My favorite extensions for Firefox
Firefox is my favorite browser for many reasons, one of them being that there are many, many extensions available that one can install to add additional features and functionality to the browser.
Here are some of my favorite ones:
Google Toolbar - Google is of course THE search engine to use and this toolbar will bring much of the Google functionality within the browser itself … the easiest way to search
ColorfulTabs - I just can’t remember what browsing was like before Firefox introduced tabs. Tabs are indeed a great feature but keeping more than a few open will make it a bit tough to find the right one when needed … this extension should help
Tab Groups - if you think tabs were a great idea, then check out this extension … it allows you to group together tabs based on whatever criteria you want. If you’re a power user, then this extension is a must.
FoxyTunes - it allows you to easily control your media player from within Firefox … why toggle between multiple applications when you can do it all from within the browser?
JSView - if you’re a web developer, then this extension should save you some time … it will enable you to easily see the source code for all the css or js files referenced by the page you’re currently looking at
StumbleUpon - a few years ago one of my favorite sites was a site that would send you to a randomly selected site from an internal list of links - it was a neat way to discover new sites that one didn’t know about. The problem was that you had no idea what type of site you might end up on and whether it would be even remotely interesting to you. StumbleUpon fixes all that as it will learn what you like and help you uncover new sites based on your interests.
ColorZilla - if you come across some interesting color on a site and you’d like to use it but you have no idea what the color code is, then this is the perfect extension to have around … you can easily find the color code by pointing to that color on the page - of course, all from within the browser
IE View - Firefox is the best browser out there but sadly some sites still make use of technologies (such as ActiveX) that only work in Internet Explorer. If you ever come across such sites that you have to use, then this extension will allow you to easily open an IE browser directly to the page in question.
Web Developer - this extension is a must if you do any kind of web development. It has so many features that it’s not easy to even list them all … best to just install it and try it out
These extensions are just some of the ones I use almost on a daily basis. The Firefox community created thousands of such add-ons - take some time to check them out, install any that seem interesting or useful to you, and make the most of Firefox.
Filed under: Computers, Productivity
