Firefox extensions I use (and cant do without)

Of course I can do without them. Life on the web may not just be as interesting and informative as it is now. The list is quite exhaustive so its best to start without further ado.

1. Firefox Environment Backup Extension
   A complete Firefox profile data backup utility. It makes it possible to move your Firefox settings, addons, themes, etc. from one installation to another, or between your work and home PC. It supports scheduled backups which could come in handy incase your computer crashes. It can automatically backup your data to the cloud if you have a box.net account.

2. Firebug
   This is a must have extension for frontend web developers. JavaScript debugging has never been better. My only problem with this extension is that it doesn’t retain its errors after a page refresh. I usually have to test my code on the onclick event of a form’s submit button rather than the onsubmit event of the form itself. The version I currently use is a nightly build which can be found here.

3. Flagfox
   Isn’t it a nice idea to have the flag of the country in which the web server of the site you are currently viewing displayed somewhere on your screen? Whew! That was a pretty long sentence. I suck, but you get the message anyways.

4. Ghostery
   This is a nice little extension that displays what analytics service the website you are currently viewing uses. It’s not surprising that most sites (the ones I visit) rely on Google Analytics.

5. Gmail Notifier
   A ‘notifier’ for Gmail accounts. Need I say more?

6. Google Preview
   This cute little add-on grabs and displays a thumbnail of the page linked to in a search result entry.

7. Greasemonkey
   This is one plug-in that works wonders. Its a plug-in that allows users to make changes on the fly to most web pages using special scripts. Changes can be such as adding new functionality to a page (like the Endless Tweets scripts for Twitter), combining data from multiple web pages (I have my twitter search integrated with Google search), and numerous other purposes. Greasemonkey scripts can be found at http://userscripts.org

8. Personas
   Plug-in that makes you change the look and feel of your browser without requiring a restart.

9. Right-Click-Link
   This extension lets you select text and open as a URL in an separate browser tab. Useful for cases where the text is a valid URL but not hyperlinked.

10. Stylish
    Stylish is best defined as Greasemonkey for CSS. Users can download or create their own styles to customize the look and feel of specific websites. Custom styles can be found at http://userstyles.org

11. Tab Mix Plus
    I love this extension’s session management feature. The progress bar it places on individual tabs isn’t a bad idea either.

12. TabRenamizer
    Ever found yourself in a situation where you are on a page you really shouldn’t be looking at for various reasons? Switching tabs isn’t enough. Your wife could still stay behind you and figure out that one of your tabs’ title says something about sex toys (or perhaps, your boss could figure out you’ve been facebooking all day). What do you do? Install this extension and happily hit ‘F2’ to rename the tab and even change it’s favicon anytime someone walks in through that door.

13. Twitterfox
    A complete twitter client that runs within Firefox. Probably the best Firefox-based Twitter client out there.

14. Twitterbar
    This extension lets you post to Twitter from your address bar. I used this before I discovered Twitterfox. Haven’t uninstalled / disabled it tho.

15. Web developer
    This extension comes as a toolbar. I rarely find myself using it although it has features that should be interesting to a web developer.

16. Xmarks
    Formerly known as Foxmarks, this plug-in backs up your bookmarks to an online service and allows you share them across multiple computers and multiple browsers including Internet Explorer. Cool.

17. Yahoo Mail Notifier
    This extension sits in my status bar and reminds me of how much junk I have in my Yahoo mailbox. I barely pay attention to it.

18. Zemanta
    I just installed this today. It helps improve the way you blog by displaying links, excerpts, and images relevant to your blog post. It support over 10 popular blogging platforms and is also integrated with Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

19. Download Statusbar
    I cant believe I almost forgot this one. This extension helps you keep track of your downloads in an unobtrusive status bar.

Do you know of other extensions myself and other readers could benefit from, sound off in the comments.

Now playing: Celine Dion – Skies Of L.A.