Firefox recommended Extensions

Firefox is a really great browser. It was lacking in several ways keeping me from using it full time but I finally found some extensions that filled in the gaps. I now use Firefox full time. I thought I would share some of the extensions I found useful.

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For security purposes/safe browsing. I recommend these to be used for sure. Listed in order of importance.

FinjanSecureBrowsing:
Finjan SecureBrowsing is a free service that proactively alerts you to potential malicious content hiding behind links of search results, ads and other selected web pages. Finjan SecureBrowsing accesses each of the URLs in its current form on the web, and scans the relevant pages in real time using Finjan's patented behavior-based technology. Finjan SecureBrowsing then displays a safety rating next to each link it has scanned. Finjan SecureBrowsing is a security extension for your browser that scans and classifies web addresses to provide you with safety rating of URLs before you visit them. Proactively alerting you to potentially malicious web addresses in links of search results, ads and other selected web pages, SecureBrowsing protects you from webpages that could be used to compromise your privacy and identity.

NoScript:
It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site, and guards the "trust boundaries" against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS).
Such a preemptive approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality...

Netcrafttoolbar:
Blocks phishing sites, helping to protect users from online fraud.

Adblock Plus:
Save your time and traffic. Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu — the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or choose a filter subscription, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.

AdblockFilterset.GUpdater:
Firefox extension that automatically updates Filterset.G every week. Also allows a set of personal filters that persist across updates. Requires Adblock or Adblock Plus.

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Useful extensions

IETab:
IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox... This is VERY useful as you can toggle the current tab to render using Firefox or the IE engine. Sweet!

ChromaTabs: (can help identify pages within the same domain)
Tints browser tabs with a color specific to the website loaded. This helps you identify tab contents based on a distinct visual cue.

TabSaver:
Many times we need to just restore the original set of tabs/URLs we were browsing in the previous session. Or may be want to undo the closing of 1 or more tabs in the current session...

TabsOpenRelative:
Tabs Open Relative makes all new tabs open to the right of the current tab, rather than at the far right of the tab bar...

PDFDownload:
Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!

TabCatalog:
This shows contents of all of tabs as a thumbnail-style list.
(can get slow though with a lot of tabs open)

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Utilities to backup FireFox and keep your book marks synced across multiple computers:

FoxmarksBookmarkSynchronizer:
If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. As a bonus, log in to my.foxmarks.com from any computer anywhere to access your bookmark

GoogleBrowserSync:
Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions


FirefoxExtensionBackupExtension (FEBE):
FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your extensions individually into installable .xpi files. Now you can easily synchronize your office and home browsers.

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Some useful stuff for just playing around:

WebDeveloper:
Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.

iMacrosforFirefox:
The Web browser is probably the most frequently used software today, and many tasks are highly repetitious. iMacros for Firefox relieves the repetition of checking on the same sites every day, remembering passwords and filling out web forms. Web professionals can use the software for functional testing and regression web testing of web applications. Another use is to automate web scraping, for example online stock quotes or web store prices.

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Do you have any cool extensions you would like to share?

Data Analytics - 0.1.8
Table Tools 0.19

These two tools allow me to do just about anything I want with Data in a table directly on the webpage. I can even sort and filter it if I want. My favorite is being able to right click on the table and do a copy text delimited, then dump it into a spreadsheet.

I am not sure everyone needs Data Analytics, but Table Tools is very handy.

Google Preview 2.1.5 - Adds an image next to your google searches. I like being able to see the page I am going to .

Web Developer - I swear by this tool. I use it to troubleshoot web page issues. I love the CSS tools and Image Tools. I also love the Ruler for measuring exact distances when I'm designing a page. The magnifier also comes in handy.

SEOQuake 1.4.3 - Another tool I use for web development. It allows me to see a lot of info on Google searches. I can see Google Page Rank, Backlinks in multiple search engines. It has another cool features that someone interested SEO might use.

Roboform - Commercial addon for managing logins/passwords. It also allows me to fill out forms with a few clicks.

BBCodeXtra is indespensible - It allows me to paste and format bbcode, xtml, and html with a right click.

Fireftp - ftp client built into Firefox

downthemall - want to grab a bunch of pictures or mp3s or other files off a site? This allows me to grab any file types I select with a right click.

Speeddial - just like the Opera browser feature. My start page is a thumbnail of nine sites I visit daily. Clicking on the thumbnail takes me there. Anytime I open a blank tab it starts on the speeddial.

Sarge, those all sound very handy. Downthemall is something I've needed for a long, long time. But it threw me at first. I thought you said Down The Mall... lol

lol!

Down the Mall keeps you up to date on all the specials at your local mall 😉

I've installed a couple of these, thanks guys. I was using IEview, which opened up IE with current page. I'm trying IEtab, and will go to that exclusively after I work with it awhile and it performs OK.

VideoDownloader Lets you DL Youtube and other vids to your computer. I use it quite a bit, and I like that I don't have to go to Youtube to see a favorite video, or that I have to worry if it will be pulled for whatever reason.

I'm trying SpeedDial, and I liked it at first, but now only 3 of my 9 pages show up in preview, even though all will take me to the appropriate page if I click on the right preview window. If it's gonna show me six blank pics, and I can't get it to correct, then I'm giving up on it.

StumbleUpon is the best "go to a random place on the internet" solution EVER!!!!!! It WILL cause insomnia! What's especially cool about it is you can tell it what you like (a setup page with check boxes, I think it was) and it'll take you to related pages. You can give the page a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, and that will further refine your preferences.

ForecastFox is a nice way to be reminded of the 3-day forecast, weather conditions, etc. You can click on it to see more forecast info. Nice.

Fission combines a progress bar into the address bar.

Roboform is great. I've used it for years to keep track of my passwords, and it will autofill for you(with or without a master acct password to protect all the passwords). I use the pay version though. The free version may be too limited to be worthwhile.

Colorful Tabs simply makes every new tab a different color. Just something to help with recognition a bit when you're switching between many tabs, and it looks nicer too 🙂

DocJon wrote:
Roboform is great. I've used it for years to keep track of my passwords, and it will autofill for you(with or without a master acct password to protect all the passwords). I use the pay version though. The free version may be too limited to be worthwhile.

Colorful Tabs simply makes every new tab a different color. Just something to help with recognition a bit when you're switching between many tabs, and it looks nicer too 🙂

You paid for Roboform? I am impressed 😉
Roboform is great, been using it for ages myself but the free one always worked for me. I am unsure what the pay version offers me over it.

Try chromotabs instead of colorful tabs man. One main reason is chrmotabs colors them by domain so not only are they colored but it is a useful function to see what pages are hosted on the same server etc...

Paladin wrote:
You paid for Roboform? I am impressed 😉
Roboform is great, been using it for ages myself but the free one always worked for me. I am unsure what the pay version offers me over it.

Try chromotabs instead of colorful tabs man. One main reason is chrmotabs colors them by domain so not only are they colored but it is a useful function to see what pages are hosted on the same server etc...

Pay version offers more logins. You've told me that you never needed more than the handful the free version gives, but dude, I must have 50+ logins. I dunno how you don't! I got more than 6 logins from download sites alone. . .FilePlanet, FileFront, etc.

I'll check out Chromotabs.

DocJon wrote:
Pay version offers more logins. You've told me that you never needed more than the handful the free version gives, but dude, I must have 50+ logins. I dunno how you don't! I got more than 6 logins from download sites alone. . .FilePlanet, FileFront, etc.

I'll check out Chromotabs.

OIC. I only use Roboform to fill in my name and address on forms. I never use programs like that for log-ons.

I keep all my act user names and passwords in my phone/PDA.
Between home and work I have hundreds of accounts to keep track of.

I do not rely on one program as I use multiple computers and do not want to forget them. You get complacent using programs like that and someday if your computer crashes and you need to rebuild, you lose them. I am sure you back your stuff up though so for you ti is fine. Some people do not.

Also Firefox can also remember log ons for you I believe.

Paladin wrote:
OIC. I only use Roboform to fill in my name and address on forms. I never use programs like that for log-ons.

I keep all my act user names and passwords in my phone/PDA.
Between home and work I have hundreds of accounts to keep track of.

I do not rely on one program as I use multiple computers and do not want to forget them. You get complacent using programs like that and someday if your computer crashes and you need to rebuild, you lose them. I am sure you back your stuff up though so for you ti is fine. Some people do not.

Also Firefox can also remember log ons for you I believe.

No PDA.

Only one computer.

I used Roboform before I started using Firefox


File backups and printouts, which I keep up on. 🙂

OK I'm lost.
I think Doc posted a link for an add on that gives a Green, Yellow or Red icon on pages and searches but I'll damned if I can find the thread that has the link here to the add on.

Help.

FOUND IT.
Web OF Trust
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456

Duck wrote:OK I'm lost.
I think Doc posted a link for an add on that gives a Green, Yellow or Red icon on pages and searches but I'll damned if I can find the thread that has the link here to the add on.

Help.

FOUND IT.
Web OF Trust
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456

I like your help requests. Seems like if I wait five minutes, they fix themselves 😀