I am very particular about the privacy, especially when you are in at workplace. You are surfing some sites and you don’t want people to know what actually you are browsing? What do you do?

To avoid embarrassing situation, I either use Maxthon Browser to Hide the browser totally or use Rename Firefox Tabs – Firefox Extension. This way i am safe.

Few days back, I got to know about one more Firefox Extension – Hide Tab. As the name suggests, this Firefox Addon will allow you to Hide and Unhide any Firefox Tab of your choice.

Diego A. Ruiz is the developer of Hide Tab Firefox Extension.

Hide Tab Firefox Extension Features

• Different ways to hide/unhide tabs
• Discrete paranoia button to quick hide all tabs in your Firefox web browser
• Firefox 3.5 compatible
• English & Spanish languages
• Option to choose what page opens when paranoia button is clicked
• Keyboard shortcuts

How to Hide Firefox Tabs using Hide Tab Firefox Addon

Once Hide Tab Firefox Extension is installed, restart the browser. Hide Tab Download link is provided below.

You should see a small tab image on the bottom right – Marked in Red circle in the below image.

Image courtesy – HideTab.com

Clicking on that small tab will show you, all the current tabs opened in Firefox browser. In the below screenshot, on clicking on Google will hide the Google Firefox Tab.

Image courtesy – HideTab.com

Once the tab is hidden, the tab image on the bottom right status bar becomes red color. You can click on it again and Unhide the hidden Firefox tab or hide more Tabs.

You can also use CTRL + Q shortcut key combination to Hide Current Firefox Tab. There is also option to Hide/Unhide All Tabs at one go.

Download Hide Tab Firefox Extension

Download Hide Tab Firefox Extension

Do check out Hide Tab Installation Guide and Hide Tab User Manual

Hope you like this Firefox Addon.

In my previous post, i mentioned How to Hide browser at workplace. But there are other ways to also have your privacy while browsing.

How many times it happens this… You are browsing and somebody walks in and is standing right behind you and you don’t wanna show what you are browsing.

Most of us just keep a watch on others moving around us and do surfing.

Well if you are using firefox, then you rename the open tab. For this you need to install RenameTabs Firefox extension

Here is what Valadrem the developer of this Firefox extension has to say.

Have you noticed that everybody looks the titles of your open tabs? It has a name: Paranoia! And a solution too: TabRenamizer!

If you want to Rename Firefox tabs, all you need is to install TabRenamizer
Plugin

If anyone knows any other plugins, leave a comment.

NOTE: As mentioned at the beginning of this post the link to my previous post Hide browser at workplace. But this is using Maxthon browser.
If anybody knows how to hide firefox browser. Leave a comment.

Guys, I was waiting for this feature from a long time and its absence was making me stick to Maxthon Browser.

Here it is : URL Alias that is a built-in feature of Firefox.

Kudos to a reader of this blog who commented the following after reading this Article/Post Browser Wars Maxthon Vs Firefox :

Lets setup up URL Alias or Shortcut for the URL’s that i visit everyday umpteen times.

Setting Up URL Alias for Mozilla FireFox:

(remember, alias you set is case-sensitive)

i – IBNLIVE

- Make sure IBNLIVE is in your “Bookmarks”.
- Go to Bookmarks menu. Choose IBNLIVE
- Right Click mouse button and choose “Properties”
- A small Dailog window will open. Type “i” in Keyword Textbox.

Get Set go. You have set “i” for IBNLIVE

Do the above for the sites that you visit daily and have long URL’s

I have setup URL Alias as below:

g – gmail.google.com
s – www.google.co.in
a – www.google.com/adsense
i – www.ibnlive.com
c – www.cricinfo.com
.
.
.
.
List goes on……….

Enjoy

i am still waiting for Hide Firefox feature like there is a Hide Maxthon feature.

Check this feature here Hide Browser at WorkPlace

Related Articles:

- Hide Browser at WorkPlace
- Browser Wars : Maxthon(formerly MyIE2) v FireFox

As i mentioned earlier in my previous article hide browser that “I prefer using maxthon even though i have firefox installed“. Here it is….. I am listing out the features that makes me rate maxthon higher than firefox.

I want all of you after you read this article, take out some time to download maxthon, install it and use it.
I can assure you that the below listed out features will make your browsing much more easier. If you are firefox addict, then you will feel that all these features should be in firefox.

I will list out the features that i compared with the firefox:

NOTE: The features listed below are in the order of my liking

1) Hide Browser:

I feel this feature is very much useful. Using ALT + ~ Key, you can hide the browser, it works as a toggle key. More on this @ Hide Browser at workplace

This feature isn’t available in firefox and there are no plugins/addons available to hide firefox window. But there is a addon/plugin to hide the tab bar for firefox.

Download and Install Hide Tab Bar plugin

2) Super Drag and Drop:

a) You are browsing a site and notice a link and want to open it in other tab/window.

What do you do?
Right click on the link and select open in new tab or open in new window (very slow)

I hate to be slow while browsing. I want to compete my speed with computers speed.

Using this feature, you just have to press left button of your mouse on the link you want to open, hold it don’t release it, just drag it and drop anywhere. ho haaa, the link will be opened in the new tab.

try selecting this IBNLIVE and then drag and drop it.

Isn’t it faster than the old and usual method?

b) You notice a URL in a site which is not a hyperlink but it is as a text.

What do you do?
Select the whole text, copy it and paste it in address bar and hit enter to open the URL.

Using this feature, Just select the text (which is url) don’t release the left button of your mouse. just drag it and drop anywhere. ho haaa, the text which was a url will be opened in the new tab.

try selecting this www.ibnlive.com from maxthon browser and then drag and drop it.

c) You notice a word in the site and want to google the word.

What do you do?
Select the whole text, copy it and paste it in google search box and hit enter.

Using this feature, Just select the text and do the same as above in b). instead of opening this as url it will be googled because this is not a text as it was a url for b)

All the above gr8 a), b) and c) features aren’t available in firefox, but hey i got hold of a addon/plugin that does all the above Drag de Go plugin. But you need to do lot of settings to actually make it start working.

Its waste of time. So, better use maxthon.

3) URL Alias:

This feature is similar to alias of unix/sun solaris where we give short name to a long command.
Lets say you open www.google.co.in and www.ibnlive.com everyday umpteem times. Instead of typing the whole url or selecting from the address bar. You can actually set alias to the URL.
g – gmail.google.com
m – mail.yahoo.com
i – www.ibnlive.com
s – www.google.co.in
After you set it. Browsing becomes a bit easier. Just type i and hit enter. It will open IBNLIVE.com

To set the setting in maxthon. select Options – > Maxthon Options. Select Address bar and go to URL Alias tab
Below is the screenshot:

This feature is awesome and i am sure you will find it very useful if you take pain to add the urls and aliases for it that you visit everyday.

This feature is most wanted for me and for you all too once you start using it. But it isn’t available in firefox.
I searched in addons section of firefox but no luck. I even started to read firefox documentation on how to develop addons so that i come up with my own plugin for firefox similar to the URL Alias of Firefox. But, i am lazy and don’t want to put in lot of time and effort. So, if any one of you are familiar with Firefox Addon development. Do come up with something like this. Hope Mozilla (FIREFOX) listens to this and add this as a in-build feature.

4) URL Key:

This feature is similar to URL Alias mentioned above. Instead of any key assigned to a URL. With this feature you can assign upto 11 URL Keys. From Function key F2 … F12. Each key can be assigned to a site/url.

5) Undo Closed Tabs:

Let me explain about this feature. You have opened some sites in tabs and closed few of the tabs and you want to open again. You can undo the closed tabs to reopen them without actually remembering it or typing the urls. To Undo closed tabs, Click on Edit -> Undo Close and select the closed tab you want to reopen. The alternative is ALT + Z key.

Below is the screenshot to better understand it.

This feature was not available in firefox. But there was a plugin/addon available to Undo Closed Tabs.
I am using this addon because, I am very much used to closing off the tabs under the impression that i can reopen using the feature.

Here is the Addon/Plugin for undo closed tabs in firefox

Recently Closed Tabs Feature is added to FireFox 2 (latest version)

There are still a lot of features that are not in-built in firefox but are built-in maxthon. If i list all features here, the article will become very big.

I want all of you to download, install maxthon and use it. compare it with firefox.

I use both maxthon and firefox at Office and at home. But most of the times, i use maxthon.

Here are the few other sites that compare maxthon and firefox:

• Nauman Leghari compared Firefox with Maxthon in memory point of view. See how less maxthon takes memory compared to firefox

• Watch out Firefox here comes Maxthon

• Check this voting between Maxthon vs Firefox

Do please come up with your views/suggestions by posting a comment.

Today, i am going to pass on a trick that i am using from a long time, way back from 2003. I use it everyday, umpteen times a day at my workplace.

Most of you those who browse at workplace ( to pass the time ) and don’t want others to look at what you are browsing ( especially your boss )

I am using a browser from 2002 – till date and this browser has an option to hide the browser

The feature to hide the browser is called “Boss Key” ( you can guess why the feature is named as this ). There is a shortcut to hide and unhide the browser Alt + ~ key combination like a toggle switch. The option can be found in File Menu.

The browser is Maxthon (formerly MyIE2). You can download the browser from here.

If you have permissions to download and install at your workplace then go ahead use this browser. Maxthon is portable by design, so you don’t have necessarily have to install it anywhere. Either download a zipped version and unpack it to a UFD and run it from there at work (assuming USB isn’t disabled at work), or install Maxthon at home, copy the whole folder to work.

Or if you know what you’re doing, you can even unpack the install .exe, configure it to your liking, then copy the folder to a CD-R and run it from there.Let me tell you, you will love it and will be excited to use this feature.

For some of them who are addicted to the Firefox browser, Don’t worry… Ashwin has posted a trick with which you can hide the tab’s or whole tab bar of Firefox browser

If you have installed Maxthon and used Firefox before, I suggest you use Maxthon because

• The tabs can be hidden in Firefox , but the Firefox main window is still visible. what if you don’t others to see a browser on your desktop at all (want your boss to think that you are working and NOT browsing ) then ?
• Maxthon is a good option because after you press Alt + ~ key (“Boss Key”) combination, the browser is hidden. just a small icon is your system tray.

If anyone knows any extension for Firefox to hide the Firefox browser, then leave a comment here or If anyone is good at writing/developing Firefox extensions, then come up with an extension.

Do you know that i prefer using Maxthon even though i have Firefox installed. Do Check this post – Browser Wars Maxthon Vs Firefox to the know the reason.

I found that there is also an utility waiting to be downloaded at HideMyBrowser. It does the same thing. check it out.

If you want to hide any application on windows not only a browser then you can try this:

Go to AutoItScript download and install it.

What is AutoItScript ?

It is a scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting. More details @ AutoIt Script

Want to try hide and unhide Firefox window (make sure you have downloaded and installed AutoIt)

Hide FireFox:

• Open notepad
• Copy and paste the below commands in it.

  AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)  // sets the win title match  mode to "Match    any substring in the title"
  WinSetState("Firefox", "", @SW_HIDE)     // hides the Firefox window

• Save the file as hide_firefox.au3

Unhide Firefox:

• Open notepad
• Copy and paste the below commands in it.

  AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)  // sets the win title match mode to "Match any substring in the title"
  WinSetState("Firefox", "", @SW_SHOW)     // unhides the Firefox window

• Save the file as unhide_firefox.au3

Now you can hide and unhide any application by just replacing the first argument in WinSetState.
below is for winamp

WinSetState("winamp", "", @SW_SHOW)
WinSetState("winamp", "", @SW_SHOW)

With above trick you can hide Maxthon, hide Firefox, hide IE. Do check it out and share with friends.

Download Maxthon browser | AutoItScript

– URL Alias for Mozilla FireFox – Very Useful Feature

– Rename Firefox tabs for your privacy – Firefox Plugin

– Google Chrome – How to Browse Privately

– How to Import Bookmarks / Favorites, Passwords, Search Engines and History from Firefox and IE into Google Chrome

– How to make Firefox Old Addons compatible with Firefox 3.5 or higher