Earlier on today I got the headsup from Jed (Thanks a lot for the feedback comments, by the way ! Good stuff !) indicating that the upgraded version of Performancing for FireFox is readily available for those folks who may be brave enough to give it a try. Of course, I had to give it a try, specially since I have been commenting a few times on a number of different items that I thought would be worth while having at the same time that I wanted to confirm if it would eventually be working with Roller Weblogger. And WOW! Let me tell you how my experience has been so far ! Yes, indeed, WOW!
Ok, let me say up front that Jed was right. I can certainly get Performancing for FireFox to work with Roller. Finally ! Everything seems to be working fine. I can set up the weblog manually since it is sitting on the IBM Intranet and it works all right because I can grab the list of previously posted weblog entries (One of the features I really like, by the way) and have been able to post a weblog entry successfully in my Intranet weblog. However, and like he said, there is one thing that does not work just yet, and that is the fact that the list of categories is missing from the right side panel and when posting the weblog post it will not grab any category, not even the default one I may have set up. Jed indicated that this may have been a problem with the Roller engine itself and I think that this may be the case because I know we are not running the most up to date version so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will work just fine with version 2.1.
However, for the rest let me just state up front that I am totally delighted ! Yes, you heard it right. I was a bit skeptic at the beginning but the place from where I am weblogging right now is just getting rid of all that. Indeed, folks, I am weblogging directly from Performancing for FireFox 1.1 in Flock ! In where? Yes, using one of the latest builds from Flock I am testing out something that I have been meaning to try out for some time now and PFF 1.1 just gave me the perfect opportunity for it. You may be wondering why I am trying out this meant-to-be FireFox extension in this other web browser when it already has got a very powerful weblogging component which I, myself, have been using already to share content in my weblogs. Well, the main reason is choice !
Indeed, it is all about choice and since it looks like more and more I am tending to make use of Flock as my default web browser I refused to stop making use from such a superb weblogging extension just because I might no longer be using FireFox. At the same time there are cases where I would want to share content in my weblogs in a particular form and may switch between one extension and the weblogging component of this browser from where I am writing now. Yes, to me, and despite what other people may say, it is a win-win situation where I get to decide in which form and shape and how much content I would want to share in my weblogs. That to me, is one of the main principles from Personal Knowledge Management in its purest form: give the power to the knowledge worker to decide how and what content should be shared where and for which audience. And having the choice of both options integrated in a single web browsing experience makes it all worth while the most.
But apart from all of the above here you have got five other reasons why I have been enjoying posting this post from PFF 1.1 and why I am planning to make extensive and continued use for two of the three weblogs that I currently maintain:
- All of the different features mentioned in another weblog post I shared not so long ago: Weblogging Directly from FireFox – Performancing for FireFox – Part Deux.
- Ability to easily configure the Publishing options from the Settings tab in order to bring some more advanced features, like pings, trackbacks, and Technorati tags. We will just have to see if it will pick up all those settings when publishing but so far it looks like this time is just about right.
- Ability to easily check who else has blogged about whatever the topic with Page Tools. Indeed, if you are in a particular web site or weblog post and click on Page Tools you will be able to see how many links are going into that particular web site and also, and something much more interesting, you would be able to see in a split second which other weblog posts from Technorati are linking to it. This, on its own, is one of my favourite features since it would allow you to expand your weblogging horizon and make you connect with other webloggers on the fly and through trackbacks build up on those conversations further and get yourself more involved with those with similar interest to yours. Does it ring a bell ?
- And talking about another great feature from this particular release, is the much tighter integration with del.icio.us bookmarks through the Bookmarks option, so that you can add to your del.icio.us bookmarks all those weblog posts that you think would be worth while remembering and, most importantly, worth while sharing with others (Like I am about to try now). I know that some folks would think why I would be using this particular social bookmarking service when elsewhere I have mentioned that I am now currently using BlinkList. Well, did you know that you actually can import bookmarks into it from del.icio.us? So now it will make it all much more interesting I would think since both tools will get populated and expanded further.
- And, finally, something not new since it has been support since the end of last year, but I think that the fact that PFF 1.1 continues to work just wonderfully well with Flock is a big plus ! Specially for those of us who want to have choices when sharing what we would want to share using whatever method we may think is more suitable at the time.
As you can see, overall, I am quite delighted with the work that has gone through into PFF 1.1 and I just can’t wait for the new upgrade and see what they will do (Perhaps a lovely integration with Flickr? Hint. Hint). For now, just want to take an opportunity to thank Jed and the development team for an outstanding release of Performancing for FireFox.
Well done!
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