Firefox/Chrome: If you love using your keyboard and shun your mouse, you'll definitely want to try gleeBox, an awesome add-on that lets you effortlessly browse the web without your mouse. Check out the video inside to see it in action.

Click on the picture above for a closer look.

Browsing the web without a mouse isn't easy. Without any add-ons at all you're stuck furiously punching the tab key to move through all the available links on the page. Other add-ons help you to navigate without your mouse but often not very intuitively.

Gleebox offers a highly customizable and intuitive way to navigate web pages via keyboard. At its most basic gleeBox allows you to hit the G key, and every link on the page is highlighted and you can navigate to it by typing part or all of the link name into gleeBox. Check out the videos below to see it in action.

Chrome: We love Gina's Better Gmail Firefox extension, a bundle of user scripts that improves the Gmail experience. Now that Google's beefed up support for Chrome extensions, reader Dimitar Gruev has taken a shot at bringing an unofficial Better Gmail to Chrome.

Almost a year ago our own How-To Geek put together a version of Better Gmail for Chrome, but that was way back when Chrome didn't even have extensions (his were all bundled into a single user script). This new Chrome extension is an unofficial Better Gmail for Chrome that was inspired by Gina's Firefox extension and our earlier Better Gmail for Chrome bag o'scripts.

Once installed, access Better Gmail's options by clicking the wrench -> Extensions -> Better Gmail Options. Tick the boxes of the features you want activated and you're good to go. You can choose to hide little used fields like "Invite Friends," remove ads, show the number of unread emails in the favicon, and more.

Gruev says future versions of Better Gmail will hide spam count, move to next message on delete or archive, and include support for POP3 email. A big round of applause goes to Gruev for putting this together. What kinds of features do you hope for in future versions of Better Gmail? Share your ideas in the comments.

Chrome: If you've ever wanted to see what people are saying about a web page you're visiting beyond the site's own comments, Chrome extension Twitter Reactions will show you the most recent tweets that are talking about the page.

The idea isn't unlike other universal commenting systems, like Google Sidewiki—but instead of just seeing the comments of Google Toolbar users, you can see what the entire Twitterverse is saying about the page that you're on. It takes a bit of filtering with all the retweets or simple linking going on on Twitter, but it's definitely interesting to see what people are saying beyond the site's integrated comments and who's linking to it—especially if it's your own site or blog (you might be surprised how many people have linked to you on Twitter!).

If you're running Google Chrome on Linux, switching to the "dev" channel seems like a smarter bet than ever. The newest release includes support for desktop notifications (as previously suggested), and better integrates with your GTK/GNOME theme by using its text and button selection colors. Plug-ins, too, can now be stashed in a location in your home folder for backup and maintenance.

[Google Chrome Releases]

Linux

• [r37017] Preliminary desktop notifications support. (Why not libnotify? See our technical FAQ.) (Issue: 23954)
• [r37193] Use GTK+ selection colors when using GTK theme mode. (Issue: 25831)
• [r37201] We now also will load plugins from ~/.config/$PRODUCT_NAME/Plugins. (Issue: 22261)
• Improved complex text support, fixing a number of bugs in Hebrew/Arabic/Hindi/etc. display.

Google Chrome (Windows/Mac/Linux): If you tend to have tons of small, hard-to-read tabs open at a time, navigate through them with TabJump, a Chrome extension that lets you open recently closed tabs, jump to open tabs, and group related tabs together.

We've all been there before—you open up Wikipedia for a five-minute break, and two hours later you have 30 tabs open. TabJump is a great tab manager for Google Chrome, that sits in the address bar and organizes all your open and recently closed tabs, so you can easily navigate through your sea of open pages. Your open tabs are organized into two colums, one of which shows the tabs related to the one currently in focus, so you can quickly jump between open pages from the same site. You can also lock certain pages, protecting them from accidental closure. If you try to close a locked tab, you'll get a popup message from Chrome asking you if you are sure, preventing you from losing what was really important out of all those open tabs.

Google Chrome (Windows/Mac/Linux): If you tend to have tons of small, hard-to-read tabs open at a time, navigate through them with TabJump, a Chrome extension that lets you open recently closed tabs, jump to open tabs, and group related tabs together.

We've all been there before—you open up Wikipedia for a five-minute break, and two hours later you have 30 tabs open. TabJump is a great tab manager for Google Chrome, that sits in the address bar and organizes all your open and recently closed tabs, so you can easily navigate through your sea of open pages. Your open tabs are organized into two colums, one of which shows the tabs related to the one currently in focus, so you can quickly jump between open pages from the same site. You can also lock certain pages, protecting them from accidental closure. If you try to close a locked tab, you'll get a popup message from Chrome asking you if you are sure, preventing you from losing what was really important out of all those open tabs.

Windows: Google just pushed an update to the stable channel of Chrome on Windows, bringing support for extensions and bookmark syncing to everyone who isn't living on the bleeding edge of Chrome.

The major features in this release (officially labeled 4.0.249.78—uh, we'll just call it 4.0):

Windows: Google just pushed an update to the stable channel of Chrome on Windows, bringing support for extensions and bookmark syncing to everyone who isn't living on the bleeding edge of Chrome.

The major features in this release (officially labeled 4.0.249.78—uh, we'll just call it 4.0):

Firefox: Sick of having to start a completely new session (and get rid of your old one) just for private browsing? Firefox extension Private Browsing Window starts your private session in a new window without closing old ones, like Chrome's Incognito Window.

It's not quite as smooth as Chrome's Incognito Windows, but it works pretty well. Private Browsing Window essentially starts a new instance of Firefox alongside your existing session, with a new profile in which Private Browsing is enabled. You don't have all your old bookmarks or preferences in your new private window, but you don't have to end your non-private session, which is certainly convenient. This feature replaces the old Private Browsing feature in the Tools menu and adds a small shortcut in the bottom right corner of your screen. Note that this add-on requires the latest and greatest Firefox 3.6 to run, so if you haven't updated, what are you waiting for?

Private Browsing Window is free and works wherever Firefox 3.6 does. Thanks, Jason!

Chrome only: Extension FastestFox adds a bunch of new options to Google Chrome to search multiple sites, add related links, and turn text URLs into clickable links.

Once installed, you'll see a new icon in the toolbar that allows you to turn each feature on or off—including a new search box that allows you to easily submit your query to another service, hover search buttons when you select text, related links on Wikipedia, and turning text links into clickable links.

Once you've done a search, you can scroll to the bottom of the page, and FastestFox will load the next page below the current one on demand, so instead of clicking through every Google result, you can just keep scrolling. It's a useful extension that might be worth a look, especially if you spend a lot of time doing research. FastestFox is a free download, works wherever Google Chrome extensions do.

Chrome only: Extension FastestFox adds a bunch of new options to Google Chrome to search multiple sites, add related links, and turn text URLs into clickable links.

Once installed, you'll see a new icon in the toolbar that allows you to turn each feature on or off—including a new search box that allows you to easily submit your query to another service, hover search buttons when you select text, related links on Wikipedia, and turning text links into clickable links.

Once you've done a search, you can scroll to the bottom of the page, and FastestFox will load the next page below the current one on demand, so instead of clicking through every Google result, you can just keep scrolling. It's a useful extension that might be worth a look, especially if you spend a lot of time doing research. FastestFox is a free download, works wherever Google Chrome extensions do.

Chromium OS, the open source build of Google's upcoming web-focused netbook system, was made into a thumb-drive-friendly build early on by a helpful hacker named Hexxeh. His latest build, ChromiumOS Zero, adds Chrome extension support, speed boosts, and other goodies.

Here's the official list of updates at Hexxeh's blog, with notable improvements in the delay suffered by Broadcom-based Wi-Fi and the Chromium browser at the heart of the OS. The build still fits on a 1 GB USB drive, surprisingly, can be updated in-system from this release forward, and is offered as a BitTorrent download from Hexxeh's site.

Wanna give ChromiumOS Zero a go on your own laptop from the safety of a USB stick? Check out Gina's human's guide to running Google Chrome OS, which details running a Hexxeh-based build from a thumb drive.

ChromiumOS Zero is a free download, and boots (usually) on non-Mac systems.

Chrome only: Extension Don't Break the Chain tracks your progress with Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret—a calendar that tracks how many consecutive days you've successfully achieved a certain goal.

All the extension really does is bundle up the calendar from previously mentioned webapp Don't Break the Chain and move it into an easy-access button on your toolbar, but it's a great way to keep yourself productive without a lot of effort. Simply click the box for each day you complete a task, and skip the days you don't—the app will tell you when you've been dropping the ball. Don't Break the Chain is a free download, works wherever Google Chrome Extensions do.

Chrome only: Extension Don't Break the Chain tracks your progress with Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret—a calendar that tracks how many consecutive days you've successfully achieved a certain goal.

All the extension really does is bundle up the calendar from previously mentioned webapp Don't Break the Chain and move it into an easy-access button on your toolbar, but it's a great way to keep yourself productive without a lot of effort. Simply click the box for each day you complete a task, and skip the days you don't—the app will tell you when you've been dropping the ball. Don't Break the Chain is a free download, works wherever Google Chrome Extensions do.

Windows/Mac/Linux: If you're living life on the bleeding edge of Google's Chrome browser, good news: Google just pushed out an update to the dev channel, improving HTML5 audio and video for all platforms, bringing extension and bookmark sync to Macs, and more.

The Windows build didn't see many changes, but Mac users should be particularly happy with the update. Having been excluded from extension support when the Chrome extension gallery first opened, Mac users can now officially join in the fun. (See these 18 extensions worth downloading for Chrome to get started with Chrome extensions.) Mac users also gain support for much-needed bookmark sync and support for favicon-only pinned tabs.

Chrome only: The oft-imitated New Tab button on Google's Chrome browser isn't bad, but it's not the most customizable either. Soup it up—and access your favorite bookmarked web sites quickly—with Speed Dial.

Instead of keeping 4,000 tabs or windows open so you can revisit web sites quickly, just drop them into Speed Dial and keep them all accessible in a single click. The next time you open Speed Dial, all your favorite sites will be neatly lined up with a thumbnail preview of each page so you can tell what's what at a glance. That's all pretty similar to how the default New Tab page works, but Speed Dial expands on that in a few ways.

This slick extension lets you choose how many favorite slots you want to have available, anywhere from three to 36. You can also customize the background color, theme, and whether you want the search box displayed on Speed Dial's main screen.

Once installed, the extension places a small icon in the address bar of your browser. When you're visiting a page you want to add to Speed Dial, just click the icon and it will appear in your list. Note: Sometimes it takes a minute or two for changes to show up.

Computer mice are great and all, but sometimes you'd rather not have to deal with them—say, when you're using an uncomfortable touchpad on a laptop. Chrome Extension KeyboardNavigation helps you browse the web while keeping mouse clicking to a minimum.

Once installed, you can activate the extension by hitting Alt+G on your keyboard—this will put a number next to every link on the page. Typing in one of the numbers will take you to the linked page as if you clicked on it, and you can toggle whether to open up links in a new foreground, background, or the same tab by pressing b or g. When you want to go ahead and read the page, just hit Alt+G again to hide the numbers (as the page can get pretty cluttered pretty quickly on sites with lots of links).

KeyboardNavigation is a free download, and works with the Dev version of Chrome for Windows or the Linux beta. Firefox users, check out similar extensions like LoL.