The Firefox Addons I can’t use the web without

Mon Jul 13 20:04:31 2009 EDT (-0400 GMT)

Hopefully you’ve got the latest update to Firefox, version 3.5. It brings a welcome speed upgrade to most web sites.

Here’s the Firefox Add-ons that I feel like I can’t use the web without in an approximate list of frequently I find myself using them:

  1. Canadian English Dictionary
    For some reason, Mozilla doesn’t have a Canadian localization team, but I know that even the British dictionary doesn’t quite cut it for the truly patriotic.
  2. Firefox PDF Plugin for Mac OS X
    PDF files can be displayed so quickly on the Mac because the native display format is is based on PDF. Quickly that is if you don’t use Adobe’s application! Here’s the better alternative.
  3. GooglePreview
    Inserts preview images (thumbnails) and popularity ranks of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages.
  4. Evernote Web Clipper
    This extension provides a toolbar button to easily add a selection or an entire page to Evernote. If Evernote for Mac or Windows is installed – the clips go directly to the local application — and from there they are synced to your iPhone, BlackBerry, their web interface….. ,If been using this service instead of my own memory and I’ve had fantastic results.
  5. Speed Dial
    Speed Dial Firefox Add-on
    Direct access to your most visited websites as a thumbnail. Works great as a start page! It’s Safari 4-esque. I also find it handy to check-in to see what is the featured articles on Wikipedia are, what is on the top of Google news, etc. every time I open a new tab.
  6. Web Developer
    The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. Incredibly useful for those who do web development, or just work with a lot work with web-based systems. Some of the features I frequently use are: Displaying a web site’s CSS sheets in one tab, displaying all the ids and CSS classes on the page, populating forms with dummy content, viewing passwords instead of *****, viewing HTTP headers, quickly running pages through validation services, and the list goes on…..
  7. Firefox Accessibility Extension
    Support web developers and people with disabilities in accessing and testing web resources for accessibility features. Works great, especially if you compare it to the cost of your own copy of JAWS or Kerswell reader! Thanks to Kyle Mackie for this one.
  8. FoxyTunes
    FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser. I’ve always got Firefox open and in the foreground, so if I don’t have keyboard controls for iTunes this does the job.
  9. AddThis
    AddThis for Firefox is the best add-on to make sharing to Digg, Facebook, Twitter, etc easy.
  10. History Submenus
    This places each day’s entire browsing history in a submenu of the history menu.
  11. Reload Every
    Reloads web pages every so many seconds or minutes.
  12. Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO)
    Sets permanent opt-out cookies to stop behavioral advertising by 84 different advertising networks, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, all members of the Network Advertising Initiative, and many other companies.
  13. User Agent Switcher
    The User Agent Switcher extension adds a menu and a toolbar button to switch the user agent of the browser.
  14. Zotero
    Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. Great for anyone doing research with the help of a web browser.

An over-worked Firefox
One thing worth noting is that if you install all of these Add-on’s in Firefox it’ll look quite cluttered. With almost any Add-on I recommend disabling the Toolbar it may add via the “View” > “Toolbars” menu.

If you’ve got any other Add-ons you can’t live without feel free to leave a comment.

One Response to “The Firefox Addons I can’t use the web without”

  1. Mary Says:

    Great list! My favorite add-on is Billeo. It has great features that help pay bills online and manage passwords. It also tracks my expenses and saves purchase receipts. The tool is secure and compatible with Firefox 3.5.
    addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12715