Out the Window Computer

Absolutely Necessary Firefox Extensions

Subjective as it may be, everyone has their own list of “must-have” extensions for perennial favorite, infinitely extensible, free and open source, web browser Mozilla Firefox. If you haven’t tried it yet, just download it, you’ve got nothing to lose.  And once you have, these are the extensions that you shouldn’t have to live without.

Adblock Plus – Much to my surprise, this add-on is rather controversial. The argument being that extensions such as these take away needed revenue from blogs and other sites that are ad-supported. Some sites even refuse traffic from users running ad blocking software in protest. Being an ad-supported blog, I can understand having such a mindset. I’ve also visited any number of sites with obnoxious, intrusive, and virus-downloading-into-my-machine advertisements. My thinking is this: If I find a site that I like, which provides me with useful content, and does not harm my machine or my sanity with dangerous/obnoxious advertisements, I will turn Adblock off in good faith and support. The rest of the time, I forget the web has ads, and its nice.

Download Statusbar – I know it might be handy for some people, but I absolutely hate the little pop-up window that comes up whenever I’m downloading something. Its probably because I’m always downloading something, but still. Whatever the reason, Download Statusbar drops every download into a neat little toolbar on the bottom of my screen.

IE Tab – For those with Windows machines, IE can remain a necessary evil, especially for things like Windows Update. Or not. IE Tab renders like IE, perfect for testing HTML, and can even trick the Windows Update website into working with Firefox, with a single mouse click. IE is as deleted as it can be on my Windows machine.

del.icio.us – If you haven’t heard of del.icio.us yet, click on it and check it out. I haven’t used a bookmark in years. Don’t get me wrong, Firefox’s bookmarks have come a long way, but between work, home, the SO’s laptop, and everything in between, I use a lot of different computers. And while bookmark syncing is pretty cool, having my bookmarks follow me effortlessly is my personal way to go. Getting to my bookmarks from any computer with an internet connection is a great perk as well.

Hide Menubar – I like my screen space. I didn’t always, though. I used to think that I needed to see all of the buttons and toolbars that I rarely used on a constant basis. I have since learned that scrolling sucks and things I don’t use regularly can be hidden away. What better to hide than the rarely used “File, edit, view…” menubar. The bar toggles with the ALT key when I need it and hides itself away when I don’t; keeps the best of both worlds. For obvious reasons, this particular add-on does not work with Macs, but Linux and Windows are both supported.

Searchbar Autosizer – This particular add-on has a number of features that I do not use, such as the ability to minimize the searchbar to a button when it is not in use, and adjust the searchbar’s size while typing a query. But the killer app of this add-on is its ability to clear the searchbar after the enter key is pressed. Prefect for keeping that clean look…or hiding searches you don’t necessarily want anyone to see.

So there you have it, my must have Firefox add-ons. Feel free to add your own in the comments.