5 Firefox Extensions I Can’t Live Without
Firefox is an awesome Web browser that supports third-party extensions. These add-ons add even more power and control to the popular browser. I use the Internet more than 8 hours daily, so I’ve tried and kept many extensions, and I’ll share my insight on them, here.
What are extensions? … Add-ons?
Extensions are enhancements for Firefox, serving a purpose of adding on features that aren’t natively available in the current Firefox release. For the sake of user-friendliness, Mozilla grouped the category of “extensions” and “themes” into Add-ons. Simply put, extensions add features and themes change the interface (colors, buttons, etc…)
I use the Internet a lot. Trust me, with a full time job that primarily exists online and a geeky life I need to support … I can say I’m probably using Firefox more than 8 hours daily. That said, I maximize my productivity with Firefox extensions and without them, I’d be pretty darn upset.
Extensions I Can’t Live Without:
- Adblock Plus — With this extensions, I can speed up Web browsing by filtering out ads. This increases speed by about 25% when browsing. Adblock Plus instructs Firefox not to render any addresses that are in it’s blocklist, and works wonders when blocking ads. An extension that self-updates, lets me add custom strings, and even shows stats, is a keeper for me and many other users!
- Fasterfox — This speeds up Web surfing by tweaking the internals of how Firefox retrieves web pages. It’s pretty straightforward. I also like to see how long a Web site took to load. Fasterfox also functions as a stopwatch to view the length of time to load a site. Powerful little tool for Webmasters, and helps speed things along for all users alike.
- Forecastfox Enhanced — This extension delivers Weather alerts and forecast, all from Accuweather.com. This version is “enhanced,” adding a higher resolution RADAR picture for your area. I love it. It updates automatically and conveniently alerts you, but doesn’t bother you that a storm is coming. All you need to do is enter your ZIP code, and you’re done. No spyware, no BS. When you’re done, go ahead and uninstall Weatherbug.
- Del.icio.us Bookmarks — The popular bookmarking service has their Firefox extension to help you synchronize bookmarks. It lets me tag sites right from my navigation bar, in seconds. I use this to access my bookmarks from anywhere, cross browser/OS. With tagging, it’s even easier to organize my bookmarks.
- Colorful Tabs – If you’ve used tabbed browsing, you can understand how challenging it is to keep ‘tabs’ on your favorite Web sites. This extension colors the tabs so you can easily identify tabs by color. It know it sounds silly, but it’s awesome. I have about 5 tabs open any given time, so this definitely helps!
Bonus: When I’m performing Web development or SEO work, these extensions are invaluable for working with Web development and analyzing existing Web sites: Web Developer for viewing and changing pages on-the-fly and SearchStatus for performing SEO functions and viewing Google PageRank and Alexa Rank. Ideally, this isn’t for the masses, but is very useful for Web developers.
That’s the best of the best extensions that I use. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of useful extensions available for Mozilla products such as Firefox and Thunderbird. It all depends on how you use the Internet and what you want to accomplish. You can check out the Mozilla Add-ons site and see what suits you best.
Do you have a favorite extensions? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Stumble it!
April 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 PM
I am one of the original developers of WeatherBug. I found your post by searching keyword Weathrebug on http://www.technorati.com
I do not mind you promote other weather extensions. Please promote them on their merits and stop unfairly accusing WeatherBug.
Weatherbug has never been spyware or adware. We are not flagged by any antispyware program and what your read on some web sites is pure nonsense and without any proof or evidence. We own and operate the largest weather station network in the country. I am not sure why you or any body else think we jeopardize our network by engaging in illegal activates.
For more information about my company please visit
http://weather.weatherbug.com/about-us/about-us.html
Ben
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:34 PM
I like VideoDownloader (http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php) because it lets me download video from places like YouTube and dozens of other video sites. It’s great for me because some of my friends and family members don’t have broadband, so with it I can download a video and put it on a flash drive to share it with them. Plus I was tired of having a YouTube or Google Video link in my favorites, and then when I went to watch it again seeing the “removed due to TOS” or “removed due to copyright restrictions” message instead- no more, thanks to VideoDownloader. It’s also more convenient than pasting the video’s URL into one of the sites that perform the same service.
Oh and lmao… do WeatherBug employees search for their employer’s name seeking those who would besmirch WeatherBug’s honorable reputation?
April 24th, 2007 at 5:23 PM
Ben,
Thank you for commenting. I value your insight as one of the developers of WeatherBug, but I’d like to raise a few concerns I have about your reply.
First, I did promote the Firefox extensions on their own merit. I didn’t even have to say IE sucks for my suggestions to be valid.
At no point did I state that WeatherBug was spyware, I simply offered an ad-free alternative for an end user to check their weather. Browser add-ons that don’t bundle spyware is a reasonable quality that users may find useful in their making informed decisions in their download choices. However, it may have been an implication that WeatherBug was spyware because it was contained with a link to a site that specialized in malicious software removal. That interpretation is not my own, and up to the readers to decide.
I personally dislike WeatherBug. This opinion is formed from technical expertise from helping numerous others with this software and personal experience with my girlfriend’s computer. Specifically, it is unacceptable that the way it bundles an IE BHO so it is natively difficult to remove and consumes valuable computer resources as it was fetching advertisements. I’ve had to manually remove the program and its contents by using the Microsoft Registry Editor, Spybot Search & Destroy, and a few minutes within HijackThis to fully remove it.
As a computer programmer and what I would assume, a power user, would understand that these requirements are beyond reasonable for the average or novice computer user to remove. If you believe these characteristics are ethical, acceptable or even something to be proud of — this only adversely impacts your credibility with me.
Not only have I proven your claims that WeatherBug is not ad-ware false, but I’ve validated this with an example described above. In addition, you incorrectly quoted me as stating WeatherBug is spyware, but since you’ve mentioned it, I’ll nod in agreement with your assumption.
If you believe I am grossly incorrect, I’ll be happy to author a full forensics investigation into how the Weatherbug software and provide a full analysis of whether or not WeatherBug is determined to be spyware. However, doing so may potentially violate the EULA and I’m not particularly in the mood for legal intimidation. Again, it’s an open offer — just say so.
As a suggestion for “your software,” I suggest that you take a look at what upsets users so much. Is it the ads or is it the hassle with uninstalling it — or is it both? Perhaps if WeatherBug offered a complimentary option to take advantage of it without ads, that may help satisfy many users. How about diving into a new market, and offer WeatherBug Widgets for one’s MySpace or blog. This will enable users to use your service, and perhaps help you clear your self-earned reputation. The bottom line is that if you made uninstallation seamless and not harmful to user’s computers — then I’ll be okay with it.
Instead of harnessing the blogosphere for honest communication, you comment of people’s blogs saying that they are wrong lacking any corroborating evidence — instead a link to your “About Us” page. This is an utterly lame and weak argument, but I’ll accept it.
While I am skeptical of the “wisdom of crowds,” especially on the Internet, the facts don’t lie and the fact I offered a competitive product (Forecastfox) it was clear your allegiance to WeatherBug clouded your ability to discern quality in software and what users really want.
Best Regards,
Joe
April 24th, 2007 at 6:22 PM
Junkyard Willie,
That is a pretty awesome extension. Although I don’t watch a lot of online video, I’m sure others would be interested in saving a local copy of a video to their computer.
FBB, FTW!
April 24th, 2007 at 8:29 PM
Holy cow Joe, looks like about as much effort went into your reply as in creating the damn program to begin with. Seriously, you’ve given these guys enough free advertising- if it was me I’d forgo any ‘forensic testing’ and just let them know that it’s an opinion blog (as stated in your TOS) and exempt from libel claims (and that even if WB escapes a certain definition of spyware, for all intents and purposes it might as well be).
Come on now- it’s WeatherBug… somehow I don’t see any widgets or concern for users in the near future. Savvy computer users have avoided them for years, they only exist because when Great Aunt Mabel gets her first computer she doesn’t know enough not to install it and provides them a few more precious accidental ad clicks.
Not to fear though- when the kids come to visit on the holidays, they run a malware scan for her and clean it right off.
September 12th, 2007 at 5:18 PM
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