Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs.
You need to use all programs because each detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
• http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page

See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website

cor-el, thank you for your reply and i appreciate your suggestions. i upload an image to point out what i refer to. i don't think it's malware. what do you say? upper right hand corner.

I don't see that purple box in the upper-right corner of this page.
http://www.cio.com/article/615764/Google_Street_View_Disasters

Unless you installed something into Firefox that adds that feature, my guess is Malware considering it is more than just that one web page.

thank you the-edmeis... i will remove all addons 1 by 1 and check again. i will rescan using the full list suggested by cor-el. i just think of malware as doing something and this box with lined through words like "web trends, doubleclick, google analytics, addthis, facebook connect, google adsense, quantcast, " doesn't do anything. no matter left or right click all it does is disappear." i thought a list of my addons was included in the original post.

i'm not into any social network stuff and i use scroogle for searching, on my laptop this appears to be brown but perhaps it could be purple.

I'm getting the same thing. I used to remember what it was - I'm thinking it has to do with Google Anyalytics? I don't want to get rid of it necessarily and I can't remember exactly what its function is either, but I would like to control it so it doesn't always pop-up each time I click on a tab.

Try the Firefox SafeMode first. Much quicker than uninstalling addons.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode
Don't select anything right now, just use "Continue in SafeMode."

If that problem is gone in the Firefox SafeMode, see this:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/troubleshooting+extensions+and+theme...

Ghostery is the culprit! “Ghostery allows you to detect trackers on the sites you visit, learn more about the companies behind them, and control their visibility into your online behavior...” from Ghostery website

^ Yup, looks like Ghostery is the culprit.

Check out the 3rd screenshot on the AMO Ghostery addon page.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9609/

BIG SHOUT OUT to say THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you, MAN I feel so much better!