Site Launcher – Like Having a Remote Control for Firefox

January 26th, 2010 Author: Chris Sully

launcher Just like television viewing, surfing the internet quickly becomes a repetitive, addictive activity. You stare at a screen and before you know it, you find yourself on the same channels (sites) day-in and day-out. The only problem is, there are no on-screen guides or remote controls in the world of web browsing. Well, at least until now. Today, we take a look at yet another add-on for Firefox, called Site Launcher (Sorry all you Internet Explorer users).

Site Launcher is a “simple Firefox add-on that gives a highly convenient and clutter-free method to quickly open websites that you need often. One keyboard hotkey makes the ‘Launcher’ panel instantly appear, followed by a single key press to jump to the site you wish to open.” (quote taken from donesmart.com web site) I took a few minutes yesterday to install and test this great new FREE feature and I have to say I love it! The only trick now is remembering that it is there.

How it Works

You install the Site Launcher add-on (which only takes seconds) then “setup” the launcher application to assign the sites you visit most often (see image below). Setup is a loose term because the makers have already assigned a number of the most popular web sites (amazon.com, ebay, facebook, google, etc.) and I really didn’t have to change or add many additional sites.

Chooser

Once, you have your “channels” set up, you can go on with your normal browsing. When it’s time to visit one of your favorite sites just press CTRL + Spacebar (that is Control and the Spacebar at the same time) and the “on-screen guide” will come up (see image below) . You can then click on the site you want to visit or simply press the letter for the corresponding site. It really could not be any easier.

J_is_for_Jumpsstart

There are a number of options for the program which can be found under the Site Launcher menu options (now appearing in your FireFox menu system right next to Tools). You can change colors, number of columns, size of icons… The list goes on and on. I just tested different options until I finally came up with a setup I liked (shown above).

Tags: Add-on, Favorite Sites, Firefox, Site Launcher

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 9:56 am and is filed under Firefox, Free Programs, Tips and Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Matt Sully

The best thing anyone could do for themselves safety-wise is to add “no-script” to firefox. I can guarantee you that the average user will HATE it because it restricts normal viewing of pretty much every site in existence right now. However, it keeps the malicious scripts from running automatically on someone’s computer and it is these types of automated scripts that are responsible for much of the malware making the rounds across the internet. Sorry folks, the internet isn’t very safe anymore. The moose out front should have told you.