Firefox 3.0.1 Live Bookmark Updates

If, like me, you have a lot of RSS feeds coming in to Firefox [and here I MEAN a lot!], and you've found that periodically (let's say every hour or so) the browser grinds down to snail's pace for several minutes, it may well because it's doing it's RSS update [aka Live Bookmarks Update].

One work around for this is to change the reload rate to, say, 6 hours:

Changing the automatic reload rate of Live Bookmarks

By default, Live Bookmarks are set to reload every 60 minutes. To change the reload rate, you need to set a hidden preference:

1. In the Location bar, type about:config, and press Enter. Return
   • The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
2. The about:config page will appear. Right-click anywhere within the list of preferences. In the context menu, mouse over New, and select Integer. Hold down the Ctrl key while you click
3. When you get asked to enter the preference name, enter browser.bookmarks.livemark_refresh_seconds.
4. You will then be asked to enter a value. The unit for the value is seconds; so if you wanted the reload rate to be 5 minutes, the value would be 300 (as in 300 seconds).

and then use an add-on such as Reliby, put the button on your toolbar and then hit that as and when you want an update (like when you go and make coffee for instance). That way you don't get a partial freeze at a bad moment and you do get some control and management over when you update the RSS feeds, and also when you might get distracted by scanning through some of them!