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Mozilla Firefox is the preferred browser for roughly a quarter of web users, me included. I’m a big fan of tabbed browsing, the quick search bar, the built-in spell check, and the “restore session” option.
But I’m no power user. Besides Googlepedia, which splits Google and Wikipedia in one search results page (above), I don’t take advantage of many Firefox Add-ons. Here are a few I’m about to install:
• StumbleUpon lets you “channelsurf” the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for finding and sharing great sites. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn’t think to search for.
• Cooliris Previews gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the Cooliris preview window immediately appears to show you the content. To email it, just click.
• InFormEnter adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in a web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted - no typing required. You can configure it to display your frequently used information such as name, email, address.
Enhancing my browsing experience is my resolution for June, and I’d appreciate your help. Which Firefox extensions are making your internet life easier?
Comments (16)
Comment
I love Tabbrowser Preferences (so you can do more with your tabs), Forecast Fox (shows you the weather down on the status bar) and IE View (you can open links in IE, which is handy if you want to view a video on MSN). I do have Cooliris Previews, but it is kind of annoying because I accidentally hover over the preview icon and open the preview window when I didn’t mean to.
posted by Leah on 5-29-2007 at 12:22 pm
There are only a few that I can’t live without:
- Adblock +
- Adblock Filterset.G Updater (those two combined catch just about every ad out there)
- Greasemonkey (install scripts that enhance functionality on websites and make life easier)
- Annoyance Remover (allows you to do things like remember passwords on websites that don’t normally allow it (like Yahoo!))
I have a lot more, but those are my favorites.
posted by Eric on 5-29-2007 at 12:24 pm
I use Firefox at work for my PERSONAL browsing. Our work application, accessed through the web, is not compatible with either Firefox or IE 7.
Basically I installed Firefox for fun when I was bored, to see what it was all about. I love it. I haven’t installed it at home yet, but that’s next.
Alas, because of my work application and for other issues, I still need IE. But the suggestion above from Leah (using “IE View” may resolve the issue.
I’m curious to see more extension suggestions.
posted by WizardBoy on 5-29-2007 at 12:54 pm
I second ForecastFox, though I prefer ForecastFox Enhanced, which allows you to specify the URL for a radar image.
I second AdBlockPlus, though I remember reading somewhere that the Filterset.G is redundant, and in fact is not recommended by the author of ABP.
I second IETab, though WizardBoy should know that if your work application needs any of the proprietary MS stuff, I believe it won’t work in Firefox. It only invokes the IE rendering engine. –RSN
posted by RSN on 5-29-2007 at 1:11 pm
I should also mention that I like Customize Google, which allows you to strip text ads from Google, as well, as filter out results from unwanted sites and allow a little more privacy.
Also, Tab Mix Plus is another alternative along the lines of Tabbrowser Preferences. –RSN
posted by RSN on 5-29-2007 at 1:14 pm
SiteAdvisor tells you if the website is potentially dangerous.
All-in-One Gestures lets you do things like reload the page and shift between tabs just by holding the right mouse button and drawing a specific line pattern.
I also recommend Forecast Fox, Customize Google, Adblock Plus, Greasemonkey, and IE tab, all of which have been said.
posted by Suteki on 5-29-2007 at 1:23 pm
I’m in love with Dictionary Tooltip (I wish I had it when I’m reading printed materials, too!).
Another add-on that I like, but doesn’t have a ton of use is Colorful Tabs. I like having pretty colors on my screen. :P
posted by LlannaLee on 5-29-2007 at 1:53 pm
Super Drag and Go is my fav extension– highlight any text, drag it to any area of the webpage, and a new tab will open displaying a search (or a new page) of that highlighted text.
posted by aija on 5-29-2007 at 2:25 pm
Yay for Firefox- love that browser!
I, too, do not use many FF extensions, but the few I do use, I use a lot.
FoxyTunes- Great for music. Can be used with all sorts of different media players, and means you can skip and pause and stop in one window. It does tend to drag a bit, though, when you have a lot of stuff open. (But doesn’t everything?)
Greasemonkey- Good for all sorts of little scrips. Used it for DeviantArt scripts until they went and changed their layout.
Layouts are fun too, if you get bored of the normal one. Mine is Tangerine.
posted by Emma on 5-29-2007 at 2:53 pm
I cannot live without MouseGestures similar to what was talked about above (I believe it is more similar to how Opera operates) and GooglePreview. I think GooglePreview is a little more lightweight compared to other Google add-ons in that it just adds a picture to the left side of results and reformats the page so that it fits better with the previews. I don’t mind the text ads as sometimes they are relevant for what I’m searching for.
posted by Mike on 5-29-2007 at 3:13 pm
I recently got my first Mac and decided to use Firefox instead of Safari, knowing that both are safer than IE. The deciding factor, though, was two extensions:
Adblock Plus, already mentioned and
Flashblock,which turns embedded Flash objects into blank boxes which can be enabled with a click. Since Flash based ads tend to be the most obnoxious, blocking them is really worthwhile.
I also have bugmenot, which fills free registration login forms with a right click and video downloader, which makes a file from streaming video. I don’t use either of these too often any more.
posted by Tom on 5-29-2007 at 3:17 pm
I like Answers - when you mouse on a word and right click, your menu includes an option to look that word up on Answers.com, while Alt-clicking gives you a pop-up window with that information (definitions, links, site descriptions etc).
Great for surfing the net and looking up new terms and sites without breaking stride. One of my all-time favorite handy little widgets.
posted by Soni Pitts on 5-29-2007 at 8:21 pm
I use a lot of the ones already mentioned plus: Sage (RSS reader); Save Image in Folder (you can specify a number of folders then just right click on the image and choose which folder to save to); MeasureIt (measures screen area); ColorZilla (color picker etc); All-in-One Sidebar (for extensions, Sage, Bookmarks, History, Downloads, etc)and Gmail Manager (shows you email waiting on multiple gmail accounts).
posted by Janice Dowdeswell on 5-29-2007 at 11:26 pm
I put together a list of Firefox extensions that I use neatly categorized here for mt friends who were frequently askin me the same question. Feel free to take a peek and let me know if you found it useful..
I have linked the blog post in my name.
posted by K-IntheHouse on 5-30-2007 at 7:22 am
Do try Interclue (linked from my name) as an alternative to Cooliris, you may well find it’s more useful on the whole.
posted by Seth Wagoner on 5-30-2007 at 9:41 am
Other extensions I use are
FoxyTunes - lets you control your media player in your browser. (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/219)
Linkification - automatically scans pages for links and makes them clickable (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/190)
Fasterfox - tweaks firefox for faster surfing (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269)
ColorfulTabs - does what it says, colors your tabs (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1368)
posted by Carl on 5-30-2007 at 11:29 am