My Firefox Add-Ons
July 17, 2008
I upgraded my Firefox installation to version 3 today. Yes, I know; I must be the last geek on the planet to do this. I'm just not an early adopter. (I won't admit how long I procrastinated switching to Firefox from Mozilla.) The upgrade was rapid and relatively painless. My favorite theme isn't supported and won't ever be supported in 3, which depressed me a bit, since it's a great theme. Oh well. However, all my important add-ons have FF3 compatibility, so that was great.
Over the last few years, I've been slowly using an increasing number of add-ons, first in Navigator as plug-ins, then Mozilla, and now Firefox. I'm not sure how useful this is going to be for others, but I love seeing lists of favorite add-ons. There's often some tool that someone's using that would help me be more productive, so I love reading those lists. Here's mine. Here's my complete list of add-ons sorted alphabetically.
Aardvark
Selector utility for selecting elements and doing various actions on them. It can be used for cleaning up a page prior to printing it (by removing and isolating elements), and for web development.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4111
ChatZilla
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16
ColorZilla
Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271
Compact Menu 2
Replaces the original menubar boxes into a single button or icon.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4550
CookieCuller
Cookie management tool.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/82
CuteMenus - Crystal SVG
Adds icons to all menus along with some other features.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1330
DOM Inspector
Inspect and edit the live DOM of any web document or XUL application. The DOM hierarchy can be navigated using a two-paned window that allows for a variety of different views on the document and all nodes within.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6622
DownThemAll!
Download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201
Extended Statusbar
A Statusbar with Speed, Percentage, Time, and loaded size.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1433
Firebug
Development tools while browsing. Allows for edit, debug, and monitor of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
Forecastfox l10n
Weather forecasts from Weather.com, displayed in any toolbar or statusbar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2024
FoxClocks
Place small clocks in your statusbar.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1117
functions for keyconfig
Core functions for keyboard operation.
http://www.pqrs.org/tekezo/firefox/extensions/functions_for_keyconfig/
GooglePreview
Inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/189
Greasemonkey
Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
gui:config
Makes it easier to change preferences that can only be found in the about:config.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5523
HTML Validator
Adds HTML validation to status bar. Errors seen off an icon in the status bar when browsing.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249
JavaScript Debugger (Venkman)
Venkman provides JavaScript debugging environment.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/216
JSView
Adds ability to view the source code of external JS and CSS files.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2076
Link Alert
Changes the cursor to indicate the target of a link.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3199
Linkification
Auto-converts link-possible text into genuine, clickable links.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/190
Live HTTP Headers
View live HTTP headers of pages while browsing.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829
MeasureIt
Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/539
PrefBar
Quick access to toggle-able browser settings.
http://prefbar.mozdev.org/installation.html
Save Image in Folder
Save images in personally customized folders.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/614
Save Link in Folder
Save links in personally customized folders.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/613
Tab Scope
Preview and navigate tab contents through popup.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4882
Tamper Data
View and modify HTTP/HTTPS headers and post parameters. Trace and time HTTP response/requests.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/966
Web Developer
Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60
YSlow
YSlow analyzes web pages and tells you why they're slow based on Yahoo's rules for high performance web sites.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5369
My Personal Favorites
So as for my favorites, especially when it comes to doing web development, are as follows:
- HTML Validator
- Web Developer
- Firebug
- YSlow
- JSView
- Live HTTP Headers
- ColorZilla
- CookieCuller
- MeasureIt
A few of the things on this list make web development so significantly easier that it's difficult for me to imagine how we did our jobs before they existed. Firebug and the Web Developer toolbar are sufficiently awesome as to require a switch to Firefox alone. If you're going be working on improving performance, you'll want to look into YSlow and Live HTTP Headers.
