I decided to put my blog to the test using CrazyEgg’s heatmap visualization after all the rave reviews it got from the likes of Matt Mullenweg, David Hansson and TechCrunch. Unfortunately, since I inserted the required Javascript code, I’m getting errors from both Firefox and IE.

Screenshot after the jump.
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How do you browse with tabs?

Do you?
Press Ctrl+T to open a new blank tab, type the URL and hit Enter?
Right-click on a link on an existing page and choose Open Link in New Tab?

Did you know that there are easier ways like:
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No hope for a 1.6? Hehe.

Mozilla releases a full Beta release of their extremely popular browser, Firefox.

Changes as quoted from the Beta Release website:

Built in Phishing Protection.
Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com
Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
Ability to re-open accidentally closed tabs
Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
Inline spell checking in text boxes
Search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
Support for JavaScript 1.7
Support for client-side session and persistent storage
Extended search plugin format
Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

I wonder what specific ‘changes’ were made to the tabbed browsing behavior. There were some instances when my tabs get stuck on one page while the other tabs are frozen and unclickable. Hopefully that was what they meant. I don’t care for the built-in search box feature since I have the Google Toolbar installed. It has its own search box, albeit for Google only, but the great thing about it is that it’s more easily accessible and constructed in a user-friendlier way. I suggest they move the built-in search box to somewhere lower on the left side. It’s placed too high and hardly noticeable. Until they position it more conveniently, to me, the current search box is just overlooked whitespace.

One big change is the shift from InstallShield to NSIS. NSIS, or Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, was initially created by Nullsoft for the ubiquitous Winamp media player. From then on, development of NSIS pushed forward and is now being used by other popular softwares because of its low overhead and better compression. My antivirus program (Kaspersky) uses NSIS. My own theory for this change is the fact that NSIS is free. InstallShield will set you back a cool $2,500 or more. Dare I say that price applies to each release. That for a rather clunky install system that many hate. This is essentially a great move by Mozilla to keep Firefox and their other products free.

Overall, this is a cool release. Same superb browser, a few notches better.

I’m a busy guy. I spend the most of the day obsessing about my websites and browse through my favorite blogs and bulletin boards. But it’s such a pain in the neck to have to type each and every URL every freakin’ time! I figured out a remarkably simple and easy solution: I created my own ’startpage’ (or homepage) using Macromedia Dreamweaver. I began with a fresh blank HTML page, then created a table with 3 columns (80% width, cellpading=10, cellspacing=5):

Then, in each column, insert links to your most frequented websites. In the example below, I included Yahoo!, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Groups and Webmaster World:

If you own a blog, I highly recommend you do your link this way:

In the sample, My Blog points to the blog itself, Admin points to the administration panel that controls everything about your blog, and Stats refers you to the blog’s statistics page (if it has any). This is the ultimate timesaver!!

For my own startpage, I changed the background colors of each column to different shades of blue. It’s not really necessary, but it helps in my case because I have a ton of links that I visit:

When you’re done, save the HTML file in your My Documents folder as index.html or a filename that you prefer. Open the browser that you most often use. To set your startpage as your homepage in Firefox, click on File > Open File then browse for the startpage file. Once open, click Tools > Options > Homepage and click on the ‘Use Current Pages’ button. For Internet Explorer users, click File > Open and click Browse to choose the file. To set as homepage, click Tools > Internet Options > Use Current.

Now, when you open your browser your startpage will magically appear with all your favorite links listed! To open links into a new tab in Firefox, press the Ctrl button while clicking on the link.