Now we have more than just an early screenshot ... we have a vague, tentative timeline! Better than nothing, though. Meanwhile, Mozilla has to make the call about Firefox for Windows Mobile. Will they still aim at WinMo 6 and 6.5 devices, or will development shift to the sexy new Windows Phone 7 Series? Hopefully, we'll know more soon.

2) Firefox campaigns for a reader's choice award

If you love Firefox and you know it, click your mouse! Over at the Mozilla Blog, they're looking for votes for Firefox in the About.com Reader's Choice Awards. Firefox is in the running for Best Major Desktop Browser, Best Mac Browser, and Best Mobile Browser. (Best Mobile Browser? Really? Well ... maybe when that sweet Android version gets here.)

3) Tame those long history and bookmark menus with the Stay-Open Menu add-on

If you haven't already, say hello to Download Squad's newest writer, Oliver Komadina. Oliver tipped me off about the extremely useful Stay-Open Menu add-on, which solves the problem of scrolling through loooooong history and bookmarks lists in Firefox. Instead of letting a menu close when you click an item, Stay-Open Menu lets you middle-click to open the item in a tab, and keep the menu open, too. Need three or four pages from your history? No problem!

4) Add-on Compatibility Reporter: no more hacking those incompatible add-ons!

Lifehacker has uncovered one of the coolest Firefox add-ons I've seen in a while: Add-on Compatibility Reporter. When your favorite add-ons fall behind and don't work with the latest beta of the 'Fox, there are two ways to handle the situation: you can pop open about:config and turn off compatibility checking, or you can just get Add-on Compatibility Reporter, which lets you force-enable the extensions that are only technically incompatible, as well as quickly report to Mozilla whether the add-ons are really working or not.

5) Reader Poll: What's the best alternate Firefox icon?

Since Sebastian's not here, I thought I'd stick him with a little bit of work to do next week. I've been looking for a really amazing alternative to the default Firefox icon, and I just haven't found one that's struck my fancy. Post a link to your favorite FF icon in the comments, and I'll try to make Seb show off the best ones in the next Friday Firefox Five.

Well, that's the Five for this week! Thanks for reading, Firefox fans!