20 Must-have Firefox Extensions

An anonymous reader noted that Computerworld is running a story on the 20 must have Firefox extensions. Several of my favorites are in there so I'm looking forward to playing with the ones I haven't heard of.

Comments

Adblock?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Why isn't adblock mentioned?

*fires up internet explorer, browses tfa*

Oh.

Two flash ads & an animated gif (along with the pop-up). Not surprised they didn't mention ad block plus and filterset g.

Install them & never see another ad again. Ever. (without any sort of configuration).

Re:Adblock?

[Tx]

It may be selfish, but I kind of wish people wouldn't mention those too often. If they get too widely used, it will just mean more annoying, unavoidable ads. Like those ones that make you visit an ad page in order to then get the link to the actual article. Those piss me off.

Re:Adblock?

[Yosho]

If you're using AdBlock Plus, I'd recommend that you subscribe to EasyList rather than use Filterset.G. Filterset.G is designed for the original AdBlock, and doesn't take advantage of a number of featues that AdBlock Plus has; for example, it features automatic subscription updating, so you don't need another extension just to update it. Also, the Filterset.G updater will blow away any customizations you've made to the block list when it updates, while EasyList won't. For more info, read the FAQ.

Re:Adblock?

[Inda]

Yes, true, because banner ads in the middle of TV programmes are so much better.

Re:Adblock?

[GetSource]

In a way, I agree -- but more about people blocking *all* ads in general.

However, while I don't mind people mentioning Adblock, I do mind people mentioning Filterset.g. For me, though, it's because ads are what make the internet run: if it weren't for ads, we wouldn't have near the amount of free sites that we do. Heck, Google would probably not even exist anymore.

The reason that I *do* like Adblock is that it allows you to get rid of the ads that should have never existed in the first place: Shaking/blinking ads, video ads that eat up all your bandwidth, and ads with blaring auto-starting sound.

What I generally do ... is leave most ads on, then block the ones that are especially irritating. This allows places to continue to have revenue, but only stunts the growth of the companies that produce ads that are more obtrusive/use more resources than an ad should.

It's a little hypocritical, perhaps, but I think that when choosing an ad provider, a site should think about the users' comfort at their site as well as about ad revenue.

Re: 20 Must-have Firefox Extensions

[Anonymous Coward]

20 Must-have Firefox Extensions

or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bloat.

20 is too many

[Mostly a lurker]

Based on my experience, Firefox often becomes unstable when too many extensions are included. The problem is that extensions can conflict with each other. This risk is low with a small number of extensions but increases as the number of extensions increases. Extensions are a great feature of Firefox, but it is best to select the 10 or so that really increase your productivity and let the rest go.

What about unplug? What about flashgot?

[Anonymous Coward]

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2254/

It allows you to rip streaming content easily from websites. It can handle everything from flash movies (.flv) on youtube to mp3 data streamed to your web browser. Paired with the Flashgot plugin:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/220/

You can download all of the links on a webpage, just like certain download managers used to. Its a great combo.

And add in flashblock while you're at it.

[cliveholloway]

Flashblock makes sites browsable again. Stop autoplay falls into the same category :) And No script is just plain sensible.

Other simple extensions that make life saner include copy as plain text (A life-saver in this "MS-we-know-what-you're trying-to-do" world) and the BugMeNot extension.

For those without Adblock

[Spad]

As the site has been Slashdotted already, have a Coralised, Printer-friendly version.

Re:For those without Adblock

[pla]

As the site has been Slashdotted already, have a Coralised, Printer-friendly version.

Oh, for shame! Such an easy chance to plug something on-topic, yet another FF extension... ;-)

Resurrect Pages lets you check all the major internet cache sites for dead content.

Might have been just me . . .

[OverlordQ]

. . but I just dont see why many of those are 'Must have'. I mean how often do I need to measure stuff?

sensationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

IAAFPS and i call bs on this one


if this list were anywhere near accurate it should have included these extensions:

• Navigation
  • Thumbs - Shows the first thumbnail from each linked gallery, letting you skip galleries that don't look interesting.
  • Linky - Open all links in tabs, etc.
  • firefusk - view all images from galleries with numerically named image files.
  • Browse Images - Use the Forward button or Alt+Shift+Right to go to the next image.
  • Location Navigator - Select a portion of a URL that varies, then navigate up or down.
  • Digger - Navigate to parent directories in URLs, etc.
  • refspoof - Modify your HTTP Referer to gain access to sites that use insecure login mechanisms.
• Downloading and saving
  • DownThemAll - Download all the links to images/movies on a page at once.
  • FlashGot - Download all the links on a page at once using an external download manager.
  • Download sort - Save files to folders based on extension or download date.
  • spiderzilla - Download entire web sites.
  • Super DragAndGo - Drag a link to open it in a new tab; drag an image to save it.
• Videos
  • Launchy - Open links to video files in an external player, streaming, so you can watch a video without waiting to download it. (Note that not all video players support streaming video; for example, WinAmp 5.111 hangs. VLC works well. Here's my launchy.xml for VLC.)
  • MediaPlayerConnectivity - Open embedded video in an external player, so you can use features like Full Screen.
• Images
  • Image Zoom - Convenient shortcuts for zooming images.
  • mozImage - Browse images on hard drive or view them in a slideshow.

Most of the authors of these extensions are not yet members of the Pornzilla project.

Re:sensationalism

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of that looks like it is not for making regular internet viewing easier, but for streamlining the viewing of internet porn (not saying net porn viewing isn't normal, but there is a distinction between using the net and using the net for porn). Kinda freaky what you can tell about someone from what extensions they have installed...

Re:sensationalism

[djSpinMonkey]

IAAFPS and i call bs on this one

You are a first person shooter?

Addons memory usage

[secolactico]

Is there a way to see how much memory is each extension using?

Extensions

[JohnyDog]

Well most of them aren't really 'must-have' at all, and half of them are tied to some specific service. Anyway, as everybody will be posting they're favourite extensions, i'll add few less popular ones, that i found really useful for daily work:

DownThemAll! 0.9.9.7 - can download all files from page (both links and directly embeddeded) with settable filter, custom renaming and all other features you'd expect form download accelerator

Image Zoom 0.2.7 - zooming images (and only images) - i found it very needed for high-dpi displays, or where the OS-specific zoom-tool isn't enough.

MR Tech Local Install 5.3.2.3 - nice tool for managing extensions - can make any older extension compatible on one click (simple change of required firefox version), also can generate installed extension list like this one you're reading now, either in text, HTML or BBcode

Remove It Permanently 1.0.6.3 - more useful version of NukeIt - shows you what content is actually being removed in red outline, can remove parent widget of what you're hovering over, or 'all similar items', on per-page,per-domain,per-website basis;useful for pages heavily infested with ads

Tiny Menu 1.4.2 - the whole menu is compacted to one button 'Menu' which you can drag on your address toolbar (it's actually the other way round), saving needed screen space

Unread Tabs 0.3 - shows opened-but-yet-unread tabs with Italics

Wow

[HalAtWork]

Someone takes their porn browsing seriously!

PrefBar and LiveHTTPHeaders

[hweimer]

I have only encountered two really useful extensions so far, the rest usually being too bloated or insecure to install them.

The first is the PrefBar, which allows to quickly change browser options.
For example, enable or disable Cookies, Java(Script) with a single click. Or choose from different proxies, which is very useful in combination with Tor.

For web developers, LiveHTTPHeaders is a must. It allows you to track redirects, view Cookies or view and manipulate POST requests.

The complete list

[Anonymous Coward]

Tools for taming the Web
StumbleUpon
Yahoo Mail Notifier
Gmail Manager
Greasemonkey

Visual Improvements
Firefox Showcase
Cooliris Previews
Colorful Tabs
ChromaTabs

Matters of convenience
Google Browser Sync
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
Session Manager
All-in-One Gestures
IE Tab
Download Statusbar
Download Sort
Nuke Anything Enhanced

Information gatherers
Forecastfox
Answers

Web developer essentials
FireFTP
Firebug
Web Developer
MeasureIt
ColorZilla

Yes, there are more than twenty, but 20 sounds better, doesn't it? By the way, please skip the IE tab. If you are using Firefox, it is in your best interest to abandon sites that only support Internet Explorer. I should go on to say something more, because I apparently don't have enough characters per line: more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more

threat level

[magarity]

Those plugins are all very cute, but the plugin I rely on most is the one that displays the Homeland Security department's current threat level.