Mozilla Firefox Tips

I recently had an issue with a laptop, where the user could not make Firefox work at all with Google Maps - a static page would come back, the scrolling and zooming normally handy with Google maps was gone, and it would appear to just not stop loading. After much searching the web and tinkering, I found the issue is to do with the Skype Firefox extension. Another instance seen was down to the Ad-Block extension.

Ensure it is whitelisted in Noscript
This first thing is to ensure that if you are using noscript extensions that google maps is in the white list. Maps cannot work without dhtml elements.

If you are using Skype
If you have this issue and are using Skype, I recommend disabling or uninstalling the Skype Firefox addon. This is usually installed automatically when you install/update skype. To remove or disable it:

1. click on "Tools" (in the menu at the top).


2. Select "Add Ons"


3. Ensure you are on the "Extensions" tab


4. Now select the Skype extension for firefox.


5. On the right you will see the buttons to Disable or Uninstall the Add on. I suggest to try disabling it - restarting. If the problem goes away, then uninstall it.

At some point, Skype may update their extension so it no longer causes this issue.

If you are using Ad-Block

1. Try first disabling ad-block for the page.
   
   
   
   1. On the top right of firefox - you will see Either a Red light saying "ABP".
   
   
   2. To the right of this there is a small down facing arrow. Click this to see a menu.
   
   
   3. Look for the item that says "Disable maps.google.com" and tick this. You should see the light go green.
   
   
   4. Refresh the page.
   
   


2. If that fails to work, disable the Ad-Block extension.


3. Restart firefox - and see if this works.


4. If this still does not work - start disabling other extensions

The internet often comes with a lot of free content. You are reading free content right here and right now. However, this is free as in you don't pay from your wallet to read it, but somebody may incentivise me to write it with money. Generally this is in the form of ads.
Ads are a fine art. If they are very intrusive and off topic, or do nasty things like pop-up and pretend to be a windows dialog, they become offensive. However, if they are designed with the topic in mind then not only are they not annoying, but they can even enhance the article.
I don't pretend I control all the ads on this, some I do, some come from the publishing infrastructure I use, however most of them are pretty reasonable, and they provide some incentive to add into my general will to write stuff. As a content author, of course I hope visitors arrive without blocking ads, but having seen some really unpleasant things out there, I do give new sites the suspicious treatment.

Annoying ads are a bane though, and there are plenty of technologies to control them. Ad Block Plus in Firefox is one of the best. It is quite intelligent, has lists that are centrally uploaded, and you can tune it to allow ads on sites you like. I generally turn it off on communities I know, and leave it on for new sites I have not visited yet.

Ad Block Plus however can interfere with any sites which have flash as a core technology, including (occasionally) google maps and Youtube. Sicne it can be enabled for individual sites, this is not terminal.

Firefox already has an integral popup blocker (as do most modern bowsers) which catch the most annoying kinds of ad. NoScript and NoFlash extensions eliminate these on all but trusted sites, however, with so much content now using Flash or DHTML, it makes the web a bit of a bland experience.

Advertisers are learning, and ads become more directed at real target audience as opposed to blanket bombing, as this becomes more established, the ad blockers will become less necessary.

The worst types of ads:

• Auto-reopen type popup ads - now only seen on the direst of sites, nothing reputable


• Pop ups that pop up another browser window- seen on a few not reputable sites


• Pop unders - seen on some more reputable sites, even corporate or utility sites


• Ads which use enough javascript or flash to hog your CPU - yes squidoo has sometimes shown these


• Ads that play music when not interacted with


• Ads that cover the content


• Ads that move and animate distracting from the content


• Ads that are totally irrelevant or worse inappropriate for the content

An ad that does not hog the CPU, does not take over the content panel or distract, but is relevant and woven into the content are the kind that a user is more likely to click and nto be annoyed with.

Firebug is an amazing tool for web development.
I use it mostly for CSS debugging, as you can quickly show properties for any HTML element, what CSS properties affect it, which file and what line in that file they are coming from, what it is inherited from.

You can then temporarily disable CSS properties, quickedit them or even do quick edits on the HTML.

This means you can quickly figure out the styles on something, and if you see something you like on the web, you can use this to understand how it was done.

The editing and disabling feature is powerful, and can also cause harm - a huge mistake I have made more than once is disabling or quick editing the CSS stylesheets for the browser itself - html.css and quirks.css. This may render your browser session unusable in some aspects- ie seeing lists missing or edit boxes broken. It may even cause Firefox to become unstable. If you have many tabs open - that will be frustrating. So be a little careful which CSS you are changing. You will only see those CSS files for the browser if you enable "show user agent CSS" - so disable it unless you are sure it is a problem.

Firebug also offers load graphing. This allows you to see how many requests a page is making, how many are taking time for the server to service, how many are slowing it through being large, and how many are waiting for other requests due to maximum request limits. This means you can see targets to optimise your site loading times.

Firebug can debug javascript, and can log javascript, as well as allow you to interact with the script and DOM on the page with a direct mode command line. You can browse the whole DOM tree and understand how a page is constructed.

Firebug can be downloaded at Get Firebug for Firefox.

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