If you are a Firefox user and that image isn't familiar then you haven't been to the FF add-on page in a while - its all changed over there, presumably in honour of the coming full release of FF 3.5, and that image is nicked from there. I can't be arsed hunting down the url for every single add-on I'm about to list, so rest assured if you visit the add-on page and search for the title you should find it fairly easily.
Before we get down to business I just want to mention version compatibility: some older add-ons, or less frequently updated ones will be listed as incompatible with the very latest FF 3.5 betas and RC's. Most of these will function perfectly well with whatever version you have (as long as it's http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2571091926104243079&postID=1486559429759745597#later than the listed compatible versions and not earlier) and you can use them through the simple procedure of turning off add-on compatibility checking as follows:
- Open a new tab in FF and enter the address about:config
- Proceed through the warning screen
- Right click anywhere on the resultant page, select New then Boolean from the right-click menu
- Enter extensions.checkCompatibility as your new value and set it to false
- Restart FF
You'll get a yellow warning bar in your add-on list telling you compatibility checking is disabled, you can safely ignore this, or, if it bothers you that much follow the procedure again substituting extensions.checkUpdateSecurity in number 4. If FF doesn't want to let you install "incompatible" add-ons from the main add-on entry scroll down and find the link "See All Versions" - you'll be allowed to install the newest version from there.
Now, on to the good stuff: my add-ons, in alphabetical order, cus it's easier.
Adblock Plus - this is one of the best known FF extensions, blocks pretty much all ads from appearing on your screen - remember you have to subscribe to a filter list or the add-on doesn't actually do anything unless you block every ad manually.
All-in-One Sidebar - I used Opera as my primary browser for quite a long time and one of its best features in my opinion was its amazing side bar, from this thin bar that runs along the left side of the browser window I could access my bookmarks, history, email, page info, dowloads and loads more besides. This is the FF version, it's not quite as good in my opinion, but it gets the job done. in addition to accessing standard things like bookmarks, history, downloads and add-ons the side bar will also accept buttons for many other add-ons which helps free up space on your top tool bars.
BetterPrivacy - protects you from the new breed of so-called "super-cookie" the Local Shared Object (LSO) cookie. These are tracking devices not normally cleared when you clear your cookies, BetterPrivacy will track them down and gut them out for you.
Cooliris - this was one of the add-ons that contributed towards my migration to FF. It's a whole new way to view images on the web. Cooliris is almost a separate program with browser integration rather than an add-on, what it basically does is take images - say from a google image search or a social networking photo album and turn them into a "wall" you can then move that wall along to view all the pictures in a continuous stream. Ordinarily when you do a Google image search you get a page of results then you click over to the next page etc etc - Cooliris automatically fetches the following pages so you can view them in an uninterrupted stream. The effects of the wall moving are pretty cool too - you really have to see it to know what it's about.
CS Lite - this adds cookie control features to the front UI of the browser which really should have been there by default. My personal preference is to deny cookies globally and only permit them on sites I intend to use regularly.
DownloadHelper - tool fordownloading streaming media from websites - works on loads of flash video sites including YouTube, also works on the MySpace audio player.
FasterFox Lite - auto-tweaks FF network settings to optimise the browser for broadband connections, i.e. should give you a slight performance boost.
FireGestures - another feature nicked from the Opera team - control many functions of the browser by performing mouse movements while holding the right mouse button, much faster than clicking on-screen buttons or even keyboard shortcuts, easy and intuitive to learn.
Fission - turns your address bar into a progress bar while pages load - basically a space saving device, and gives you a good visual representation of how fast pages are loading.
FoxTab - this is pure eye candy, it basically gives you a pretty page to look at when you use ctrl+tab to switch between tabs - it kinda makes it easier too, it has a number of fancy 3D views for flicking through your tabs. Useful if your the sort who typically has more tabs open than will physically fit on the tab bar.
Ghostery - doesn't do particularly much, just tells you how many trackers the site your viewing has and who they are.
Google Gears - at present this one is truly incompatible with FF 3.5 of any sort, but for those using supported versions of FF Gears allows better desktop integration with Googles web apps like Gmail and Google Docs (which I use to draft and publish all my blogs), it also makes these apps available to you offline by making local copies of the data you have stored on their servers. This essentially makes the Google family of apps a more viable alternative to traditional offline desktop apps like MS Office, OpenOffice, Outlook Express and Thunderbird, albeit less functional at present in most cases.
Google Reader Watcher - use Google Reader for your RSS feeds? this add-on tells you how many unread feeds you have (189 for me, ain't been checkin em today :p)
IE Tab - switches the rendering engine to that of IE, this allows you to view pages that have poor FF compatibility without having to open a full IE window - you can just have a single tab within FF that runs as if it was IE.
NoScript - blocks unwanted scripts from running, NoScript is "white list" based so it'll block scripts globally and only permit the specific scripts you choose to run. So for example I want videos to run on YouTube so I allow the scripts that run the flash video player, but I don't really want google-analytics tracking me, so I clock that script. It can be a bit of a pain in the arse when you visit a new site that's heavily script-based and everything appears broken because NoScript is blocking everything, but it does make the Internet more secure and enhances your web privacy.
PermaTabs Mod - got tabs you keep open all the time? PermaTabs essentially removes the close button from Tabs you want to keep open all the time thereby making them...open...all...the...time...
RDown - Rapidshare Downloader - a godsend for the regular rapidshare user - particularly if you're a free user. Just add all the rapidshare links you want to RDown and it'll download each one sequentially without any input from you. No need to manually check when the previous file has downloaded, wait the 15 minute waiting period then begin the next file downloading, RDown does all that guff on its own.
Read It Later - adds a wee tick to your address bar beside the bookmark star, if you want to read some page or article but not immediately and want to save it for later click on the wee tick and Read It Later makes a temporary bookmark of the page and adds it to your read it later reading list, once the article has been read its removed. Basically it saves you gumming up your regular bookmarks with things you'll only read once
Secure Login - gives you a button to press that acts as an auto-login button for pages that FF has stored login information for. Another Opera feature rip-off, but again a welcome one.
SkipScreen - skips past unnecessary pages and wait times on file hosting websites like Megaupload and its ilk, will save a regular user of such websites hours of waiting.
Speed Dial - another Opera rip-off, turns your blank new tabs into a showcase of your favourite sites for quick selection - sort of like a bookmark tool bar but better.
Tiny Menu - I love this one, it turns all the Menu buttons on the menu toolbar into a single button labelled "Menu" the regular menu buttons drop down when its clicked - it's a great space saver and makes the prospect of using the menu bar as a joint menu/address bar more feasible.
Toggle Private Browsing - private browsing is a new feature to FF, it stops the browser recording history and deletes all cookies accepted during the private session, this add-on merely makes the feature easier to access by placing a button on the status bar at the bottom of the screen
Ubiquity - Possibly the most revolutionary feature in modern Internet browsing. Ubiquity changes the way you use the Internet, it works by accepting typed commands (in shorthand, naturally) which make simple tasks like searching and e-mailing so much simpler than they traditionally are. Old method of e-mail: open tab, go to email account, login, compose message, find contact, type, send. Ubiquity method: ctrl+space to invoke Ubiquity, type "email *message body* to *contacts name* press enter button, done. You can even select images and bits of web pages to send. When I got Ubiquity it was still listed as experimental on the Mozilla add-on page, so you might want to check out the Ubiquity home page if you want to avoid signing up for a Mozilla account to download it from them, there's also a sexy little demo on there that'll probably do a better job of explaining the wonders this baby is capable of than I did.
Undo Closed Tabs Button - the "traditional" method of undoing a closed tab is to head on up to the history menu button and see if it's in there, this add-on gives you a button that undoes the last closed tab (then every other tab before that sequentially) as well as offering you the same drop down list the history button will give you, but in the place of your choosing.
Webmail Notifier - checks how many unread emails you have in a variety of webmail accounts, also capable of launching your inbox and logging in to your account for you.
Youtube Tooltip - hovering over a YouTube link will tell you exactly what the video is before you click it - useful for avoiding "Rick Rolls".
I should probably mention that FF is skin-able (or theme-able to use their terminology), I use the default Vista skin even though I'm running XP - I prefer the electric blue button colour to the XP green and red. With my uxlltheme.dll hacked I have a custom Windows theme and the Vista FF skin goes better with it.
freedoms_stain, even foxier, out.
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