Firefox 2 Add-Ons
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
When Firefox 2 launches in a day or two, hopefully we’ll steal some more people from Microsoft’s stranglehold on browser market share. Looking for a reason to switch? Here are some of the Add-Ons I use all the time:
Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
Most website have realized that everyone has pop-up blockers and sites with popups are frowned upon. So what’s the next step? fill the screen with flashing banner ads of course. That’s where Adblock comes in. It blocks any external content that acts like an ad. It could be an image or link coming from a blacklisted website, an image with “/ads/” in the address, or even an annoying flash animation demanding that you punch the monkey. I’ve been using this Add-on for the last two years and I can’t go without it now. It offers subscriptions so the author can keep you protected, but you can also right-click any offending content and adblock it.
IE Tab
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
Some websites just won’t leave the stone age and work in anything but Internet Explorer. Most of the time it’s because of special software or security that was too tricky to do in more than one browser at a time. With IE Tab you don’t have to leave Firefox, just click the IE tab button and Internet Explorer will render that tab instead of Firefox. You can even tell it to always show certain websites with IE.
StumbleUpon
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/138/
For all those times when you’re bored online and don’t really know what you want to do, StumbleUpon can take you to a random website you might enjoy. I’ve found many interesting websites even if some of them were unexpected flash games.
Web Developer
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/
If you do any work on websites, you need this one. It’s like built-in diagnostics that lets you control the rendering of a page. Turn off Javascript, css, outline divs, show the ID’s of elements, and all that good stuff.
Download Statusbar
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/26/
After using this one for a couple years, I find the downloads window annoying. With this Add-on, downloads appear across the bottom of the browser instead of in a pop-up window. You can keep tabs on all the downloads you have going, double click to run, and it’s smart enough to remove images after a few seconds.
Performancing
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1730/
If I don’t have my normal blogging tool, BlogDesk, Performancing is the best browser-integrated blogging tool. It acts similar to a frame across the bottom of the screen so you can browse while composing a post. It’s one of the few that supports categories and multiple blogs as well as technorati tags.
HTML Validator
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/249/
Another tool for web developers that validates the source of every page you visit. This is especially useful with large websites where it can be a pain to go through every page with the w3c validator. Instead you can just browse the site and watch for errors.
ColorZilla
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/271/
This one is for any designers out there. If you know what the eyedropper tool is, you’ll appreciate this. This add-on lives in the statusbar and lets you grab the color codes for any pixel in the browser. Great for matching the theme of a new page with the rest of the site – if you didn’t create a style guide that is.
MeasureIt
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/539/
Again for designers – this one will measure the size of any object in the browser in pixels. Just lasso a square around something and it will tell you the size. I use this most often for finding the width of a fixed layout or the content area after padding and margins.
del.icio.us Complete
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2354/
I’ve been using del.icio.us for almost a year now with Flock but when in Firefox I used to feel cut off from my bookmarks. Not anymore – this is one of the best add-ons for delicious, especially with the tag cloud.
Roboform
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/750/ or http://www.roboform.com
Everything you could want in a password manager. It works with almost every browser, know which fields to fill, and has some of the best encryption out there. While it’s not free for more than 10 passwords, it’s very easy to use. I have the portable version on my USB flashdrive and always have all my passwords with me. Also, the billing support is fast and friendly. Well worth the money for peace of mind.
