My favorite little Firefox extensions.

[Crippler]

I am an avid fan and user of the Firefox web browser. Over the 3-4 yrs I have been using it I have come across a staple of extensions that I can not live with out. I keep coming across extensions that are really cool everyday and I try to give them a shot. But not all of them are the bee's knees. So, I figured it's about time I share my favs with everyone here. I know there are a few of us that use Firefox and I'm sure you all have some cool ones you love too. So, feel free to share those extensions too.

Firefox Extensions:

1. Adblock Plus: This sweet extension blocks all of those pesky ads that tend to bloat websites these days. You can help support websites you frequent by using the 'whitelist' feature of this extension. This allows those ads and sends hits to them also.
2. FasterFox: This extension will help you tweak and tune your browser so it performs even faster.
3. FlickrFox: Do you have a Flickr account? This extension will show your feed and your contacts of choice within a sidebar in Firefox. Nice.
4. IE View Lite: Ok, so not every page out there likes to conform to standards. Some sites are just coded to take advantage of some IE specific functions. This extension will allow you the option to open the page in an IE based tab WITHIN Firefox or solely in IE itself.
5. Sage: Have a lot of RSS feeds to read? Give Sage a shot. Firefox has the built-in functionality of a RSS reader. Which I mostly use as a drop down box from my bookmarks tool bar. Sage will give you a better reader and allow you to display the feeds from a sidebar and tabbed.
6. SearchStatus: Ok, this one helps out with a sites Alexa rank which advertisers use for determining what sites may have the traffic they may be looking for. It allows Alexa to determine traffic across the net.
7. Tab Catalog: This is my latest addition to my extensions and I love it! What it does is use the AJAX features of the browser, Java I think, and overlays all your open tabs in a thumbnail view within Firefox. This is something IE 7 does in a separate tab that I was drooling for and here it is. But done in a much cooler fashion using AJAX. Must have for those who browse with multiple tabs. Really, is there any other way?
8. Adblock Filterset.G Updater: This one will always keep Adblock Plus's filter up to date with the latest ad blocking scripts.
9. Statusbar Clock: This extension adds the date and time into the statusbar in Firefox. It hasn't been updated in a few so it may not work properly with FF 2.0. This one I had hacked to keep it working. Which isn't really that hard.
10. FotoFox *New addition* : This extension allows you to upload photos to popular photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Kodak Easyshare, etc within a browser sidebar.

That is my stable of extensions that I use on a daily basis. There are a few that I would like to mention also that I do not use as often but are sweet non the less.

• FireFTP: A nice and simple FTP program that runs in a tab within Firefox.
• ForecastFox: If you always need to know what the weather is like outside. Then this one is for you.

There are TONS of extensions available and the list grows daily. Check here for a complete, searchable list. Firefox also has a lot of themes available. My current favorite is Mostly Crystal. It adds some needed color. I'll stop here. Maybe I'll get some time to post up some of the Firefox userchrome customizations I use too.

If you haven't given Firefox a try, please do. You may never go back to IE again. I haven't.

Enjoy!

[Fragmintz]

This is a great post Crip. I recently made the Firefox switch, along with my MAC transition. I'm going to try some of these out - thanks!

[Peench]

Awesome post Cripp. I note you mentioned a few of the ones listed in this Photo Montage. Figured I would pass on the rest of em too.

[D_Litch]

I've been using FF for as long as I can remember. I think it was either in alpha or beta when I downloaded it. Anyways, here are some of my favs:

1~Adblock Plus
2~IE Tab
3~Fasterfox
4~McAfee Site Advisor
5~Sage
6~ForecastFox

God I love The Fox

[Quo]

i have firefox installed but I'm unable to use it exclusively because several of the business sites that I use (MLS service, county records, GIS systems, etc) don't seem to like it much.

It is amazingly cool. The deal killer for me though was that my goofy virus software (McAfee) forces me to use IE... when it auto-updates every day it pops up a window. Although I told Firefox to open it in IE, for some reason the McAfee site thinks I'm using Netscape and wants to install an add-on. So I had to switch the default back to IE. Although IE7 is better than the previous version, it's still buggy and freezes from time to time.

[Grenic]

My favourite is mouse gestures! If you have a mouse that doesn't have the forward/back button on either side, the mouse gestures are an excellent alternative. As a matter of fact, I usually use the mouse gestures, even if the mouse is fully cabable.

[Xboxdash XBE]

Torrent Search is a great addon I think. Saves me a ton of time trying to locate files on the net.