My Favorite Firefox Extensions

The Extension architecture is one of the coolest features of Mozilla Firefox. PC Magazine recently published an article rating their top 15 Firefox extensions. I found the list uninspiring - only a couple of the extensions were remotely interesting, and there are many extensions that I like that they didn't list. So here's list of my favorite extensions:

Browsing Enhancments
ieView
I don't like running IE, but there are a few sites that still require it to work properly. Fortunately, with this add-in IE is never more than a click away when you need it.

Focus Last Selected Tab
As far as I'm concerned, FLST makes Firefox behave the way it always should have. With this extension, when you close a tab, the previously active tab gets focus. Particularly useful when searching the web and launching new tabs when exploring search results (something I do a lot).

ImageZoom
Because some times those images are just too darn small. Great for zooming into screenshots.

FlashBlock
I hate navigating to a site and being blasted by a flash animation or ad (especially when they have sound). This extension lets me control when those animations play. It desperately needs a whitelist feature, though - especially since more companies are incorporating flash into regular old business web sites. UPDATE - the latest version does include whitelists. Awesome.

GoogleBar
Because Google is the source of all knowledge.

DuplicateTab
Opens the currently viewed URL in a new tab. Not something that I use constantly, but every once in a while it comes in handy. The "Merge Windows" feature is particularly handy - it combines all the open Firefox windows into one.

AdBlock
Uh - it blocks ads.

Disable Targets for Downloads
Prevents annoying blank tabs from popping up when downloading files from some sites.

ScrapBook
I learned about this one from the PCMag article. Allows you to save a web page or snippet of a page into a library for future viewing and searching.

Web Development Extensions

DOM Inspector
An option in the advanced Firefox install. It gives you a nice tree view of the current DOM document. Very handy.

User Agent Switcher
OK, I haven't actually needed this yet, but it's there just in case. :)  Allows you to switch the browser that is reported to the server when requesting pages.

Web Developer
A fantastic grab-bag of developer-related functions. From disabling cookies and scripts to viewing style and tag information, this is a must have extension for web developers.

Live HTTP Headers
View HTTP headers on your web requests - great for troubleshooting problems.

ColorZilla
Another one that I learned about from the PC Mag article. A handy little tool that lets you view the RGB color definition for any point on a page.

Miscelleneous Extensions
ChromEdit
Provides easy access to the various user customization files of Firefox (userChrome.css, user.js, etc)

Gmail Notifier
A fantastic tool for keeping tabs on your Gmail account.


How about you? What extensions do you run?

3 Comments

  • ....but your blog aint Mozilla friendly...



    I use the SwitchProxy Tool as well as plain text link

  • " ....but your blog aint Mozilla friendly..."



    Yes, I know, and I'm very annoyed by it. But I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about it - it's a weblogs.asp.net skin. I'll do some research to see if there's anything I can do.

  • Nuke Anything <a target="_new" href="http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/">http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/



    TinyURL Creator

    <a target="_new" href="http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/">http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/



    xKiosk (a.k.a Paranoia button)

    http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/xkiosk



    JavaScript Debugger

    http://www.hacksrus.com/~ginda/venkman/



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