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FireFox Extensions

The best thing about Firefox is its extensibility. With hundreds of extensions available, it helps to get a little feedback from time to time. This is my humble list of extensions I use. If you use a sweet extension I'm missing, please let me know.

Last Updated: Thurday October 6, 2005

Adblock

An awesome extension for blocking Ads from blacklisted sites. The blacklist is completely customizable to suit your needs. To save time, you can download a premade filter list.

All-in-One Gestures

I'm a keyboard jockey, but most websites are not keyboard friendly. This extension lets me perform several functions using mouse gestures. This way, I'm not jumping back and forth between keyboard and mouse.

Auto Copy

Select text…copy to clipboard. Doesn’t get any easier than that. If you use any extension that relies on selected text, such as Dictionary Search, be sure to disable the 'Deselect After Copy' option.

Bandwidth Tester

This is for the geekiest of the geeky that really need to know just how fast they're surfing at any given time.

ColorZilla

A developer's dream. See a color on a site you like? No problem. Use the ColorZilla eyedropper on the status bar to get the RGB and HEX code. It has other features too, but I mostly use the color detection.

Dictionary Search

If you're like be, big words are frightening and scary. This extension lets you quickly lookup those 50 cent words by adding a lookup option to the right-click context menu.

Download Manager Tweak

Let's face it, the default download manager in FireFox ain't very pretty. This one is pretty. I especially like to have my downloads open in their own tab.

FasterFox

This plugin turbo charges FireFox into a lean, mean, web browsing machine.

fireFTP

I don't use FTP enough to really care about installing a legitimate FTP client. This extension is a nice compromise.

FirefoxView

If you're a developer, you can't live without this one. It adds a 'View in Firefox' option to the right-click context menu in Internet Explorer.

ForecastFox

I live in Colorado. The weather likes to change. I like to know. This extension adds a pretty and customizable toolbar for monitoring the weather. It even has a toast option for those of you who love toast.

ieview

Same as FirefoxView, but the other way around.

JavaScript Debugger

Another developer essential. This bad boy actually lets you walk through the JavaScript to pinpoint what is going on, set watch variables, etc. Save your hairline and get this extension.

jsLib

Another developer essential. This extension adds the jsLib components and keeps them up to date. What is jsLib? It is a library of common, useful JavaScript routines. See jslib.mozdev.org for more information.

SecurePasswordGenerator

Anyone that has to create passwords on a regular basis needs the extension. I just wish it had an option to automatically add generated passwords to the clipboard.

User Agent Switcher

A nice developer tool that allows you to define the user agent sent to a server. Basically, you can see how your site will react to specific user agent strings (or lack thereof) without actually installing more browsers. Also good for paranoid people.

Web Developer

If you are a web developer and do not have this exension, you are missing out. There's so much to this thing I can't begin to cover it all. Get it! Use it! Love it!

This list is based on the most recent version of Firefox on a Windows operating system.

Print | posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 10:48 PM