FAQ

How do I install Ultimate Status Bar?

See this post about installing safari extensions by someone who can write these things far better than I can.

 

How do I uninstall Ultimate Status Bar?

Oh, I supposed it is possible that some people find that even one unicorn is one too many. So if you insist on uninstalling USB then do the following:

  • Safari Menu > Preferences... (Edit > Preferences... in windows)
  • Click on the extensions tab. 
  • Choose the extension you want to uninstall.
  • Click the Uninstall button

Or there's a good blog post about uninstalling safari extensions over here if you want a tutorial with pictures.

 

It doesn't work :(

 
Extensions are not allowed to alter pages from extensions.apple.com. This is a security measure built inside the safari browser. 
 
Have you got the BrokenBox extension installed?
 
There is a conflict between Ultimate Status Bar and BrokenBox, whereby BrokenBox will stop USB from showing at all. I emailed the developer of BrokenBox back in July informing him of the conflict but as yet have had no reply, so I can only assume it is no longer being supported.
 
A similar conflict exists in some older versions of  ClicktoFlash, however these have been fixed in ClickToFlash version 1.7.2 so just update to that and you should be fine.
 
A user informed me of an alternative extension "Plugin Blocker" that is compatible with USB and doesn't break the HTML5 YouTube clips (which apparently BrokenBox does). So I recommend giving it a go.
 
If you don't have BrokenBox installed and it still doesn't work, then disable all your other extensions and refresh the page you are looking at.
 
If USB shows up when you hover over a link then the problem is a conflict between USB and one of your other extensions. Re-enable your other extensions one by one (refreshing the current page each time) and testing to see which one breaks USB.
 
When you find the one that does, then contact me and tell me the other extension (please include name, version number and a URL where I can download it) and I'll see if I can fix the problem or make a workaround for it.
 
 

The themes are great, but I want one thats blue/green/orange/bigger/smaller....

I'm got a half working theme editor now, so if you're really brave you can give it a go.

 

Why don't you redesigned the options dialog, it's ugly?

I'd love to, but the settings page is built by Safari and I have no control over it, except to be able to specify what setting are added to it, and in what order. Sorry, but you'll have to contact the Safari developers if you want that one fixed.

Does USB respect my privacy?

USB doesn't record anything about what you look at or what links you follow. However we do use several 3rd party services to enhance the statusbar, and we have little control over what those services do with the statistics they gather. 

We use the following 3rd party services:

  • http://getfavicon.appspot.com/ to show favicons for every link. In these cases the first time you mouseover a link to a new domain, USB will send a request to getfavicon.appspot.com and cache the result. All other requests for links on the same domain should use the cacahed favicon and not send information to the 3rd party.
  • http://longurlplease.appspot.com/ and http://longurl.org/ to lookup the destination of shortened URLs. USB first compares the URL of the link to a list of known shortened URL providers. If the link appears to be a shortened URL then we send a request off to the 3rd parties containing the shortened URL.

Each of these options can be easily disabled from the options dialog.

 

 

OMG you send anonymous usage stats back to your server. You're tracking every link I look at, how could you do this to me!!!!

No, we don't track anything you look at. We send a single request to our server once a day containing the version number of Ultimate Status Bar and the current theme you are using. The version number is so we can figure out how many people are using the latest version of the extension, and the theme name is so we can tell which themes are most popular. The stats are over here if you're interested.  You can easily turn this off in the options.

However it should be noted that we use a few 3rd party services to enhance USB. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of those services, so please read the previous FAQ entry which explains in more detail what information gets sent to whom.

 

VirusBarrier is popping up a phishing warning every time I open Safari, what have you done?

VirusBarrier blacklisted one of the 3rd party websites USB uses for looking up favicons (getfavicon.appspot.com)  as a phishing site. This was a false positive and the site has since been removed from their blacklist. Running "NetUpdate" should updated the blacklist and solve the problem. More can be read about the VirusBarrier incident here.

 

 

Where are all the other questions?

It's a status bar, there's just not that much to know.