One of the great things about the Firefox web browser is its extensibility. There are literally thousands of add-ons to Firefox which give it a Swiss Army Knife-like, does-everything ability. Currently I have 39 add-ons installed, although I disable many of them to conserve resources when I'm not using them. Once you get used to the added functionality, you will find that using a browser without add-ons leaves a lot to be desired.
If you use more than one computer like I do, perhaps you have gone through the somewhat tedious process of installing your favorite add-ons one by one. Then adjusting the browser settings. Then finding some way to import or sync your bookmarks. It's worth the trouble, but even then, your History will not be the same.
If however you are working on a computer where you don't have admin privileges, it may not even be worth it. The computers at my University, for instance, wipe out your add-ons, settings, bookmarks and History every time you log out. FAIL!
But with an add-on called
FEBE 6.2, you can not only back up all your add-ons, bookmarks, History, settings, etc, you can also upload a copy of your backup to
Box.net. Box.net is a terrific free, secure Web-based file storage and collaboration service. Now you can access your customized Firefox from anywhere! You can even share your backup with a friend, thereby introducing them to add-ons they may never have known about before. This opens up some really interesting possibilities.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2109 You'll notice that Mozilla has made a few welcome changes to the Add-ons web site lately. One great change is that now they allow the add-on developer to place a PayPal donation button on the add-on page. You don't have to donate, but it certainly does help the developer if you do. Personally, I think that a really excellent add-on is worth supporting. I mean, it's like buying your friend a cup of coffee - a nice gesture. Another nice change is the
ShareThis button. Now there is an easy way to spread the word about that cool new add-on you just discovered. I think this little widget will do a lot to spur adoption of add-ons among Firefox users. Currently, only about 30% of Firefox users have installed any add-ons. I think that is a really low percentage!
This is what your backup will look like in Box.net. You can of course access it through the FEBE add-on. But you can also access it through any Web browser. You can download the whole folder, or just the individual files. It's up to you. Of course, you can put any other kind of file into Box.net as well. The free version gives you 1GB of storage to play with.
http://box.net
