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Firefox extensions’ roundup

Several add-ons are being released for the Firefox (FF) browser to enhance its potential. This edition of Netspeak takes yet another look at a few of them.

Besides being a preferred email service, for many, Gmail has become a major communication/file storage tool as well. A couple of FF extensions, meant for exploiting Gmail’s file storage/communication features are discussed here.

NetSpeak has already discussed a few tools (such as the Gmaildrive — http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail. htm) that enable you to use your Gmail acount as an online file storage device. The FF extension Gspace ( http://www.getgspace.com/ ) is a similar product with additional features.

One advantage of Gspace is the availability of an easy-to- use graphics user interface (GUI). Another feature worth a mention is the facility to manage multiple Gmail accounts. However, you cannot log in to multiple accounts simultaneously. Once installed, Gspace leaves an icon on the browser’s bottom-right corner, for opening the Gspace control panel.

One of the popular features of Gmail is its chat facility that lets you exchange instant messages with your Gmail contacts. In fact, the chat facility has become an important means to build a personal online community for many. Google provides a chat client (gTalk) for augmenting the utility of the chat facility with additional features (voice chatting, file transfer, Gmail notification and the like).

A shortcoming of the current version of gTalk is the lack of conferencing or ‘group chat’ facility. To circumvent this limitation you can use the Google talk gadget ( http://www.google.com/talk/ ). Once the gadget is launched, you will find your chat buddies, listed on a web page. To initiate the chat, click on the buddy’s name (as you usually do). Now, if you propose to bring another online contact into this conversation, click on the ‘GroupChat’ button.

Partychat is yet another means by which you can implement group chat facility on gTalk. Partychat allows you to create your own chat rooms, where others can join for a group conversation. For this, just add partychat@gmail.com as your buddy, create a chat room by sending the message ‘/create chatroom-name’.

Your friends can enter this chatroom by sending the message ‘/join chatroom-name’ to party@gmail.com .

For more details: http://googlesystem.blogspot. com /2007/09/chat-rooms-for- google-talk.html.

If you wish to chat without visiting Gmail or installing gTalk, use the Firefox extension, gTalk sidebar (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4708). Once the sidebar extension is installed, you can bring in the gTalk gadget inside the browser sidebar by pressing the keys ‘Alt+g’.

Though modern web sites generally publish webfeeds for helping its readers keep up with the latest content on them, many sites still don’t have a webfeed.

To obtain the latest content available on such web sites, the extension Update scanner (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3362) could come handy.

While invoking a web search on a specific subject, you may not have the information on all the terms related to it - particularly when the subject is an unfamiliar one.

Some means of obtaining the terms related to the subject being handled, along with search results, could be useful in refining the search and thereby producing more relevant search output.

In this regard, you may find the search extension, ‘Search radar’ (http://searchradar.webaroo.com/) useful. Once integrated into your browser, search radar automatically displays a set of terms related to the search query, whenever you do a Google search.

J. MURALI

(He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com)

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