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

April 27, 2006 3:26 AM

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?

posted by bruceyeah to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

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.
posted by flabdablet at 3:40 AM on April 27, 2006

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.
posted by jacalata at 4:43 AM on April 27, 2006

Best answer: Opera? Or was that too obvious?
posted by Freaky at 4:49 AM on April 27, 2006

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
posted by slater at 4:51 AM on April 27, 2006

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.
posted by jacalata at 4:55 AM on April 27, 2006

Response by poster: 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?
posted by bruceyeah at 6:55 AM on April 27, 2006

Is there a greasemonkey script that might enable icons in the favorties toolbar on Firefox?
posted by smallerdemon at 8:00 AM on April 27, 2006

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.
posted by smallerdemon at 8:08 AM on April 27, 2006

Best answer: 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...
posted by rmm at 8:11 AM on April 27, 2006

Best answer: 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.
posted by cairnish at 8:30 AM on April 27, 2006

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.
posted by The Bishop of Turkey at 9:21 AM on April 27, 2006

Response by poster: 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!
posted by bruceyeah at 3:46 PM on April 27, 2006