I’ve had quite a number of posts on this site which talk about the many ways you can improve Firefox with some top notch extensions…
This however, is a list of extensions to AVOID. Many of them have spyware or adware installed and are maliciously released to the community. Take a quick look and make sure none of them are installed on your PC.
Having said that, Firefox is still FAR more secure than IE. Washington Post recently reported that Internet Explorer was unsafe 284 days in 2006. Not exactly a vote of confidence in Microsoft’s favor.
[tags]firefox, firefox extensions[/tags]
March 6th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Darn, I’ve been using the Email Notifier without knowing that it was a spyware. Unfortunately there isn’t another addon that is similar to it, so I’m in a dilemma over whether to remove it or not, since it’s really useful.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I’d advise removing it. Not worth the potential identity theft. Try searching online for alternatives. This is one for gmail.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/173/
March 7th, 2007 at 1:15 am
Most valuable information. Thanks.
Fortunately, even though I have 60 running Firefox extensions, none was in the blacklist.
Well, that does feel like a breeze of fresh air.
March 9th, 2007 at 2:46 am
No problem Foxtrotter - glad it helped
May 5th, 2007 at 11:39 am
geez… i have 18 extension and thanks to the list… none of them there. Pheewwws… nice to know that. Thanks again James.
May 5th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Glad to be of help papajoneh!
May 17th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Where is the list? I don’t see it.
May 19th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Is stumble upon what you mean, you wrote stumble it. I love that extension. Is it really dangerous?
May 20th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Nancy: No it’s not - I think you’re referring to my feedflare where it’s there for people to stumbleupon this post. Apologies for any confusion :)
July 11th, 2007 at 4:22 am
Thanks…I now try to restrict the number of extensions.
August 26th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Hello, Just StumbledUpon this site and was looking for the “Massive list of Firefox extensions you DON’T want to install.” I’ve looked and looked for the list, cannot find it. Is it still available? Thanks.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Hi Cheri - yeah it is - click the link in the post below or visit this one…
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=500994
November 10th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I don’t use Firefox because:
1. Add-ons are the primary point of entry for browser malware.
2. Firefox needs add-ons to be fully functional.
Despite all the fuss about IE, I still use it. (Actually, I use Avant, which is an improved GUI wrapped around the IE core.)
For protection, I disable ActiveX. And I use Spyware Guard to catch any add-ons trying to attach themselves to IE. It has caught a few of those in the last couple of years.
December 9th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
I think most of the Firefox extensions available officially are safe Alfred and Firefox in general is much safer than IE. Both Spyware Guard and Spyware Blaster from Javacool are excellent additions to any security suite.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I don’t see the list!
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
ttt:look for the word AVOID in the post above. That link leads to the list!
November 7th, 2008 at 6:10 am
i want to unistall Mozilla firefox from my pc
December 27th, 2008 at 5:04 am
To all those scared about firefox: just uninstall addons from the list, and check the ratings/comments of addons before installing them. Alternatively, just install addons that Mozilla recommends (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/recommended), that’ll include most of what you want anyway.
Or, if you’re really scared, just use opera or safari or chrome (anything but the slow, standards-non-compliant, shitty browser that is ie).
Oh, and for mail notifiers: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4490 for general use, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/173 for gmail, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1264 for yahoo.
December 27th, 2008 at 5:29 am
omg the worst thing i’ve ever installed on my firefox was :undo closed tabs: where you can do the SAME THING by pressing Ctrl + shift +T
waste of memory
February 1st, 2009 at 6:43 am
Where are they???????
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:18 am
I second that — where is the actual list of extensions to avoid? (Or am I being dense?)
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
@asda & subfugitive: look for the word AVOID in the post above. That link leads to the list :)
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Maybe I’m just dumb, but it says what ad on to stay way from. I been lookin all over, and I can’t find this list. Is this a dangerous web site your using my email for bad reasons?