UPDATED: February 26th, 2008 with a Great Endorsement

Common wisdom has it that Apple is prettier.

Not just the computer, the operating system with scrolling images to browse, that sort of thing.

I found a nice add-on to Mozilla Firefox. It can liven up a Windows user’s visual browsing experience. Or a Mac’s too since it’s fully compatible.

The meat is coming up in just a moment after the intro… ever lose that great website you were looking at before which had the answer to your problem? Or a better way of doing something? And of the six different ones your reviewed, this is the one you’re going with? And now you’re looking through your browser’s history log trying to find the right site mixed in with dozens of similar sounding names? Well stay tuned because a major NASDAQ traded software company may be introducing the answer…

It’s from Intuit Software, the makers of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Quicken for personal finance among other well known titles. They also have a range of enterprise software solutions and companies

One of their initiatives I learned about today is Intuit innovation lab (iLab). This is where they roll out “roughcuts” — early versions of software they think solves a problem.

See ThumbStrips in action.

It works like this. You browse… and it creates thumbnail images of the pages you were on in a hideable bottom bar. Click a button on your browser and you can visually see all the sites you visited.

For people like me who simplify things — no more than necessary! — and take an easy step to reduce a headache down the road, this type of getting input from the community to build better software appeals. To me, developing an answer to a problem I’d had 50 times and offering it to me is much appreciated.

→ DOWNLOAD LINK FOR THUMBSTRIPS ←

It’s now available as a Firefox add-on for PC or Mac and has passed the author nomination and editor review process at the Mozilla Foundation; it’s now approved there for public distribution.

HERE’S THE UPDATE I REFERRED TO: Mozilla declared ThumbStrips to be a Recommended Add-on for Firefox.

Firefox? It’s the better web browser.

For most people. Internet Explorer is useful in a closed corporate intranet where certain proprietary applications can only be operated in IE; however, Firefox is so customizable, so effective to set up for productivity, and so much more secure that it has actually been recommended for use by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, I think you should test drive it if you haven’t already.

To get you started if you choose to try out this innovative Firefox add-on from Intuit, I’ve created three films for you titled, naturally enough:

* Included in this ThumbStrips package is the site I reviewed in the previous post.

6-Step Directions:

1. Right click on Productivity, Growth and/or Sales link(s) above and save the *.film file to your computer. (Using Firefox this is “Save Link As…”)
2. With your Firefox browser and the ThumbStrips toolbar open, click:
   “configure > My ThumbStrips… > Load from disk…”
3. Browse to the correct file and open it.
4. The thumbnails will all appear.
5. Don’t forget to make this list your own! Click:
   “configure > Save/Share…”
6. You’ll see the “Save to My ThumbStrips” radio button will be selected. Give your file a name and click “OK”

You can add new sites, delete sites you don’t get value from, etc. Some extra capabilities include you can start or stop “recording” new thumbnails anytime. And adding sites to a “block this site” list. All that means is it won’t create a thumbnail for that site. You might want to block your own website, for example, since you already know where it is.

Ready to get started and find those sites you loved, but never thought to bookmark at the time?

Make sure you have Firefox. Then install ThumbStrips.

By Christoph Dollis at 1:03 AM on Sunday February 17th, 2008, and filed under Favourite Sites, GTD / Productivity, Software.

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