ON MY FAVORITE FIREFOX EXTENSIONS

ON A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

A friend asked me what extensions I use with my Firefox browser...I'd gotten her to download it a few months ago not only because of its relative advantage vs. Microsoft's Internet Explorer against viruses and spyware, but also its tabbed browsing, which has become as natural as breathing for me...not to mention the positive reviews and over 50 million downloaded so far.

I hadn't really thought about it in detail, but I've come to rely on quite a number of extensions on all my computers.  Over the last few months this browser has gone from being just a browser, to my primary application on any of my PCs. 

So in the course of putting together a list for my friend, I narrowed it down to my favorite top ten extensions for the Firefox browser, and I thought I'd share it...also, I'd like to see if there are others people out there like that I might have missed.  So, here goes, in no particular order:

1. Google Preview:  shows a tiny preview windows of web pages against the list of search results.
2. QuickNote:  allows you to quickly grab pieces of text off other applications, and store it in a small, mini-notebook.
3. ForecastFox:  graphical personalized weather forecast display in the lower left side of your browser window.
4. Super DragAndGo: allows you to drag and open any link in a web page, by literally dragging and dropping it onto an open area of the page.
5. Yahoo! Companion:  gives you a customized Yahoo! toolbar, just as in Internet Explorer (IE).
6. Bandwidth Tester:  quick bandwidth tester for your broadband connection.
7. Dictionary Search:  Just select a piece of text and ask for a definition.
8. GoogleBar:  your favorite Google tool bar now on Firefox from IE.
9. FireFix:  fixes common misspellings in the address bar on the fly.
10. LinkPreview:  drag the arrow onto a link and it shows you a quick preview window.

If these aren't enough, and you still want more, here are PC Magazine's list of their 15 favorite extensions.

Comments

[Alex Rowland]

It'll be interesting to see how open IE7 will be to similar extensions.

[Travis Owens]

Sorry but I'm not impressed with this list, there are a few neat ones such as the Weather Forecast, firefix a couple of them are neat for only the first couple minutes and just wast ebandwidth (Google Preview) and one totally disgusted me (Yahoo Toolbar).

There are superior addons out there such as:

Download Tweak Manager (must have download window for Firefox, my personal #1)
http://dmextension.mozdev.org/

CuteMenus2 (puts icons on all your FireFox menus)
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=660

ImageToolbar (adds the IE style Save/Email/Print/Copy) icons onto images when you mouseover
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=243

Bug Me Not (automatically inserts a username & password into sites that "require" an account such as NYTimes)
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/bugmenot

Web Developer Toolbar (must have for any webdev)
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/webdeveloper

And I think everybody knows about "AdBlock"
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=10