@jupiterthunder: Yes, they can be set to auto-refresh at certain intervals and it will auto refresh the picture used as well.
The down side is it slows my crappy computer down quite a bit.
Also - if your fast dial thumbnails require a login, it'll prompt you for it if need be.

cpt.snerd

I'd be happy with a tab of all my recently closed tabs, or a thumbnail history tab.

mathmonkey

They should add a feature like Chrome where it will populate with your most often visited sites... Firefox 3 already takes care of determining which sites you visit most with the 'Most Visited' folder. Maybe you can just move your Most Visited folder into a FastDial folder to achieve this...?

ericesque

Will anyone be kind enough to save me the work and let me know if this has auto-updating thumbnails -- realtime or otherwise.

jupiterthunder

I really like this extension and use it every day. Currently I am using version 1.90...

There have been some problems that started with version 2.3 that was released recently (September 8). According to the reviews section, many people were experiencing the same problems that I was having after updating to the newer versions.

I had to uninstall the 2.x versions that I had updated to (versions 2.3 - 2.6) and reinstall version 1.90 to fix the problems that I was having. 1.90 can be found in the "See All Versions" section.

The newest release is version 2.8 (released today) in an attempt to fix the problems. I do not know if this version will fix all of the problems or not but I am hoping so. Until I know for certain, I will keep version 1.90...

Direct link for the extension...

Fast Dial Extension

Asian Angel

Looks decent so far. Had trouble getting it to start up for me though.

I had to make the Fast Dial bookmark folder, add a link to it, and then restart FF to get it to work... just a little confusing to me.

Pastime-Gamer

Looked like fun...

I loaded it, then those blank thumbnails were showing up in my yahoo mail instead of the email and made it impossible to read half of my mail.

Now it's deleted.

se7a7n7

Have used this in the past and was thinking to again, was much better then the other 'speed dial' addons i thought. Worked smoother and easier to customize, especially with the thumbnails posted above mine. Also like the multiple layers of menus for lots of links

Braffe

@jupiterthunder: You can also get pre-made thumbnails for Fast Dial here:

User Logos

I have a mix of pre-made (some that I have made for myself since they were not at User Logos) and site pictures. ^__^

Asian Angel

@Asian Angel:

Thanks. Though pre-made thumbs don't fit the need.

jupiterthunder

@cpt.snerd:

Sounds like it'll be worthwhile to give it a whirl.

Thank you.

jupiterthunder

@ericesque:
Nope. That doesn't work...

ericesque

@se7a7n7:

DELORTED?

ericesque

Tried it a while back but stayed with Speed Dial. I didn't like the way it updated the thumbnails and it was a bit flakey.

jsmorley

@Asian Angel:

Seeing it in action, your suggestion might prove useful. I'm OCD about presentation so logo thumbs might be preferred to the website thumb. Thanks again.

jupiterthunder

tried it but much prefer Speed Dial extension

mrbenn

@jupiterthunder: I hope that the User Logos website helps out. ^__^ And if it does not, you can always have fun fixing your thumbnails just the way that you want them.

I know that I really liked the way the thumbnails I fixed looked after they were finished. ^__^ It really helped me get the look and feel that I wanted with Fast Dial. ^__^

I did forget to mention that you can also look at backgrounds for Fast Dial at the User Logos website too. ^__^ I found a really nice 3D Grid pic there. ^__^

Asian Angel

I was also using Fast Dial and later moved to Speed Dial, but perhaps I'll have to take a look with the new functionality. Aesthetically, it looks a little cleaner, though one of the things I like is that I can take a quick look at the pages and see what's new at a glance so the icon view, while cleaner, is out.

Gabryael

Hmmm... This might be worth a second look. They have done quite a bit to fix it up and make it more configurable.

jsmorley

The color chooser for setting the main background and thumbnail titles etc is pretty limited. If you happen to be using Chromifox, here are the appropriate color codes to get this to blend in nice with that theme. You can just paste them in instead of using the color chooser.

Light blue: #DFEAF8
Dark blue: #92B4DE

jsmorley

I always wondered how Fast Dial differed from Speed Dial. I tried both extensions long ago but didn't like how they required me to manually add websites I had already bookmarked in Firefox. Since Fast Dial now integrates with Firefox bookmarks, I think I'll try this extension again. Thanks, Lifehacker!

enSue

@ericesque: I agree. That new tab thing in Chrome is one of those "that's freaking obvious, why did no one think of it before" things. Like every great idea, probably.

tgrantt

Been using it for a couple months. Have my homepage set to about:Blank and it shows up with my 15 sites. Love it.

bobbismal

i installed this a while back and it's awesome! i love it!!

i updated it to ver. 2.8 and it seemed to cripple firefox... trying to fix

B1663R

Auto Dial doesn't have thumbnails, but it does create a chart/table of your most frequently visited sites. I found that, as a Google Chrome start page replacement, I like Auto Dial better than customizable thumbnail extensions such as Speed Dial and Fast Dial. The page takes getting used to at first since it's less visual, but it's more than a passable replacement for Chrome's 3x3 most visited thumbnails. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8615

SanjivaniDadlike

For the record, Opera once again pioneers a feture that Firefox needs an addon for. Opera has had Speed Dial since version 9.2x, released in the first half of last year.

michaelper22

That's the best firefox extension for me so far, and the UserLogos website is really cool!
Get the lifehacker logo on here: [userlogos.org]

sjdvda

Another shoutout for FF3 plugin: Autodial !

anon6969

I rarely open a blank new tab...
My awesome bar, my search box and my bookmarks automatically load in new tab. I only need new tab when opening from history (I'll fix my userChrome.js script) and when loading multiple bookmarks (open all in tabs).

I suppose I could use the customizable "dialer" and create shrinked to one links...

BnWRainbow

Have tried both Speed Dial and Fast Dial and have to say I favour Fast Dial (even though Fast Dial gave me a hard time in Ubuntu until I uninstalled and reinstalled).

I dunno if it's just me but I find the Fast Dial interface just that little bit easier to use.

To each his own, I guess.

thedukeofchutney