Given the popularity of the browser – in just over a week it has captured 4 per cent usage share – I thought that it would be a good idea to write an article that will look at some of the most requested Firefox 3.0 power tweaks. These tweaks allow you to take the browser and really make it your own.

Tweak the Awesome Bar

The new address bar in Firefox 3.0, dubbed the Awesome Bar, seems to be a feature that some users love and others hate. However, not liking the Awesome Bar is no excuse for you to consider not using Firefox 3.0. You can tweak the behavior of the Awesome Bar or even make it look and feel like the old Firefox 2.0 address bar.

Here I’ll show you two ways that you can tweak the Awesome bar.

Tweak #1

One tweak is to control the number of sites that show up in the Awesome Bar. Kick off this tweak by typing about:config into the address bar, hitting ENTER and then promising to be careful.

Into the Filter box type the following: browser.urlbar.maxRichResults

Now double click on the preference that’s displayed to allow you to change the value.

Notice that the value is set to 12. This is the default number of sites listed by the Awesome Bar. To change the maximum number of sites displayed just enter a new number and click OK.

To finish the tweak restart Firefox 3.0.

Tweak #2

Another tweak open to those that dislike the Awesome Bar is to install an add-on than changes how the Awesome Bar looks. The add-on is called oldbar and this makes the Firefox 3.0 address bar look like the Firefox 2.0 address bar.

What this add-on does is change the multi-line display of previously visited links and returns them to the traditional single-line look.

Firefox 3.0 without oldbar add-on

Firefox 3.0 with oldbar add-on