Firefox add-ons I like
Always been a fan of Firefox, I like it’s simple easy to use interface, and that it’s not Microsoft and less clunky and awkward
to start up and use than Internet Explorer. I used Google’s browser for about five minutes before I uninstalled it, because, well it just wasn’t Firefox.
Anyway, I was dinking around and burning out my bookmarks, playing the what the hell link is this? Game and liberally pressing my delete key. I’d already spent the morning burning out my Facebook apps (and adding a few news ones) and clearing out my pages link on face book (seriously? I’m a fan of cannibalism?! Must have been hilarious at the time) and thought I’d apply my delete key skills to my Firefox add-ons and realize there’s some badass add-ons that I really notice are missing when I’m using a computer other than my beloved Omnivac.
So without further ado, a list of my favorite and most used Firefox add ons.
1. Ad-Block Plus– I just don’t need to see the same stupid ads for the 1 simple rule to losing weight (Not stuffing my fat face every opportunity I get? Ermm?) or how Obama wants moms to go back to school, or zwinky dolls. Srsly.
2. Cool Previews– AWESOME. I hate having to open a stupid tab to get a quick look at a google result just to find out it’s not what I wanted, at all. Instead of getting that all important “why is my cat vomiting carpet tacks?” I end up one some dork’s blog talking about how he wants to “tacks” people who own cats and are vomiting on carpets. This lil gem opens the page in a box that hovers over your search. If you want to tab it there’s a way to do that, if you want to just peruse through the tax on cat owners who are vomiting on carpets website you can do that, then click back in your search (which all this was hovering over) and get on with your life. No click back and forth to other tabs… Try the damn add-on.
3. Ctrl-Tab– It’s like Vista’s (Gnomes, Apples?) window switcher, but for your tabs. Hit Control and Tab and it’s like hitting Alternate and Tab in those operating systems. You get lil previews of your tabs and can move through them quickly. My wife needs this one, she always has about three hundred tabs open on her computer and about seventy on mine that I always feel reluctant to close. (Hey where’d that thing go on the thing? /The What?/ The thing on the thing about the mom blogging resources and the exact location of Ponce Deleon’s map to the fountain of youth? /I closed it, sorry./)
4. Easy Pandora– Really enjoying this one, just added it today. It opens Pandora in an invisible window (that you can make visible) and doesn’t take up a tab. You can even set it to start your music when you open Firefox. I just discovered Pandora.com and love it. The streaming doesn’t eat up my humble 256k connection and does some cool things, you type in your artist, and it plays them and some other stuff that people who like your artist also like and plays them too. Give it a shot. Beats the hell out of paying for music, it’s legal and makes it’s money with ads that occur less often than radio ads.
5. Easy YouTube downloader- I don’t use this on a lot, but I like it when I do. It modifies the youtube page to give you the option to download. Pretty nifty.
6. Steep and Cheap watcher– This one has changed my life, but hasn’t really done anything for me. I can’t have the computer on lately without having the homepage pointed to steepandcheap.com They post one item, at a severe discount and have it up for 20 minutes or so OR until they sell out… and sometimes their items go CHEAP. It’s addicting to watch. Maybe it’s just me.
7. Xmarks- This is the handiest little bastard. It syncs your book marks with their server and any other computers you set up Xmarks on. Plus you can get at your bookmarks from their website. You make an account, and away you go. You can also sync passwords over their server (I don’t).
8. Split Browser– I like this one, but I just installed it while looking for something else. I’ll give it a shot and it looks like it’ll be handy. What it does is let you split your browser window to show as many tabs on one page at a time. This would be handy for having your blog editing on one side, and your twitter, or another window for researching open on the other side. Or above and below.
That’s what I got, what do you guys find indispensible for browsing?
I agree on the ad block. The cool previews, however, I found to get in my way to much so I removed it. As for the youtube downloader, I haven’t tried that one. I have the download helper addon which allows you to snag any video off of any website free. For a small one time fee, you can get the option to convert the video into your choice of format, including mp3. It is sweet, you should check it out and let me know what you think.
The youtube downloader doesn’t let you grab audio off of websites, which is a shame. I had a tool I used for that, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was called. I’ll check out that download helper. Thanks for the tip.