One of the things I love about Firefox is that it can be whatever you want it to be.
Here’s a quick list of 5 Firefox Extensions worth trying.
Session Saver: Whenever I close my browser, this neat extension will automatically save whatever tabs I had open at the time. This gives me the freedom to pick up right from where I left off my last web session.
Flashblock: I truly abhor Flash advertisments. They’re distracting, they suck up bandwidth and make my pages slow to load. This extension will block ALL the Flash from loading on your browser.
Of course, not all Flash files are evil, and there are times where you might want to see some Flash. As such, you can disable the filter with just one click, and also allow trusted sites to get around the filter. If you like this, you can also try Adblock.
IE View: Once in a very long while you are going to hit a site that only runs properly on IE. Should this happen, just click the icon and Internet Explorer will open, and point to your current page for a near seamless experience. You can also set a website to “always open in IE”
PDF Download: PDF files, while useful can be a nuisance at times if it’s on the web, as it may take ages to render in the browser. Now, everytime I click on a PDF file, This extension will tell me how large the PDF file is, then ask If I want to save the file, view it normally, or view it as HTML (Stripping out images for faster loading).
Answers : Hold down Alt (or Option on a Mac) and click on any word to get a quick definition, an up-to-the-minute reference and more from Answers.com. You don’t even need to highlight the word. Simple, fast, and really useful.
Related Links:
Get more Firefox Extensions at:
Mozilla
Mozdev
Roachfiend
Bonus Link: A collection of Firefox Related Avatars for Instant Messaging here
Technorati Tags: firefox, extensions, mozilla, answers, ie, flash, pdf
January 18th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I would add Tab Preferences, Super Drag and Drop, Mouse Gestures and miniT. Makes tabbing and navigation a whole lot better.
January 18th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Also worthy: Greasemonkey, Fasterfox, del.icio.us and “Cookie Button in the status bar” (seriously).
January 19th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Here are a few extensions I recommend (copied from my own list of extensions that I find useful):
• I like Add Bookmark Here, which adds an similarly titled menu item to every submenu in the Bookmarks menu enabling easy bookmarking in any folder.
• Dictionary Tooltip is one of my favorites. It displays the definition of a selected word in a kind of “scrollable tooltip” right on the page (as opposed to similar extensions that open a new window or tab, like Answers or DictionarySearch). There are several ways to invoke its inline window (it’s Control-Shift-D by default), but a double-click with the Control key down works for me.
• Then there’s Uppity, which adds an “Up” toolbar button that can be added to the navigation toolbar (and optionally the status bar, too), and makes navigating up a website’s directory structure as easy as clicking the button or pressing Alt-Up (Option-Up on Macs).
• Mycroft can add any of dozens of new search engines to the Search bar (like OneLook, Wikipedia and the IMDb), and SearchPluginHacks makes it easy to remove them.
• Finally, Tabs Menu adds, appropriately enough, a Tabs menu to Firefox’s main menu bar. This simple feature makes navigating the current window’s open tabs much, much easier.
February 2nd, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Great tips guys… will try’em out
June 18th, 2007 at 4:26 am
I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.4, and found that the “Answers” add-on (ver. 2.2.27) doesn’t really work unless you enable the “browser” option. IOW, if you select a “tip” (small) window it doesn’t work–you just get a blank box. After turning on “browser (full-screen) option, it worked just fine! It’s a “sticky” option, so you only have to set it one time. Very nice little tool! No need to highlight a word–just point and Alt-Left-Click.