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Firefox Extensions I Use… Revisited…

A while back I wrote a fairly long, detailed post about Firefox and the Extensions I need/use. Well, there was something I really needed and sure enough somebody had created an extension that took care of my need.

My problem is that going between home and work with my laptop, I have to change my proxy settings, back and forth. It’s a real pain. I have to click Tools, Options, General tab, Connection Settings, toggle the switch turning on my proxy settings, then Ok, and Ok. That is a lot of clicking to toggle one switch. Enter the SwitchProxy Tool. A great extension from Jeremy Gillick that makes it very easy to switch your proxy settings. Check it out if you have to switch your proxy settings fairly often.

Now let me go ahead and mention the other fine extensions I use.

1. Firesomething – a gimmick extension that allows you to have all kinds of amusing names for your browser. I assume this extension came about after the various name changes that Firefox went through before settling in on Firefox.

2. DictionarySearch – adds an entry to the right-click context menu that allows you to search a dictionary for a definition of a selected word.

3. BugMeNot – gives you an anonymous option to logging in to a number of sites without registering (I use it for a number of US newspaper sites).

4. Gmail Notifier – does what you expect, tells you when you get a new email, and how many mails are unread in your account.

5. Public IP – right click in your status bar and you will get your “public” IP address.

I assume I’m missing out on a “must have” extension. Let me hear about it… 🙂

This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. Mark 7 Oct 2005

    Firesomething – I really must reinstall that one. Tons of fun.

    Dict search – I just use the search area. Pull down the Google icon and pick Dictionary.com. But after seeing how many steps I would save maybe I should try it.

    Adding to Gmail notifier – Yahoo mail notifier.

    Others I use:
    Adblock – must have for me.
    Bookmark sync
    Copy Plain Text
    ForecastFox – weather, my wife lives and dresses by this extension. 😉
    Disable Targets for Download
    Download Sort
    Open Book
    Resize search box – Low usage but nice to have.

  4. Erik Weibust 7 Oct 2005

    Hey Mark…

    I just don’t get the need for Adblock. I have DSL at home and a T1 here at work. The ads just don’t slow me down. Am I missing something? Is it just not wanting people throwing crap ads at you?

    I’ll check out the others you’ve listed. Bookmark Sync has promise. ForecastFox might be nice, but as you know I’m a big fan of the Weather Widget from Konfabulator.

    Erik

  5. Erik Weibust 7 Oct 2005

    Chad,

    StumbleUpon sounds cool, but I HATE having a giant stack of toolbars. That’s why I’m out on the Google/Yahoo toolbars, and why I don’t use the Developer Extension. I just spent a quick couple of minutes looking at StumbleUpon and didn’t see a non-toolbar option. Did I miss it?

    Erik

  6. Erik Weibust 7 Oct 2005

    Hey Mark,

    Thanks for stopping by and giving some extension tips. I’ll take a look at your recommendations and post a follow up to this post after looking at everyone’s tips.

    Erik

  7. David 7 Oct 2005

    ColorZilla is just one of those tools that you’ll hardly ever use but when you need it dang it’s great.
    The other one I use is the All-In-One Sidebar. Pretty nice.
    PDF Download is very useful too. Gives you various useful options for pdf files.
    Lastly you can use keywords for your bookmarks in Firefox to create custom searches.

  8. Chad 7 Oct 2005

    yeah…that is the one drawback…

  9. Mark 7 Oct 2005

    “I just don’t get the need for Adblock.”

    Each to their own but I hate flash adds, hate pop ups, pop unders, etc etc. I also use it to eliminate ads which I feel are morally wrong. Pro-Choice type stuff. I think that’s why I use bloglines so much now. Just give me the words and let me read in peace. 😉

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