Web Browser Basics, Tips & Tricks - Part III

1. More Browser Basics, Tips & Tricks – Talk 3
sequel to
Web Browser Basics, Tips & Tricks - 10/14/14
Mark S. Zinzow
6/9/2015
Slides online at:
http://www.slideshare.net/msz

2. Enjoy clutter-free Web pages with
Reader View – NEW in Firefox 38.0.5
With Reader ViewBefore Reader View

3. Enjoy clutter-free Web pages with Reader View
http://mzl.la/1Fj7eEK
1. If a page is available in Reader View, the Reader View icon Reader mode will appear in the address bar.
2. Click on the Reader View Reader mode icon. The icon will turn orange when the page is in Reader View.
How does it work? See the source:
https://github.com/mozilla/readability
TRICK: Put
"about:reader?url=" before
a web address (URL) to
load a page in Reader View.
This should also enable you
to bookmark the Reader
View of a page.
This promising feature is getting rave reviews in the media!
Firefox Integrates Pocket, Adds Distraction-Free Reader View
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/02/firefox-integrates-pocket-
adds-distraction-free-reader-view/
Safari has had this for years. The iReader extension
is also available for Chrome.
How to Use and Tweak Reader Mode in Safari
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25072/
Get Safari Reader on Chrome and Firefox with iReader
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25098/

4. Other Extensions for removing Web Clutter
Handy for printing just a coupon or text snippit
Print Edit by DW-dev
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/print-edit/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/print-edit/olnblpmehglpcallpnbgmikjblmkopia
Save the trees (print & screenshot) by extensionfactory.com
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-the-trees-print-scre/bjlcapbgbcnfkifgclinapfbkielnmdi
Nuke Anything Enhanced by Patrick Abi Salloum
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/nuke-anything-enhanced/

5. Review: Cookies, Security, and Privacy issues online.
Who's watching you surf?
Cookies
track what
you've
done, and
can be
used to
steal your
money.
Cross Site
Scripting
Terms & Conditions Gotcha:
The operator of 8chan says the bandwidth of millions of Hola users
is being sold for reuse, with some of it even being used to attack his
site. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Hola founder Ofer Vilenski says
that users' idle resources are indeed utilized for commercial sale,
but that has been the agreement all along.
http://torrentfreak.com/hola-vpn-sells-users-bandwidth-150528/

6. https://www.eff.org/privacybadger
Easier Do Not Track enforcement
Alternative to
Disconnect, Adblock
Plus, Ghostery and
similar products.
Simple to use!
Designed to “function
well without any
settings, knowledge
or configuration by the
user”.

7. How does a website know what browser I have?
“...Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) identifies the client software originating the request,
using a "User-Agent" header...” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent
Search for “Whats My user agent”, or a similar set of keywords to see sites that reveal what
information your web browser reveals about it and your computer. e.g.
https://www.esolutions.se/whatsmyinfo
http://mybrowserinfo.com/ (Lots of details)
http://www.viewmyuseragent.com/
http://www.whatsmybrowser.org/
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/
toolkit/useragent/default.asp
http://browserabout.com/
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/
https://www.whatismybrowser.com/
(Shows Do Not Track setting)

8. Add Search Engines to your Browser
How to Easily Create Search Plugins & Add Any Search Engine to Your Browser
http://www.howtogeek.com/114176/
Use the Search bar in Firefox - manage search engines
http://mzl.la/18PmbBy
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/

9. What are your favorite
Browser Extensions or Add-Ons?

10. FireFox Extensions

11. Down
Them
All!
http://www.dow
nthemall.net/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/downthemall/

12. What Is RSS?
“RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many
news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS
Feed to whoever wants it.” http://www.whatisrss.com/
What Is RSS Good For?
Feed 101: What are feeds? I see "RSS", "XML", and "Atom" out there, but I
don't know how I might use these links when I find them.
https://support.google.com/feedburner/answer/79408
HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It?
http://www.howtogeek.com/115317/
The Best Free RSS Readers for Keeping Up With Your Favorite Websites
http://www.howtogeek.com/128487/
Instant RSS Search
http://ctrlq.org/rss/

13. RSS Feeds often reveal resources
no longer available on the main site

14. How does a browser extension (add-on) work?
How to View the Source Code of a Chrome Extension
http://www.labnol.org/software/view-source-of-chrome-extension/21284/
How to View the Source Code of a Chrome Extension
www.howtogeek.com/198964/
Chrome extension source viewer (CRX Viewer for Chrome & Opera)
https://github.com/Rob—W/crxviewer
How to View the Source Code of a Firefox Addon
http://www.techgainer.com/view-source-code-firefox-addon/
XPI & CRX are Zip files

15. User Scripts
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_augmented_browsing_software
http://commons.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/Greasemonkey_Hacks
Aaron Boodman wrote Greasemonkey in 2005, one of the
first user scripting tools for the web. Check out his page:
http://www.aaronboodman.com/#projects
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scriptish/
http://www.ghacks.net/2014/05/09/userscripts-org-good-alternatives/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgffkkebhmkfjojejmpbldmpobfkfo
http://www.chromeextensions.org/appearance-functioning/tampermonkey/
http://tampermonkey.net/
https://github.com/scriptish/scriptish/wiki
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/
http://www.greasespot.net/
Friday, May 29, 2015
Greasemonkey 3.2 Release

16. I like to highlight what I've Won
on Gixen with a user script.

17. Web Portals, Widgets & Dashboards
Remember iGoogle?
http://www.igoogleportal.com/

18. Browser Automation
AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for
automating the Windows GUI and general scripting. It uses a
combination of simulated keystrokes, mouse movement and
window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks in a way not
possible or reliable with other languages (e.g. VBScript and
SendKeys). AutoIt is also very small, self-contained and will run on
all versions of Windows out-of-the-box with no annoying “runtimes”
required! https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/
https://www.fiverr.com/eagletdw/make-autoit-scripts-for-your-various-automations

19. Browser Automation
https://www.fiverr.com/arslanbuttar/automate-your-test-cases-using-selenium
“Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you
do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it
is for automating web applications for testing
purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that.
Boring web-based administration tasks can (and
should!) also be automated as well.”
http://docs.seleniumhq.org/
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium IDE
“a Firefox add-on that will
do simple record-and-
playback of interactions”
“very groovy browser automation… web testing, screen scraping and
more” “Geb is free, open source software licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.'
http://www.gebish.org/
Chickenfoot is a Firefox extension that puts a programming environment in the browser's
sidebar so you can write scripts to manipulate web pages and automate web browsing.
In Chickenfoot, scripts are written in a superset of Javascript that includes special functions
specific to web tasks. Old links:
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wXWMuYM37s Developing JavaScript with Chickenfoot (56min.)
Most Recent Update 1.09: https://github.com/simonarthur/chickenfoot

20. Exercises & Demos
Demo: Add Firefox Search Engines
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/
Group Exercise: Review Firefox Keyboard Shortcut Reference
Adapted from:
http://www.mouserunner.com/FF_Shortcuts1Printable.html
Video: Understanding XSS
http://www.secure-abap.de/wiki/Movies