There’s a 22% chance you’re using Firefox, and since you’re actually reading this, you’re probably a bit more tech savvy than the average Internet user, so you’re most likely using Firefox (or Safari, but sometimes Firefox, am I right?). Let’s get on with it – here’s some Firefox add-ons, or extensions if you will, that I can’t live without, can you…?
Adblock Plus
This one is tricky. Advertisements are what keeps lots of the Internet free now a days, so blocking the ads is not the best thing to do. With that said, some sites simply overdo with ads – way too much. Use Adblock Plus to block the overwhelming ads you’re certain you don’t want to see, e.g. flash banners and such. But don’t forget to actually click on some of the ads you see, just to support the site owner and show your appreciation. It doesn’t cost you anything and only takes a second. I do this myself sometimes, even in YouTube videos, if the advertisement is just a little bit interesting.
Download Statusbar
Do you also hate the download manager in Firefox since it’s in a separate window, making it hard to find if you’re having a lot of windows open? “Download Statusbar” solves this for you, simply, by adding a … *drum roll, please* … statusbar, to the bottom of your browser. Mouse over one of your downloads in progress and you get more information, percentage completed etc. It even supports pausing, resuming and so on.
Read It Later
The great thing about tabbed browsing in Firefox (and all other modern browsers, for that matter) is that you can have a lot of tabs open in just one window. But it also means you can easily have tabs open for weeks (I can!) without reading them. That’s the tabs you would like to read, sooner or later, but doesn’t have the time to read at this very moment. With “Read It Later”, you simply flag the page, and you can click the button later to see all the sites you still have to read. Much better than leaving the tabs open forever or using a “To be read”-bookmarks folder. Check out my review about Read It Later for Firefox and iPhone.
GooglePreview
A very simple but useful add-on. This one adds a preview image to your Google and Yahoo search results, showing a thumbnail of the site next to the result. This makes it easier for you to identify which site is likely to contain the information you’re after.
Quartz PDF Plugin
For some reason, Firefox doesn’t display PDF’s inside the browser. It downloads them to your desktop, then uses Preview to display them – or another PDF opener. Safari opens PDF files directly within the browser – nice! With Quartz PDF Plugin, you get that same functionality in Firefox.
Forgot some add-ons that deserves to be on this list? Contact me or leave a comment!