I know that there’s a stack of lists like this around the web, but I felt like doing one too! Below is a list of the Firefox extensions that I use quite often for a variety of reasons. Give them a spin if it floats your boat!
- AdBlockPlus - Sick of ads? Even more sick of ads and scripts that manage to get past the default ad blocker? Sick of the Snap.com previews that seem to be ruining the bloggosphere? This is the solution. It’s absolute magic.
- ChatZilla - I don’t use IRC that often, but I do use it every now and then to chat to some people real-time about getting over hurdles I’m facing with my Linux experiments. I don’t want to have to install a whole new application to deal with these few cases, and hence this plugin is more than enough for me. It’s quick, it’s clean, and it does the job. If you’re looking for an all-singing and all-dancing IRC application you’ll have to look elsewhere. But for simple, slick and quick - this is your answer.
- CruiseControl Monitor - This is more useful for those of you who deal with Continuous Integration scenarios. This plugin will monitor the CC status of your projects in the same way that the CC.net monitor does. Very handy plugin if you keep Firefox open all the time.
- ColorZilla - A great web development helper. Allows you to pick colours from anywhere on your site, and gives you the HEX values for the colours you’re dealing. It sure makes it easy to keep your colours consistent.
- del.icio.us - If you use del.icio.us then you have to use this plugin. It adds links to your account at the click of a button.
- Download Statusbar - This isn’t really anything more than a bit more visbility for your Firefox downloads, but it’s a handy extension all the same.
- FireBug - Not enough can be said about this. If you build websites then you’d be stupid not to install this.
- FireFTP - An awesom and yet simple FTP application. Who wants to have to fire up a separate FTP app just to send some files to your server? This program is quick and simple, and comes highly recommended. I installed this because I was sick of using command-line FTP all the time
- IE Tab - Every now and then you’ll come across a poorly implemented web page that doesn’t support mutliple browsers. Most of the time, these sites are Internet Explorer specific, and that’s where this plugin comes to the rescue. Instead of having to open up IE separately, you can use this plugin to create a new Firefox tab using the IE engine! Very handy indeedy. Also handy for checking out what your site looks like in IE while you’re doing web development.
- Performancing - Soon to be called ScribeFire. This plugin is a front-end for blogging sites and makes it easy for your compose your blog posts. It’s not quite as feature-rich as I’d like, but is pretty schmick all the same. I’ll be keeping track of the future revisions of this puppy with interest!
- StumbleUpon - If you’ve ever got sick of going through the usual sites, or you’ve read all your news, or you’ve even just got some time to kill but don’t know what sites to check out - this is the plugin for you! At the click of a button you can be whisked away to a corner of the Internet that you never thought existed. It’s great to finding bits on the web that you wouldn’t otherwise find.
- TinyURL Creator - Allows you to create TinyURL URLs at the click of a button. Sure, there’s a bookmark that does this for you, but it’s not quite as handy as this due to the fact that this plugin allows you to do it with almost any link on the page (not just the one you’re currently viewing).
- Web Developer Toolbar - Another must for web developers. Gives you great control over Firefox as a whole while giving you tools to easily modify your sites on the fly so you can tweak things real-time. Well worth installing and a savour for dealing with page layouts.
There you have it… so go knock yourselves out! 
February 5, 2007
Man, with all those extensions installed Firefox must run like a snail.
Two you missed that I like are Greasemonkey and the Google toolbar.
February 5, 2007
Actually no. I can’t see a noticable difference in start up times or rendering/running times. Then again, I don’t use a crap machine
Not a fan of Google toolbar in Firefox. I can see the need for it in I.E., but with the search functionality built in the way it is in Firefox I don’t see the need for it. How does it benefit you? Do you use more than just the search box?
I guess if I used PageRank, form fillers and other bits then I might see more of a use for it.
Greasemonkey? Looks like a nifty tool. What scenarios have you used it in? If you have control over the site it’d be handy dev tool, but not necessary.
February 5, 2007
It’s true, this laptop is getting old, but I used to find Firefox would really struggle with extensions, and the memory footprint would go through the roof.
I mostly use the Google Toolbar for the bookmarks feature, but the colouration of search terms can be incredibly useful. As can the ability to jump to individual search terms with one click.
Greasemonkey I started using to get a rich text editor on a forum I used to use (something your comment entering could use, or at least a preview button
) but it is incredibly powerful. The trouble is that its too easy to use, so it’s really hard to find the good scripts amongst the masses of crap.
February 6, 2007
You can use basic html in the comments field, but I agree that a proper rich text editor would be good. Especially since WordPress supplies a half decent one with spellchecking, etc for writing posts with.
Anyway, back on topic…
I just the web developer plugin and apart from that my FireFox is naked. Opera also has really nice web development features (like showing the content, margin and border outline of any div) to get your positioning spot on.
February 7, 2007
OK, OK!! I take the hint. I’ll have a look around and see if I can find a nice rich text editor for you losers.
February 7, 2007
Let me know if you find a decent one, cos my blog is lacking too!
February 9, 2007
DownThemAll! is also a handy little too. It’s a download manager reminiscent of Download Accelerator Plus, creating mutliple download connections, queuing, etc.
And I love the DownloadStatusbar. I really detest the standard Firefox download window, as I prefer to keep all of my browsing in the one taskbar item.
February 9, 2007
DownloadThemAll isn’t bad, but it’s been too flaky for me in the past and hence I don’t bother with it any more. If they’d just fix it up so that it’s not quite so tempramental then I’d consider using it again.
Then again, it’s been a year or so since I tried it, so perhaps it could be worthy of another attempt.
February 15, 2007
Wired just published this list of their fave plugins, but to me they’re all overflashy Web 2.0 bollocks. Who needs a plugin to automatically upload images with flickr etc, (which could break when an API changes) when the websites already do this?
I think your list is a lot more useful OJ.
February 15, 2007
Typical mate. The mainstream web user loves rubbish like that. People like you and I with a more vested interest in the tech behind the scenes don’t get too excited by them.
I’m glad you approve