Yet another Firefox extension list 28.10.06

When I first got a customized Firefox install demonstrated to me I was immediately awestruck by the functionality offered by extensions. Sure, Firefox isn’t the fastest nor the most standard-compliant browser around, but the extensions really got me hooked (thanks, HHJ)! So I did the conversion after having used Opera for 5-6 years. And now, after half a year I find it a real pain to install all extensions every time I install a new computer. So as much for the benefit of myself as well as a public service, I thought I’d list all my extensions together with links. :)

Aardvark

This plugin with the weird name is indisposable for printing web pages. You can delete elements, remove width of elements (so they expand properly), grab an element out of it’s surroundings (think article in the middle of a heavy website layout) and more. Once you’re satisfied with the result, click print! :)

Adblock plus

This is the best ad blocker I’ve seen, and I’ve tried quite a bit. Rightclick on any ad and add a rule, completely configurable with wildcars. Does both flash and images.

Blink-related plugins (various)

These plugins are specific for the norwegian community website, Blink. The ones I use are (though there are more):</p>

Blinkbilder – Previews both profile pictures and files in the upper right corner when the mouse is over a nick or a filename.
Blinksvar – Adds a much better way of replying to guestbook entries, mails or debate posts.
Blinkmeny – Adds a right-click menu for nicks that lets you go directly to any page of a users profile.

BugMeNot

Online newspapers that require you to register before reading a single article are extremely irritating, and I have never registered for one of those. With this plugin you can still read the article. It autofills the login form with a dummy account. And if you encounter sites not supported, you can add it to Bugmenot yourself!

CustomizeGoogle

Adds a bunch of configuration options and extended functionality for Google’s services.

Download Statusbar

The Firefox download dialog is just plain irritating. I’ve tried to configure it useful, but I just can’t get used to it. This extension replaces it with a download bar (above the statusbar) that feels much better in my opinion.

DownThemAll!

A mass-downloader for Firefox. Allows you to download all links or images or specific files from a given page. Great when downloading browsable directories from servers.

Fasterfox

Fasterfox gives you a nice view of all performance-related settings in Firfox and let you tweak every one of them. It also has a couple of pre-configured profiles which I found to be more than enough for me. The difference is very noticable!

Fetch Text URL

When migrating from Opera to Firefox I really missed being able to right-click a plaintext webadress (not hyperlinked) and actually open that adress in a new tab. Voila!

Firebug

Firebug is sort of the built-in DOM Inspector on steroids! It lets you inspect the page on a per-element basis. Look at elements created by Javascript or elements in your HTML. Check active CSS rules, active even handlers and much more for each element. Extremely useful for tracing down bugs in your CSS declarations and inspecting what your Javascripts really does to the DOM. It also has a Javascript console, xmlhttprequest logging, Javascript debugging with breakpoints and more!

Google Browser Sync

This plugin has me hooked! It synchronizes open tabs, bookmarks, settings (not extension settings though), history, passwords and even cookies between all your Firefoxes! I have this installed on both Windows and Linux on my home computer (dualboot) and my work laptop and the sync works all ways!

Google Notebook

Google Notebook is a online “quick note” service from Google. With this plugin you can mark text in the browser and convert it into a note, open up your notes from the statusbar icon and more.

Google Toolbar

I know Firefox has excellent searching to begin with, but that’s not the reason for installing this. I normally just enables the Google Docs integration that causes Firefox to open all Word documents in Google Docs and then hide the bar entirely.

HTML Validator

Shows a small icon on the status bar that tells you wether or not the current page is valid. Also adds inline validation results in Firefox’ view source dialog.

LiveHTTPHeaders

Let you inspect the HTTP headers of any page and even view or log all requests as they happen.

All-in-one Gestures

Mouse gestures are a really good timesaver once you get used to them. This plugin is very configurable and let you edit all the default gestures.

Snissa.com screenshot extension

Lets you save full pages as screenshots, no matter how high the page is. Really useful for designers. When I wanted to make a schematic view of the ad placements on Bladet TromsÃ¸ I first simplified the page with Aardvark, then saved the screenshot with this. Also lets you publish the screenshot to Snissa.com, which I guess is nice if you want to display webdesigns residing on local servers or show someone how the page looks on your computer.

Stylish

Override CSS rules for any domain or URL. I use this for customizing a lot of the Google services and other stuff. Pretty nifty. A lot of pre-made customizations are available at Userstyles.org.

Tabbrowser preferences

I could never be satisfied with the tab behaviour in Firefox until I installed this one. Adds a lot of configurable options on how tabbed browsing work.

Video downloader

Download videos from online video communities that doesn’t normally allow you to do this. Supports YouTube, Google Video and a lot more.

Web developer

For anyone doing web development, this toolbar is the most important extension! View CSS rules, disable stylesheets, highlight elements, view elements info, validate HTML/CSS (even for local files), emulate browsers without referrer/javascript/css/cookies, direct CSS editing, size profiling, resize browser window, view generated source (including Javascript additions) and much, much more! This plugin was actually the reason for my switch from Opera to Firefox.

I will probably update this entry as I discover new extensions (and scrap my old ones), so if you’re a Firefox user yourself, feel free to bookmark it. :) Right now, the extensions that aren’t updated for Firefox 2.0 are Aardvark and LiveHTTPHeaders.

Edit: Added Stylish 8th november 2006. Added Google Toolbar 3rd february 2007. Added Snissa 6th March 2007.