Firefox Plugins To Make Things Easier

I use Firefox both in work and at home, so I’m used to using it on both OSX and Linux (Ubuntu). Since so much of what I do is either centred around email or web based systems, my usage of my browser and a few other tools, is quite important to me. Things that make my life that little bit easier are always welcome.

So which addons do I currently have installed:

  • Google toolbar – shows a site’s pagerank and gives you access to a few other handy little tools
  • Zemanta – a handy tool for bloggers which allows you to easily access images and links based on your post’s content. You can also use it to easily link to products on Amazon
  • Mozbar – direct access to the Seomoz tools
  • Delicious – probably the addon I use most. I spend a lot of my time bookmarking sites, so doing it via a web service like Delicious makes sense
  • Alexa sparky – gives you access to Alexa data on any site you’re viewing
  • Ebay toolbar – if you use ebay as much as I do then this makes it a lot easier to track your current bids (I was trying the AIR desktop, but it was annoying)
  • Blacknight domain search – allows you to search for available domains directly from within Firefox

Which Firefox tools / addons are you using?

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By Michele Neylon

Michele is founder and CEO of Irish hosting provider and domain name registrar Blacknight.

5 comments

  1. There’s a heavy slant towards web development in my list of installed extensions… 🙂

    • Firebug – takes the guesswork out of debugging website errors
    • AutoCopy – automatically copies any selected text to your clipboard
    • Gmail Manager – I’ve several gmail-based accounts to keep on top of, and have found this notifier better than many others as it displays short message previews
    • Web Developer Toolbar – lot of very handy tools for tweaking small parts of a website without editing the actual source
    • TamperData – View and modify HTTP headers etc, track, time or alter requests. Very useful in combination with firebug’s net tab for tracking down funny mod-rewrites, redirects, etc
    • Twitterfox – I spend my whole day in the browser, so this simple extension is my main twitter interface

  3. Nice post Michele. The ‘addons’ functionality in Firefox is so powerful. I’ve included some of my add-ons below (biased towards sys admin/security & paranoia) –
    Netcraft – anti-phishing toolbar. The toolbar prvides extensive information of the current website – where it’s hosted, risk rating of the site, popularity of the site amongst Netcraft toolbar users, how long the site has been up etc.
    Tamper Data – excellent tool – primarily use it for viewing & modifying HTTP headers. I used it quite a bit for research & POC testing of application firewalls.
    NoScript – extra protection while browsing. Allows me to whitelist sites that I trust to allow them to run scripts. It regularly prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities though it can be a pain for damaging the functionality of various websites.
    Show IP – shows the IP of the site you’re browsing & allows various querying such as ‘whois’.
    WOT – warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam etc.
    A few others but I’m getting tired 🙂
    Have you checked out Opera – I think it’s a great browser. It’s paranoia (not surprising given the amount of browsing exploits these days) but I like to separate my secure browsing (e.g. Internet Banking) into a separate browser from my standard, daily browsing.
    Cheers..Mark

  5. Mark
    Thanks for the comments
    I wouldn’t consider using a second browser, though I have several installed, as I switch between desktops quite a bit and like to maintain some level of continuity and sanity
    Michele

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