Comments on: Is there a perfect OSX web browser out there for me?

Question: Is there a perfect OSX web browser out there for me?

bruceyeah — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:26:22 -0800

I'm trying to find a (stable) OSX web browser that... A) allows you to select text and right-click to search for that text in Google, AND B) displays bookmarks in the bookmarks toolbar as favicons (not just plain text buttons).

Firefox and Safari seem to do A, Camino has B, Shiira does both but it's hella unstable on my Intel Mac mini.

Or alternately... is there a way to customise Safari, Firefox or Camino so that they do both? I've searched high and low for relevant extensions with no success.

Camino is close to perfect, but not being able to right-click and Google something thing is annoying. Or am I just in need of a good bookmarklet script that does this?

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:40:20 -0800

Firefox displays bookmarks with favicons in the toolbar, and if you right-click one, choose Properties and delete the name, the favicon is all you see.

By: jacalata

jacalata — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:43:21 -0800

I also have a firefox extension which allows me to right click on text and choose 'search web for ****', which opens a new tab displaying the google results for ****. I'll be damned if I can figure out which one is doing that though, I'll get back to you.

By: Freaky

Freaky — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:49:00 -0800

Opera? Or was that too obvious?

By: slater

slater — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:51:16 -0800

jacalata: i believe the "select and search" feature has been in Firefox for some time. I know it's in mine, and I didn't download any extension

By: jacalata

jacalata — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:55:03 -0800

Yea, I've just decided that it must be a default. I originally assumed it was an extension or the OP would know about it.

However, this has been a beneficial exercise, going through my extensions checking up on exactly what they do! I have some duplicates, apparently.

By: bruceyeah

bruceyeah — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:55:50 -0800

Sorry.. guess the question wasn't too clear.

I can right-click and search in Firefox no problem.

But on OSX, favicons do not show up when I'm using the default theme. I just see this...

I've seen a theme for Firefox on Windows which turned off the favicons on the bookmark bar (to make it look like Safari), but I want the opposite thing to happen .. to enable them on the OSX Firefox (or Safari) somehow. Anyone got any more insight?

By: smallerdemon

smallerdemon — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:00:25 -0800

Is there a greasemonkey script that might enable icons in the favorties toolbar on Firefox?

By: smallerdemon

smallerdemon — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:08:15 -0800

bruceyeah, Check out this post by some guy who clearly wanted the same thing and found a way to accomplish it in Firefox. It's unfortunatel a big pain in the ass, though.

By: rmm

rmm — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:11:30 -0800

It's odd that some of the themes in Firefox don't show you the favicons. 'Breeze' is one minimalist theme that seems to work - check it out on the Mozilla themes page. Now I just have to stop adding too many of them to my toolbar...

By: cairnish

cairnish — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:30:16 -0800

I too was puzzled by this in Firefox when I got an iMac. Some themes work and some don't. I'm at work but I think at home I'm using one of the Azerty themes and favicons display as desired.

By: The Bishop of Turkey

The Bishop of Turkey — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:21:51 -0800

Context Search will allow you to use whatever Mycroft search plugins (the search box at the upper right) you have installed to search for text you highlight and right-click on.

I don't know anything about your favicon problem, though. Is this an OSX only problem? All my bookmarks are showing up with a favicon (when the web site has one) in WinXP, Firefox 1.5.0.2. I do remember there being a bug about the favicons a while back, but I can't remember what version of Firefox that was.

By: bruceyeah

bruceyeah — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:46:31 -0800

Thanks rmm and cairnish. The absence of favicons appears to be a 'feature' of the default theme... not a bug with OSX.

I hope the Firefox team rethink this for the default theme... they're a big help if you've got lots of bookmarks!