Now I have seen top Firefox extensions lists for everybody and anybody out there. They have ones for Web developers, they have ones for tech-savvy mothers, they even have ones for your five year old brother. I have never seen a list of Firefox extensions for us regular people though. Here is a list of extensions no regular person can be without.
Now the main reason I added this one onto the list, is it made all my older extensions I had (when jumping from Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 2) work again. Now since some extension authors haven’t gotten around to updating their work, Nightly Tester Tools will be an extension to keep around for the time being. By the time all my favorite extensions are update though, it might be time to roll out Firefox 2.5 or Firefox 3!
I do not really like the built in download manager that comes with Firefox. It just does not get the job done for me, because I really don’t need another box popping up at me. The folks at Mozilla should have turned to the Download Statusbar extension. This tool gives you progress bars and either a big toolbar across the bottom, or a tiny icon in the status bar. This is a must have extension if you do a lot of downloading.
When I got my laptop, I needed a quick and easy way to keep Firefox in sync via both my desktop and laptop systems. Now there are a hundred and one different extensions that promise to do this, but Google’s Browser Sync does it the best. Plus, I think Google is the only place I would trust with all this information I am sending back and forth anyways. You can sync your bookmarks, cookies, saved passwords, history and tabs. This is a nice ability to have when you are using more than one machine.
4. Greasemonkey
I love Greasemonkey so much, I could do another top scripts list on it alone. It is alike a series of extensions inside of an extension. Once you install Greasemonkey – you can install any number of “user scripts” that add functionality to any number of Web sites. You easily control any aspect of a web page’s design or interaction.
5. IE View
IE View allows you to open any link up in Internet Explorer. I used to use IE Tab, but once I moved up to Firefox 2 it seems like it broke an awful lot. That was about the time I figured it was time to go back to old reliable. IE View is really simple – just hit a button or click a menu option and your present Web page opens up in Internet Explorer. You can also set some links to always open up in Internet Explorer as well. I know it hurts you to think about it, but we all need to still use IE from time to time.
SiteAdvisor was one of those extensions I was really excited about every since it’s release. Since being bought by McAfee – it is still good, but doesn’t have that same feeling. No matter who owns it though, it is still a nice tool to have. Think of it as a safety helper while searching randomly on the Web. For the most part, they are usually spot on with their warnings as well. A green icon means good, yellow is a warning and red means bad. They really couldn’t make it any easier.
7. Menu Editor
After you install a dozen or so extensions, your Firefox menus start running a little wild. The Menu Editor extension allows you to bring all these options and links back down to a list you can manage. There is nothing worse than right-clicking on a Web page and it taking 10 minutes for your right-click menu to load up. It might not be spring, but this extension is perfect for doing some spring cleaning around your browser.
For anybody that spends a lot of time posting things Online or writing in any text box you find, the Resizeable Form Fields extension is a must to own. This extension allows you to drag and resize your text forms to any size you need. When you refresh the Web page – they will go back to normal. This is handy when writing long posts and you want to see everything you have typed thus far.
9. TinyMenu
You can never be saving enough space when it comes to your browser. The TinyMenu extensions allows you to shrink the “File, Edit, View, ect” options down to one drop down menu that says “Menu”. This will save you precious space when it comes to laying out your toolbars and icons inside of Firefox. I like to keep things nice and neat, and this extensions does the trick.
10. StumbleUpon
I am not a man of unlimited ideas, so when I need to find something to cover that I haven’t covered before, StumbleUpon is a great tool to use. StumbleUpon allows you to browse randomly through the Internet going to Web pages that other folks have marked via the StumbleUpon toolbar. The only thing I don’t like about StumbleUpon is that the toolbar for it is a little large. When not in use though – you can always hide it.
11. Video Download
This extensions allows you to download all those neat videos you find via the Web’s most popular services. Download content from Youtube, Google Video, iFilm, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Myspace, Angry Alien, AnimeEpisodes.Net, Badjojo, Blastro, Blennus, Blip.tv, Bofunk, Bolt, Break.com, Castpost, CollegeHumor, Current TV, Dachix, Danerd, DailySixer.com, DevilDucky, Double Agent, eVideoShare, EVTV1, FindVideos, Free Video Blog, Grinvi, Grouper, Hiphopdeal, Kontraband, Lulu TV, Midis.biz, Music.com, MusicVideoCodes.info, MySpace Video Code, Newgrounds, NothingToxic, PcPlanets, Pixparty, PlsThx, Putfile, Revver, Sharkle, SmitHappens, StreetFire, That Video Site, TotallyCrap, VideoCodes4U, VideoCodesWorld, VideoCodeZone, vidiLife, Vimeo, vSocial, Yikers, ZippyVideos, and any other Web page with embedded objects.
12. WebmailCompose
I like using Yahoo! Mail as my default E-mail application. I manage all my different E-mail account via them, so trouble comes when I click a “mailto” link on a Web page. I have no real “default mail client” to use. This WebmailCompose extension lets you use any number of Webmail applications to act as your default mail client. That means when you click one of these E-mail links, you will automatically be brought into your Webmail.
Have one I missed? Add a comment and let everybody else know what it is and why it should be here.
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Greetings, Just felt like sending a “Thank You” for your hard work. I enjoy reading your Email each day.
Dwane
Thanks! You keep reading and I’ll keep writing.
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Try the Firebug. Its not very useful for non-technical users, but for anybody with an interest in web designing, and who wants to see how different webapges have been marked up, this is great.
Click on the ‘Inspect’ mode of the extension while viewing any webpage. You can then hover your mouse on any of the objects in that webpage, and the extension window below (which shows the HTML code for the page) will jump to and highlight the tag which created that object, be it a table, ul, li, a, b, i, u, div anything.
Not only that, it allows you to trace javascript execution. Also, in the inspect mode, you can see the layout style of the object you’re inspecting, its margin, padding etc. And you can also see the DOM of the object.
I sure havent come across any extension that is as useful for anyone interested in webpages.
Awesome is the word. 10/10