Category Archives: Firefox

Research Add-ons Chart for Lawyers Using IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

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Posted in Add-on, Business Information, Canada, Case Law, Evernote, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Search, U.K., U.S. | Tagged , ,

This page was inspired by a recent conference presentation I saw that focused, like much of this blog, on extensions and tweaks for Mozilla’s Firefox or Google’s Chrome Web browsers.  The legal profession is predominantly using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, however, probably at even greater levels than the general population.  It is sometimes hard to determine what add-ons or extensions work for Microsoft Internet Explorer, because there is no comprehensive central marketplace for available resources.

Here is a chart with a list of free extensions that can help your online research and the browsers for which they are available.  It’s not comprehensive, but it has a number of resources that are available to 3 or more browsers.

I have made a selection for each category and browser but there may be other options.  Keep in mind that the add-on may be for a particular version of the Web browser or require a particular operating system, so they may not install for the version you are running.  You can also go directly to sites like IEAddons.com for Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Add On site, Google’s Web Store (or the old extension site), Safari Addons, and the Userscripts.org site to find tweaks for all major Web browsers.

Feel free to add your own favorite research-related extensions or add-ons in the comments!

  1. Click the icon that matches YOUR browser to go directly to an available extension.  If the icon is grayed out, then I didn’t provide a link.
  2. Hold your mouse pointer over the icon before you click it.  I have added a tool tip for each icon to try to help you before you click away.
Access Internet Explorer-designed Sites without Internet Explorer IE Tab 2 Add-on for Mozilla Firefox IE Tab Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Block Ads IE Adblocker Adblock Plus Add on for Firefox Adblock Add-on for Chrome AdBlock for Safari
Bookmark Synchronization XMarks Add-on for Internet Explorer Bookmark synchronization is built in to Firefox browser Bookmark synchronization built in to Chrome Web browser XMarks Add-on for Safari
Case Law Citation Locator UK ONLY: Justis J-Link Add-on for Internet Explorer US ONLY: Jureeka Add-on for Mozilla Firefox Not available for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Citation Management with Zotero (free) Not available for Internet Explorer Zotero Citation Management Add-on for Mozilla Firefox Zotero Alpha Add-on for Google Chrome Zotero Alpha Add-on for Safari
Diigo Web Highlighter and Research Manager [FLI post on Diigo] Diigo Research Manager Toolbar for Internet Explorer Diigo Research Manager Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox Diigo Research Manager Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Evernote Web Clipper [FLI post on Evernote]

Evernote Add-on installed with Evernote for Windows

Evernote Add on for Firefox

 Evernote Add-on for Chrome Add-on for Safari installs with Evernote for Mac
Google Search Result Term Jumping / Highlighting Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer supports term highlighting and jumping Search WP Add-on for Mozilla Firefox Word Highlight Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Google Scholar Star Pagination for Cases [FLI post on pagination] Not available for Internet Explorer Not available for Firefox Google Scholar Star Pagination Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Greplin Personal Cloud Search [FLI post on Greplin] Not available for Internet Explorer Not available for Firefox Greplin Add-on for Chrome Not available for Safari
Instapaper Deferred Reading Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Internet Explorer Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Mozilla Firefox Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Google Chrome Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Mac
Readability Not available for Internet Explorer Arc90 Readability Add on for Mozilla Firefox Arc90 Readability Add-on for Chrome Not available for Safari
Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results for Internet Explorer Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results for Mozilla Firefox Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
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Navigate Long Web Pages with On-the-Fly Tables of Contents

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Posted in Add-on, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera | Tagged , ,

Expert Web researchers are familiar with the built-in find function of their Web browser.  Get to a long page, hold down your CTRL key and hit F then type in the keyword you are looking for in the haystack of information in front of you.  Google Chrome users may also know about the Google Quick Scroll extension, which takes your Google search keywords and displays a small pop box so you can quickly navigate to the occurrences of your keywords.

MakeUseOf took a look at another set of extensions that can be helpful when you are looking at long Web pages.  Web pages are often created with visual cues to show the difference between, say, section headers and regular text.  These extensions will analyze the underlying code in a Web page and build a table of contents based on that.  This can be helpful because you can see what the hierarchy of a particular page is and navigate to the area that is most appropriate.  Unlike the keyword-based methods above, it gives you a better overall understanding of the document you’re reading.  The MakeUseOf article mentions a Firefox extension, HeadingsMap, that will generate these tables of contents on the fly.  On page 38 in the book, I also mention Outliner for Firefox (now defunct) and Chrome Outliner for Google Chrome.  Chrome users might also take a look at HTML5 Outliner, an extension which leverages some of the new descriptive tags in HTML5 but also works on older content, or at TableOfContents.  Opera users have two options, either their own HTML5 Outliner or Table of Contents extensions.

Unfortunately for legal researchers, much of the content for which these outliners would be most useful – statutes and cases, for example – are often not marked up in a way that generates a table of contents.  If you add them to your research toolkit, keep your other quick finding tools at hand.

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Search Across Many Sources with WebMynd

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Posted in Add-on, CanLII, Case Law, Content, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Screencast, Search, Social media, Twitter | Tagged ,

There are a number of search tools that will retrieve results from more than one location.  Google is a great example, where the results display relevant images or even Youtube videos.  Google Mail can search Google Docs and Google Sites at the same time.  WebMynd expands those possibilities across other Web sites, search tools, and accounts to retrieve content from a variety of sources.

When you search using Google after installing their add-on, a small vertical bar will appear on the right side of your screen.  It is populated with a variety of sites that can be searched, from news to shopping to personal productivity and social media.

Webmynd have developed free Web browser plug-ins for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari to enable the search bar.  There is even a version for Microsoft Internet Explorer, but when I tried it, it was missing connections to some of the resources I would use the most, like Google Mail.

This is actually a custom search bar, geared as much to publishers who want to create their own tool for their users as Webmynd’s.  In fact, the developers are focusing in other areas, so if you don’t see a resource that you can use out of the box or tweak, this probably isn’t something you want to follow up.

You can install the custom Webmynd search bar I created, utilizing many of the prebuilt sources from Webmynd (Google Mail, Docstoc, Quora, Twitter, etc.) and supplementing with my own law-related sites:  a couple of the Legal Information Institutes, JDSupra, and so on.   The Webmynd search bar works great if there is a single search box on the site you’re trying to use.  If there isn’t, it seems to choke.  Also, since most of the LIIs block indexing of their case law for privacy reasons, you are limited to legislative results.  Likewise, Google Custom searches, even using search boxes anchored by domain names like Feefiefoefirm.com, weren’t usable.

Here’s what it looks like in action (4 minutes, Youtube.com)

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Zotero Ready for Other Browsers

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Posted in Add-on, Document management, Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari | Tagged , ,

One of the hardest things about shifting off Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome was giving up Zotero.  Not enough to hold me back, but still a bit of a loss.  So I was delighted to hear about Zotero Everywhere, which will create a version of Zotero that will work on Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome!

Here’s more on this from Slaw and Zotero.  The Zotero development team already has Everywhere in alpha development, so Chrome users can get a sneak peek for how it may look in the future.

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