Discussion on:

10 seamless extensions that make Firefox 2 even better

Okay, now it's your turn -- would you have skipped any of Justin's choices in favor of other Firefox extensions? What would your list of top picks look like?

To my surprise, none of the extensions where in my setup. I use 8 extensions quite heavily on a day-to-day basis though!
So much for extensibility. I love this browser!

IETAB : Some sites only work with IE ?!
Screengrab : great for taking snapshots of the session

Not quite in this category, but Google notebook : Save notes, clipboard and access from anywhere.

Had been using IEView, tried TAB, great extension, thanks for tip.

...Firefox blocked it. Makes me wonder why. I'm not curious enough to bypass their security.

I don't know about security, but Firefox doesn't block downloads of extensions. Where did you tell Firefox to download the file? I created a new folder in Program Files called "Downloads". Go to My Computer > C: > Program Files and make a new folder from the File menu. Name it whatever you like. Most people use 'My Downloads' or something similar.

When Firefox asks you again where you want to save the download, you now have a place for it.

Interested Amateur

In my experience, Firefox just wants you to verify that you actually want to install the plugin. I have IE Tab and it works wonderfully.

As far as I know it hasn't compromised my identity or anythi... what are these charges on my credit card?!

I use DOM Inspector as well.
In addition:

Adblock Plus:
http://tinyurl.com/caqdb

Add Bookmark Here & Send To:
http://tinyurl.com/3nk24

BugMeNot:
http://tinyurl.com/yk9ywp

Context Highlight:
http://tinyurl.com/5f7hd

Copy Plain Text, Open Long URL, Tiny URL Creator:
http://tinyurl.com/6owxl

Delicious:
http://tinyurl.com/55yhl

Dictionary Search:
http://tinyurl.com/4sb6f

Flashblock:
http://tinyurl.com/5boxa

ForecastFox:
http://tinyurl.com/52rvx

IEView:
http://tinyurl.com/2sotk

Internote:
http://tinyurl.com/ebasy

MapIt: (I've tweaked it to work in 2.0)
http://tinyurl.com/yyx27d

Sage:
http://tinyurl.com/3csln

Slashy:
http://tinyurl.com/scvvz

TabX:
http://tinyurl.com/6ftje

Tab Browser Preferences:
http://tinyurl.com/ac7ay

I run the following:

NoScript (probably not good for novices but indispensable for those whose research sends them to questionable sites)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/722/

AdBlock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/

Adblock Filterset.G Updater (Gets updates externally but even if the site were to go black, you would still get the benefits from your last update)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/

FlashBlock
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/433/

Web Developer & User Agent Switcher
(A must for web designers)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/59/

Server Spy (more dev tools)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2036/

DownloadThemAll (with filters makes grabbing ISO's painless, why limit yourself to just image downloads)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/201/

Fast Video Download (for grabbing Google Video, You Tube and other embedded content)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3590/

BugMeNot (as others have mentioned, be there is no official mozilla.org page, so it violates the "..available through the Firefox extension Web site.." rule)

those mentioned in the list... to tell you the truth I cant find any real use for it... upps - sorry, sound some: take space, use more memorry and most of all: make ff load longer.

really ppl - its cr*p. you can do without all of it easyly.

I use: Adblock and some other plugin which name I forgot - its used to download videos from youtube, google etc.

Adblock is very usefull - you can remove all frames/images from a site. so for example - if you visit some sites everyday you can remove logos and other images from the top and go directly to the good stuff without having to scroll down

there was also a plugin which was blocking scripts, but its causing more problems than its worth... every site has a lot of scripts and you end up with pressing 'enable all for this site' which is not secure at all, plus - why to have a blocking plugin when its not blocking anything..?

cheer

The dom add-in is NOT for Firebird. Works with Thunderbird ONLY!


Thunderbird 1.5 - 1.5.0.* Windows

Tag from Add-In Page for this add-in

1) I like fasterfox, because it helps pages load faster: http://fasterfox.mozdev.org/installation.html\
2) Gspace lets you use your Gmail account as a personal FTP site
http://www.getgspace.com/
3) Since Adobe Acrobat files are often big, and are handled by any browser poorly, I like PDF Download as well:
http://www.pdfdownload.org/
4) IE Tab is essential for pages that only read properly in IE:
http://ietab.mozdev.org/
5) Forecastfox is a handy tool for finding the local weather, and warnings. It's especially handy in the Winter around here, what with unexpected snowstorms:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/398/

Those are my five favorites. I know that a few of you probably already use them... Just wanted to add my eleventy-two cents.

Text Size Toolbar - simple and practical, with icons that make it easy to use.

Scrapbook - perfect for holding all those receipts for online purchases until the goods arrive and for filtering only the bits of a webpage you want to keep.

This is really not needed as you can simply use the middle-click to open the results in a new tab, or the left-click to open it in the same tab.

[1] No longer available at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/462/

[2] Incompatible w/ Firefox 2.0.0.3

-- stan

I also use Unhide Passwords, Tab History, and LinkAlert.

For the other functions I need or want, I use the following:

TabMix Plus 0.3.5, http://tinyurl.com/r2lk6, provides extended tab management functions

DownThemAll, http://tinyurl.com/q6fo5, features a download accelerator and download management, filtering, multiple file selection

BookMark Duplicate Detector, http://tinyurl.com/p7cwx, detects duplicate URLs anywhere in your Bookmarks.

FasterFox, http://tinyurl.com/n3blz, tweaks settings to speed things up.

And I know it's not self-contained, but I absolutely can't do without http://tinyurl.com/lybnk, TinyURL Creator (as if you hadn't already figured that out).

Edit: type, post, proofread

I also use Adblock (Filtering out those unwanted ads),

Quicknote (To keep small notes while browsing)

& del.icio.us (To manage my bookmarks)

I think it's weird how there is such great debate between Firefox and IE and how people very rarely ever even mention Opera. I have encountered very few problems with the browser and have noticed that most of these lists of add-ons and plug-ins are things that come stock with Opera. Plus, Opera passes the ACID2 test without any plug-ins where as IE6, 7 and Firefox couldn't. By no means am I trying to start a "my browser is better than yours" arguement or anything, just wondering where everyone else stands on Opera or if anyone else has used it much. Might be a good discussion in itself.

I agree.
I have a few browsers installed on my PC as part of a test I am doing and to my surprise Opera was the favorite choice in my household.
It is rendering faster then other browser (I.E, Firefox etc..) and has most of the features you want on first install without the need to go through lists of extensions.
Of course every one have different needs of their browser but 2 thumbs up for Opera

For quite a while before the beta for Firefox 2 (bon echo) was out, I used Opera.

I liked it a lot, but I like the feel of Firefox 2 more. I can't say that it is just because I used Firefox 1.5 prior to using Opera, but I can't really give any concrete reasons why either. I find them both to be very good browsers, but for whatever reason, I prefer Firefox 2.

As far as plug-ins go:

I use (and like) Chatzilla, IETabs, and FireFtp. The one I use the most often is IETabs, but I use Chatzilla quite often on my Gentoo server so I can try to get help on the IRC.

I tried to download Opera a few years ago. They wanted payment for the download so I went with Firefox when it was released.

I'm satisfied with Firefox as it is because it's a vast improvement over IE. Why should I change now and take a chance that Opera won't decide to charge for their browser next year?

BTW, my fave extensions are NoScript, Abblock with Abblock Filterset G Updater, Colorful Tabs and Infolister to keep track of them all.

Just my opinion...
Interested Amateur

Opera is now free!
You just have to pay for support

I use Opera as my default browser, but also have IE7 for its universal support. There have been a number of sites where site authentication methods don't work in Opera, and for those I use IE7.

Last time I looks (admittedly it's been a while), Opera wasn't "free" (is it still Ad supported?). Since Opera isn't the focus I'm not digressing further.

Yes it's free and No it's not ad supported for the free version anymore.

Personally, I have found more use from the extensions in this Discussion portion than the article itself, no offense just truth. I use more extensions than anyone I know, they just keep making cool ones. The only extensions I will take the time to mention are TabX, Session Manager, and Deskcut with which I could not survive!!! (add a little drama:) Oh and one cool thing especially if you have multiple users on FF in an office environment is WindizUpdate which will allow you to go to Microsoft Updates website whereas this function is normally an IE only function.

One I cannot live without is ietab. It basically opens Internet Explorer inside a tab, and optionally set that everytime you visit that page again, it will do so with Internet Explorer rendering instead of Mozilla. Now I don't have to open IE, I can switch with just the click of a button.

A little baffled myself when I read the article. Not a good one in the bunch, and too many good ones left out. The stock tabbed browsing functionality is almost useless without tabbed browser extensions of some sort

milewideback - i absolutely cannot use FF without this one - makes going back SO EASY

and Superdragandgo - soooooo handy just drag and drop a link to open in a new tab - so simple!

they would have to be my two absolute must haves!

Oh and the ones that change the tabs to red, thats dumb, FF already all by itself makes unread ones blue right?? or is that the Tab Mix Plus - which does loads of things (tab history open closed tabs and windows, session saves - i know FF does some of this now but )

It's a neat little gadget, altho it takes some getting used to.

What it does is block javascript.

Completely.

Since javascript is the primary tool for presenting pop-up ads, it turns out to work better than any of the normal pop-up blockers, that try to be "intelligent" about it. "NoScript" takes a "Zero-Tolerance" stance, so it gets EVERYthing.

Javascript is also the primary tool for advertiser data mining, so it helps protect your privacy.

Downside: javascipt is also often used for "image buttons" and linking to a page when a pull-down list-item is selected. So I'll often forget I've got "NoScript" running, click a button, and nothing happens. NATURALLY I think this is because the 'Net is just SLOW again -- until I remember, curse a bit, and add the page to the exception list.

Upside: As you find pages that you trust, or absolutely need, you add them to "NoScript's" exception list. After a while, you forget it's there, and forget that you ever had bad experiences with pop-ups etc. It also works very well with pages that have a lot of third-party links to advertisers. You just allow javascript for the Real Page that you're looking at, while all the advertisers on the same page just pound sand.

A perfect example is comics.com -- I visit there regularly for my daily humor fix. They're in my exception list, because they use javascript to select a comic from a pull-down list. But all of their advertisers are blocked. I've forgotten about all their annoying pop-ups, until I happen to visit the page in a non-blocking Internet Explorer.

Overall, I'd say it's a good addition.

I'm glad TR ran it in the latest round of e-mails. I got immediate use out of four of your recommendations.

FF extensions are exploding so fast it's tough to keep up with them. Thanks for doing the research.

Interesting, these are 10 of the addon's I already have.
Great minds thing alike

great listing, well worth the time and check on what is going on using TechRepublic!