Seems every third Stumble I hit is a list of “must have” Firefox plugins. I guess it’s time for me to join the fray. Here are the plugins I have installed right now, and the reasons I can’t live without them.
In the order they show in my Add Ons dialog:
CustomizeGoogle: This extension has a myriad of options to make Google do just what you want. For instance, my Google results are now defaulted to 30 results per page, and images in image searches are linked to the image, not a thumbnailed, framed version of the original page. Can also remove ads from essentially every Google tool.
Deepest Sender: I’m using this to write this blog post. Gives me a simple notepad-esque editor, usable offline, for my wordpress posts. Can also edit existing entries.
FaviconizeTab: This allows you to arbitrarily remove the text from a Firefox tab, making the tab just as wide as that website’s favicon. It can also auto-iconize tabs that you specify (for me, that’s Pandora, GMail, and Twitter)
FireFTP: FTP client that loads in a new tab in Firefox. Honestly, it’s the most usable FTP client I’ve been able to find – loading in an existing window is just icing.
Gmail Manager: Gmail notifier on steroids. Can handle multiple accounts, including own-domain accounts (such as my sam@imnotpete.com address)
Sage: An RSS reader that loads in your sidebar, and takes its feeds from a folder in your bookmarks (customizable). It can be set to load the linked items in a custom page with simplified CSS and no ads, saving you from having to navigate the target site.
Stop-or-Reload Button: This simple extension merges your stop and reload buttons into one. If the page is loading, it’s a stop button. If the page is done or has stopped, it’s a reload button. The icon changes to match the current function.
StumbleUpon: Do I really need to talk about this one? Do I really?
Twitterbar: This adds a small button to my address bar. I can type a Twitter update into my address bar (just overwrite what’s there), and click the new button, and it will post to Twitter for me, returning the bar to its original contents when it’s done.
User Agent Switcher: This should be known by web developers (and non-Windows users). This add-on changes what Firefox reports itself as. For instance, if a software site just gives me a page that says “sorry, there’s no Linux version” instead of alternative downloads, I can just change my user agent to IE and grab a Windows download to try in wine.
Web Developer: This toolbar has a huge number of very handy tools. Visual HTML parsing (IE, dynamic borders on your tables), links to web standards validators, etc. Very complete
XML Developer Toolbar: I just installed this one today. It claims to be the equivalent of the afore-mentioned Web Developer, but with a focus on XML. We shall see.
The Honorable Mentions
ColorZilla: This extension adds a Gimp-style color dropper to the statusbar, making it easy to grab the color of anything you see (including outside the browser) without needing a third app open. Unfortunately, it seems to be inoperable with any Linux install I try (including my current Fedora 8 x86_64).
SpiderZilla: This will download an entire website to your harddrive, keeping all internal links synchronized. I used it with great success to download a part of my geneaology. This extension is also Windows-only (depends on an .exe file. I haven’t tried to see if it will work with wine).
ChatZilla: Hmmm I’m seeing a theme. This extension is a light-weight IRC client. Was greatly useful when I occasionally needed chat access. Now that I use IRC more often, I’ve switched to standalone clients – first xChat and now irssi.
Firebug: An HTML/CSS/JavaScript debugger. Somewhat buggy on Linux (IE, reeeeally slows down Gmail).
Thus endeth the roundup. What extensions do you depend on for day-to-day use or development?
