About Sidebars...

One of the many cool features of the Mozilla or Firefox browsers is the "sidebar tab." Basically, a sidebar tab is a specially-formatted web page that is displayed in a frame on the left-hand side of the browser window. The official definition is: "A simple webpage that can deliver up-to-date, dynamic information. Sidebar tabs are easily added, removed or customized by the end user." That's not terrifically helpful, but it really stresses how simple a sidebar is to implement. Just follow some basic rules for sizing the webpage, add some cut'n'paste JavaScript for the installer & you have a sidebar. By integrating RSS newsfeed technology into the sidebar tab, it's possible to have dynamically refreshed content served directly to your Mozilla browser.

Sidebars by djeaux.com

The Security News sidebar displays the latest posts to the 15 Computer & Network Security newsfeeds scraped by djeaux.com. (View screenshot.)
The bobdylan.com lyric search sidebar includes a handy form for searching the Bob Dylan lyric database, links to the Performances & On Tour sections & links to the latest posts in the bobdylan.com forums. (View screenshot.)
The ResearchBuzz sidebar displays previews & links to the latest articles at ResearchBuzz, "search engine news & more since 1998."
The AAUP-USM sidebar displays links to the latest 15 threads at the AAUP-USM website, updated every quarter hour. This sidebar & newsfeed replaces sidebar for the fabled Fire Shelby message board.
Additionally, there's an online tool for converting any RSS newsfeed into a sidebar tab. This is a basic version Corvar's sidebar installer. This tool serves as the backend for installing any of the security newsfeeds as a separate sidebar tab. (Go here for details.)