I’ve posted numerous times before about how strongly I feel about Firefox. And I’ve even tried to “Jedi Mind Trick” IE users away from their far inferior browser to the Firefox team. I’m gonna try to pickup more Firefox users listing extensions I’ve evaluated recently.
Firefox “as is” is a rather “bare bones” browser. I like it that way. I don’t want to have to download, install and run a mail client to do web browsing. But, if you like “bells and whistles” there are hundreds of extensions you can add to Firefox. Lately, I’ve spent some time evaluating the various extensions. Some I’m using daily, over and over. Others, I just use “as needed”. Some got uninstalled. Because I didn’t need them, I choose another one that offered very similar behavior, or I just didn’t like it.
Here is what I’m currently using. They are listed in the order that they were added to my Firefox installation (I wish Firefox listed them in alphabetical order, but you get chronological order)
Firesomething (1.5.2) – I love this extension. It does nothing, but makes fun of the Mozilla people and the problems they’ve had with picking/keeping a name for Firefox. They must find the joke in good fun because they have recently highlighted the extension on their site.
DictionarySearch (0.6.2) – This is another “must have” for me. I use online dictionaries often throughout my day and this extension makes the process extremely easy.
Web Developer (0.8) – If you use a browser, you will have a need for this extension. It has SO many features that simple web “surfers” will find a use as well as serious web developers.
Copy Plain Text (0.1) – This helps with the problem of copy/pasting html and getting the html formatting, when you didn’t want it. It’s a simple extension, but it has its uses.
BugMeNot (0.3) – Go get this right now! It brings the features of bugmenot.com into your browser.
JavaDeveloper (0.1) – This is an extension I’m writing. It should be listed as (alpha) but I put 0.1. It’s too “early access” for me to even go into any more detail. I’ll blog more on the extension when it’s appropiate.
MiniT (drag+indicator) (0.2) – Another “must have”. This allows you to rearrange your tabs. Great extension.
QuickNote (0.5.9.2) – This is an interesting extension. I want to find a use for it, and will. But, now I’m not sure how I’m gonna use it with my day-to-day computer/browser use.
Sage (1.1) – This is an extension that adds a feed-reader to your browser. I had a problem importing my feed list. As soon as that bug is resolved I’ll seriously give this a try. For now I’m still a die-hard Bloglines user.
TinyUrl Creator (0.6) – This is for all the TinyUrl users out there. Works great.
StockTicker (0.3) – This is my newest extension, and one of my new favorites. No more alt-tab, refresh browser, alt-tab back to what you were doing to find out how the markets are doing. You add stock symbols you have interest in, you specify how often you want them cycled, and that’s it. The quotes will be displayed in the status bar of the browser. I love this. You can set a color to a performance, also. So as long as I’m seeing green in the bottom corner of my browser…… the kids will be going to college.
Well, that’s my list. I’ll revisit this every month or so and add/ delete extension as I find new and improved extensions. If you know of any “must haves” please let me know.
Nice list. I see a few I’ll have to try.
BTW, have you tried AdBlock or ClicktoFLash (sp?)?
One blocks ads, and one stops Flash from even loading until you click on it. Speeds surfing time big time for us dial up users.
take care
Yes, I’ve tried AdBlock. It’s awesome. But… Call me crazy because some of the ads are so good that I don’t mind seeing them. I’ve got dsl so they don’t really slow me down too much. For users on dial-up I’d say that AdBlock is a must-have.
Erik
Well I upgraded to .92 so I decided to update my extension list as well.
All-In-One Gestures : Love mouse gestures.
Adblock: Like you said, for dialup users, a must.
BugMeNot: Didn’t think I would need but now that I have, its great.
Compact Menu: If you are like me and use Mouse Gestures, you then move all the nav stuff out of the top frame. With this exntension you now have only one button to access all menu items. Allows me to put everything in one row at the top giving me even more viewing room.
FireSomething: I’m currently running an Arthur Dent FireHorse broswer. Not really needed but fun to have.
Gmail Notifier: Adds a nice small icon in my top row alerting me of my gmail account.
MiniT : Again, didn’t think I would use but now that I have it, a must have.
Sage: Lightweight RSS/Atom reader.
Thanks again for the list.
Hey Mark,
I’m glad you’ve upgraded and glad to hear you enjoy some of the same extensions I recommended.
Were you able to get you blogroll imported into Sage? I had no luck.
I’m currently playing with CompactMenu. It might make my next Firebird post.
Erik
For some reason when I tried to copy over my bookmarks.html file it kept over writting it. So I decided to enter everything manually. Turned out to be a good move given all the repeats and garbage/dead links I had collected. 😉
Well, I think I’ll wait for an update before I try to use Sage. It’s only a 1.1 release right now, plenty of room to improve.
For the StockTicker, it will be good if the displayed stock symbol can be replace with a mapped user input text.
MC,
I agree with you on that enhancement for StockTicker. You should email Jeremy, the creator of StockTicker. He is always open to feature/bug info on his extensions.
Erik
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I would like to see a News Ticker,something like CNN or something.I dont really follow up on stock but news i try to keep up with
SuperDrag and Go is a must for me. Just highlight a URL and drag it to a blank part of the page and it’ll open again in a new window. Drag a term, and it’ll open a google search in a new window.
I use your StockTicker extension and have enjoyed it. However, I noticed that whenever I start firefox, I get an “ERROR: 202” displayed in the stock ticker area and after a while the stocks begin to rotate. Is this a bug?
John,
I am not the author of the StockTicker extension. I am a fan, though.
I have emailed the creator of StockTicker and he is quick to correct bugs. You should send him an email.
Good Luck,
Erik
Hey,
I have been using firefox since version 0.7. My business does a lot of computer calls and we have put firefox on 90% of machines for people to avoid spyware and they seem to love it. I use it all the time.
Weatherfox is a newer extension for version 1.0PR. If you haven’t upgraded you need to RIGHT NOW!! It is awesome and stable as can be.
Another good extension is SingleWindow. Go to the options and put the check by all the boxes and you will never have to worry about another window again. It is a must for me.
The people who said something about the stock ticker…I have Version 1.0PR right now with the new extension for it and I haven’t had a problem yet. It is GREAT. Check out the newest version, this may be your problem.
I want to know this…
Is there a news ticker…like google news…cnn…abc…anything. I would like to see newest top stories or something of the likes. RSS and ATOM feeds don’t do it for me and they are so confusing to use.
And finally, I use Outlook for everything obviously. But if there was a plugin to check multiple POP e-mail accounts and keep a count like the gmail notifier it would be my dream come true.
If anyone knows of these two extensions or has the means to program them…let me know. E-mail me, anything. I want them so bad I can taste it. Great recommendations though.
Erik, try Ext2Abc out; it can sort your extensions alphabetically. Available here: http://extensions.roachfiend.com/index.php#ext2abc.