I was just taking inventory of my Firefox extensions and thought it might make for an interesting blog article to tell my readers which ones I use, why I use them, and how to use them for yourselves. I expect that anyone who uses Firefox on a regular basis will have at least heard of if not already begun using most of these extensions. If that’s not the case I urge you to do so. They are great additional features.

Before we get into all of the extensions themselves it would be wise to learn a little bit about what an extension is. In terms of computing, which is what we are dealing with here, an extension is a piece of code that has no use at all by itself. Where the power of an extension comes into play is when it is added to another program. In this case we are talking about adding additional code to the Firefox web browser.

Wait, don’t panic! Trust me it is much easier than it sounds. No really, trust me. It is drag and drop easy. In fact I’ll describe the basic process to your right now.

1. You find an extension you like
2. You drag and drop it into your FireFox browser window
3. You wait a few seconds for the install button on the popup window to become available
4. You click install on the popup window
5. You either install more extensions and then restart Firefox or you just restart Firefox
6. You enjoy the new extension(s)

Downthemall

Downthem all is a download manager made for Firefox. Unlike other download managers designed for use with Firefox it requires no outside programs to be loaded. Each time I use it I am impressed by the speed increase I get when downloading files using this extension. It allows you to download multiple parts of large files from multiple sources much in the same fashion as torrents allow.

Grease Monkey

This extension allows you to manipulate the performance of webpages based on javascript you insert into the webpage via your browser as it displays the page. This code doesn’t actually change the code of the webpage on the server it just makes changes to the rendering that you see locally. No one else sees the changes unless they are running Grease Monkey with the exact same javascript coding as you are.

An example of this extension at work would be comments on Myspace. Sometimes I don’t want to see certain friends comments. I am able to load a javascript I found online called Myspace ignore bulletins. When I load up my Myspace page I see everything including comments from all other friends but I don’t see comments from the friend(s) I wanted to block. It’s great if you have a few especially spammy friends. For more codes visit www.userscripts.org

PDF Download

There is a problem with displaying PDF files in the Firefox browser. Fortunately since I’ve been using this extension I’ve not had to deal with that issue. Actually to be perfectly honest it has been so long that I can’t even remember what the issue is. Regardless this is a great extension to have. It allows you to download (and save) the PDF file to your PC, open the PDF file in your browser (converts it to html), or simply view it in your external viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.

IE Tab

The developers tout this as a great way for a designer to see how thier web pages display in both FireFox and Internet Explorer. I disagree. Yes it works for that, but the true power of this extension lies in when you want to view pages that will not display in Firefox. For example Windows Update won’t display in Firefox and there are some sites that are now refusing to show pages in Firefox due to its adblock capabilities (something we will touch on in just a moment).

Adblock Plus

This is, in my never humble opinion, the greatest extension ever developed for Firefox bar none. That of course means that there are plenty of people who hold a completely opposite opinion as I do. What this extension does is it blocks advertisements from showing up on websites. Actually it can block any image, domain, etc from ever showing up. As you can well imaging this can cause some grief (not to mention anger) among web masters who are trying to make revenue from showing ads. To such an extent that some are using various methods to detect Firefox browsers and taking people to a special page basically telling them “We don’t want your business if you use Firefox”.

Another blogger by the name of Mark Evans describes Adblock as pure evil. I understand his perspective, but I totally disagree. It is actually pure bliss being able to surf the internet without a constant influx of ads. Beside for about 30-60 minutes a day I make it a point of no using adblock so I can reward other bloggers at some point.

Forecast Fox

This great plugin gives you updated weather information right in your browser status bar. It is totally non-invasive and you can get as detailed or as mundane as you like with the information you display. All weather data is pulled from www.accuweather.com. You can get forecasts up to 8 days out.

Stumbleupon Toolbar

This toolbar lets you click on the appropriate graphic to stumble a page. This is a very convient way to stumble other sites and I find myself quite often using it to stumble articles I find halway appealing.

Faster Fox

Out of the box Firefox can sometimes have some speed issues. This little extension helps to rectify many of those problems. It is pretty much install, activate, and forget as it requires almost no user interaction. If you desire a faster browsing experience without having to do a bunch of work this extension is for you.

Foxy Tunes

Foxy Tunes allows you to control media players (Win Amp) via your Firefox browser window, look up lyrics, bios, and much more

There is a quick down and dirty run through all of the extensions that people should be using with Firefox. If I failed to mention any you believe to be appropriate please leave me thier name and the link of the place you found it.

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Tags: extensions, firefox, web browser