Firefox Extensions I can’t live without

March 9, 2007 | Web Design, General

I posted the applications I install when I get a new computer the other day, and it got some interesting comments so I thought I would post the Firefox extensions I use as well. Many blogs have this type of list but I’ve never felt the need to write one before. I’m hoping that the comments will help me find other useful extensions.

A lot of the extensions I use have become second nature now and if I install Firefox on a new computer they all get installed as standard. Some of them are well known but there are a few there that you may not have heard of/ used. I also have slightly different extensions at home and at work aswell, but the ones below are on all my computers.

• AdBlock Plus

  This is by far the most important extension I have. I hate advertising, simple banner and Google ads are fine, but when companies use popups and eye blasters I leave their sites immediately. I understand the need to advertise to generate revenue to keep a site going, and that’s fine. But adverts that intrude on you, that force themselves onto the screen covering what you were reading and telling you things you don’t care about annoy the hell out of me.

  AdBlock blocks these things - and that makes me happy again.

• Web Developer Toolbar

  As a web developer this has proved so useful so many times it’s unbelievable. By far the most used feature is the ability to edit css live on a page viewing the changes in real time.

• Bug Me Not

  I’ve mentioned Bug Me Not before, along with the 3 extensions mentioned above Bug Me Not is the big ‘must have’. Essential.

• Search Status

  Search Status tells me what Google Pagerank the page I’m visiting has. The page rank you see is not the same one Google uses internally but it’s a nice guide for working out the value of the site you are visiting is. I tried not installing it this when I set up this computer then found I use it instinctively when checking new sites. For what it’s worth Binary Moon currently has a Page rank of 7.

• Linkification

  Linkification is a very simple plugin but it proves very handy in places like forums. All it does is turn typed urls into clickable links which reduces the amount of copy and pasting you have to do.

• PDF download

  This plugin is great. The amount of times I have clicked on a link, expecting to be taken to a web page, and then had the browser freeze up whilst it loads the acrobat plugin is vast. One day Adobe will (might?) make the adobe reader less of a pain, but until then the PDF download extension will be installed. What it does is give me the option of downloading, reading as a pdf, or converting to html any pdfs I try to open via links. This way the browser never needs to lock up again. Wonderful!

• Firebug (with DOM inspector)

  Essential for web developers. I use Firebug all the time for debugging site errors (css) and any javascript I write. This single extension has made my (web design) life so much easier. In fact I hardly use the web developer toolbar at all nowadays (although that’s still worth installing as well).

So that’s my list - now your turn. What are your essential Firefox extensions?

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