Neil's Favorite Firefox Extensions

[Neillithan]

Neil's Favorite Firefox Extensions

A path to less "annoyingness"

Here is a text version for easy bookmark or printing.

These are just some of my favorite extensions for Firefox. Most of them add functionality rather than bloat. I decided to do this list alphabetically because it's easier for me, but I will be sure to highlight my favorites amongst the list. I hope you guys like the list! :)

Adblock Plus

- Adblock plus blocks those inline (embedded) advertisements. It not only blocks the annoying flashing animating ads (sometimes have sound too), it also blocks textual advertisements. It is especially useful because reading news articles is not interrupted by an inconveniently placed, animating advertisement.

Add to Search Bar

- Lots of times, I wanted to search a website that wasn't in my search bar and I would find myself repeatedly going back to sites like You-Tube or Answers.com. Now, when I need to search something, I just right click the search box and hit "Add to Search bar" and it prompts me to choose a name for the search bar drop-down item. Hey, it's easier than searching a search engine for a search engine. :)

All-in-One Sidebar

(AOS) - At first glance, All-in-One sidebar is bloated with unnecessary extra functionality, but due to an abundance of options, you can tweak it to perfection--both for usability and display. AOS converts the Add-Ons, Download Manager, Page Source, and Page info windows into sidebars. Better yet, it lets you add a drop-down icon to the Firefox toolbar that lets you choose the appropriate sidebar. AOS will let you create a backup of your AOS settings and import them later. Great for making the ideal AOS config to send to all of your friends. :)

Back/Forward Dropdown Remover

- This one lets you remove those pesky drop-down arrows on the navigation buttons in the Firefox Toolbar. When was the last time you actually used the Back and Forward history menus? ... Exactly. Get rid of them. :)

CuteMenus

- This one is all eye candy, but after an annoying battle with my right click context menus, I decided to add icons to them so I could find the right ones faster. It helps me find the "Copy Link Location" when I right click a link.

Download Statusbar

- Now, this, I absolutely cannot live without. By default, the Firefox download manager is a pesky little thing, chocked full of annoyances that make me want to rip my hair out. The Download Statusbar solves this problem by eliminating the need for the Download Manager initially. Download Statusbar puts little buttons at the bottom of Firefox with progress meters, statistics, and enough functionality you'd expect from the regular Download Manager. The appearance is customizable too. The best part is it lets Firefox continue downloads in a small window if I accidentally close Firefox before my downloads finish.

Find Toolbar Tweaks

- Until Recently, the Find bar was just an annoying toolbar.. never closed when I want it to be, never opened when I need it to be. Find Toolbar Tweaks makes the Findbar more usable and less annoying. The find toolbar is especially useful and less annoying if used in conjunction with Firefox's built in "Search for text when I begin typing" feature and Find Toolbar Tweak's "Close toolbar by page click".

FireFTP

- FireFTP is a fully functional integrated FTP manager for Firefox. It sports dual paned usability, multiple instances via tabs, profiles for logging into several FTPs, and easy access to FTP via the Firefox Address Bar. It has everything for general purpose FTP accessing, but some of the more recent or advanced FTP features might be lacking. Thankfully, FireFTP is updated frequently and will not disappoint! :)

Fission

- Fission takes the address bar and overlays it with a color of your choice. This color is the progress meter that shows the loading of the web page you're viewing. It effectively replaces the normal progress meter in the statusbar. Sure, it's not essential, but it's better.

Grab and Drag

- Grab and Drag is the Firefox equivalent of the Adobe Acrobat hand tool. This is great for reading very long webpages or browsing a list of various purposes. This tool is highly configurable, so give it a try.

Linkification

- This extension is basically the installable incarnation of a Greasemonkey script, but with more functionality. It scans the webpage and converts text URLs into clickable links. Convenient for lazy people who don't like to copy and paste into the Address Bar. I know, I'm a lazy son of a... mmm cheesecake. :D

McAfee SiteAdvisor

- 9 out of 10 times you will know you are visiting a trusted website. What about those rare occasions where you venture outside of the normal realm of websites? Do you really want to expose your computer and / or sensitive information to website's you've never even visited before? McAfee SiteAdvisor sticks a button in your statusbar. The website is clean if it's green. It's bad if it's Red. It's questionable if it's yellow. SiteAdvisor has detailed statistics of every webpage it visits, so don't take it in stride unsure of a website's integrity.

More Tools Menu

- If you find that Firefox extensions are making your tools menu messy, don't worry. More Tools menu is exactly what it reads. A menu with more tools. It will even move existing extension menu items to the More Tools Menu. Talk about convenience.

Organize Search Engines

- This extension will let you add subfolders and separaters to the Search Bar in Firefox. Great for categorizing Search Engines or Torrent Search Engines.

Personal Menu

- This removes the "File Edit View" toolbar at the top of Firefox and turns it into a drop-down menu icon. Just one less toolbar to get in the way.

Searchbar Autosizer

- No, this does not put a little grippy on the search bar to let you resize it. It does all the resizing for you. If you type a long sentence, the Search Bar simply expands to fit the sentence. Don't worry, it won't go off the screen if you type too much.

Smart Middle Click

- Have you ever middle clicked a javascript link only to find it creates a useless tab with no content inside? This extension seeks to rectify some of Firefox's inconsiderateness in terms of javascript and tabs.

Tab Mix Plus

- This extension is the ultimate tab bar utility. It lets you decide where the tab lands when you open it. It lets you decide what links open in tabs, whether it be a webpage link, an address bar link, a searchbar link, a bookmark link, or other kind of Firefox link. It's great for making Firefox less annoying.

[primexx]

we have too many of these where someone who thinks they know all about firefox extensions post their own personal "favourites" that nobody else ever uses.

[Salgoth]

we have too many of these where someone who thinks they know all about firefox extensions post their own personal "favourites" that nobody else ever uses.

Primexx you may be right - but through one or more of these personal "favorite extensions" threads I have been made aware of extensions which have since become part of my core setup. Yeah, usually its a lot of things that - based on my browsing habits - would just waste CPU cycles and RAM. But every so often somebody finds a gem :yes: .

So I say go ahead folks

[E t h a n]

Yeah, I got some useful tips here, very helpful! Thanks, Neilithian! :D

[Rob Veteran]

Thank you for posting, Neillithan, some great stuff here!

And Primexx ... online communities are about participation, advice and recommendation. It's a sad day to see such a post that you made, and it has no place here.

[Squirrelington]

I already use some of those addons, does anyone have any working screenshots of cutemenus? Website and addons.mozilla.org dont have any that work.

[Neillithan]

I already use some of those addons, does anyone have any working screenshots of cutemenus? Website and addons.mozilla.org dont have any that work.

[Squirrelington]

woot, ima download that addon now :) thx

[em_te]

This should be posted to "Back Page News".

[nXqd]

It should be recommend ext :). Everyone has their fav extensions, because everyone isn't each others.

nXqd

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Jizzle.com?

Anyways, I quite like the 'Remove It Permanently' extension. .. Although it doesnt really 'remove', it just 'hides'. It lets you remove any element from a page. Kinda like the Addon for Adblock Plus, only It's easier to use...

[alternateshadow]

I find IE Tab very useful. I can now predefine what sites load with the IE engine and the rest load with the Gecko engine.

Tab Scope is also super useful. "Shows a popup on tabs and enables you to preview and navigate tab contents through popup."

[JustGeorge]

Didn't know McAfee had a site advisor extension for FireFox. Although I'd prefer it be a Kaspersky plugin, its probably still better than the built-in phishing filter.

[Neillithan]

Didn't know McAfee had a site advisor extension for FireFox. Although I'd prefer it be a Kaspersky plugin, its probably still better than the built-in phishing filter.

The Siteadvisor extension was bought by McAfee. So technically, it is not a McAfee product. I used it before it was bought by McAfee and it has not changed much since. :) So, use it, enjoy it. Don't let McAfee stop you.

[JustGeorge]

The Siteadvisor extension was bought by McAfee. So technically, it is not a McAfee product. I used it before it was bought by McAfee and it has not changed much since. :) So, use it, enjoy it. Don't let McAfee stop you.

Wonder how the "Protected mode" works with the plus version? Would be great if Mozilla could add something like that to 3.0 and make it available to those not running Vista.

[JustGeorge]

This extension looks interesting. I'm a tad afraid to install it though since its doing things at the Kernel level supposedly:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3383

[Neillithan]

This extension looks interesting. I'm a tad afraid to install it though since its doing things at the Kernel level supposedly:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3383

orrrrrrrr, you COULD... just reinstall WINDOWS.. of course that would remove the keylogger, thus, eliminating the need for this extension. It was an interesting concept, but still, it shouldn't even exist.

[JustGeorge]

LOL, I know the alternative, but this extension could be just as disastrous if it screws my PC up. Guess if that happened someone would've complained by now :)

[duhk]

You're missing one Niel. AutoHide

It autohides your toolbars to give you a larger browsing area. It makes it work like IE's fullscreen mode if you want, but with more customizations. Like always show your taskbar or tabbar or other things.

[Neillithan]

You're missing one Niel. AutoHide

It autohides your toolbars to give you a larger browsing area. It makes it work like IE's fullscreen mode if you want, but with more customizations. Like always show your taskbar or tabbar or other things.

That extension strikes me as a potentially hap hazardous or annoying extension. I don't even hide my windows taskbar for the simple fact that 1: it's annoying 2: I like seeing it at all times. And please link to a more trusted website if you're going to suggest an extension here. :(

[duhk]

That extension strikes me as a potentially hap hazardous or annoying extension. I don't even hide my windows taskbar for the simple fact that 1: it's annoying 2: I like seeing it at all times. And please link to a more trusted website if you're going to suggest an extension here. :(

I already stated that you can choose/customize it. You can choose what to hide or what not to hide, like not hiding your "taskbar" for example. And that is the developers website. Here's a review. Autohide

You know what else is annoying, your paranoia. :p

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Sounds like a nice extension, but the author also seems a bit stubborn with his work. :p