Firefox Essentials: 10 Must-Have Extensions
There are some Firefox extensions that are good -- and some that are indispensable. Find out why these are the add-ons you can't live without.
January 26, 2006
Editor's Note: This is the first installment of our "Firefox Essentials" series. Be sure not to miss the subsequent stories on understanding and managing your profiles and troubleshooting Firefox.
You probably know what Firefox extensions are and how they work. Here's the quick-and-dirty definition, from the Fox's mouth:
Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. They can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow the application to be customized to fit the personal needs of each user if they need additional features, while keeping Firefox small to download.
Firefox: Essential Extensions |
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• Introduction• No More Ads• Flash Control Plus Three Tiny Gotta-Haves• Better Tabs, Downloads, And IE• Speed And Secrecy• Bonus: Search Plug-Ins• Quick-Click Chart• Image Gallery |
The last time I checked, more than 970 extensions were available for download through addons.mozilla.org: Mozilla's official online source for All Things Firefox, also known as "AMO" to frequent visitors and lazy writers.
Click around AMO for a few minutes, and you'll get an idea of just how much creativity and hard work Mozilla has inspired among Firefox users. I won't bore you here with any lectures on the benefits of open-source software -- it's enough to know that you're looking at one of them, or rather hundreds of them, right on that site.Picking your first extensions is a tough job; there are people who wandered into AMO's digital labyrinth months ago, and they're still in there. If you find it tough to eat just one potato chip, there's a good chance that trying to install just one extension will make your head explode.
Spare your sanity (and the curtains): Start with these key Firefox extensions that belong on every user's desktop. Even if you decide for some reason to run without them, knowing about these extensions is a matter of basic Firefox literacy -- and disabling or uninstalling them takes a matter of seconds.
(Hint: If you're an impatient sort, you can jump directly to our Quick-Click Chart to download without the details.)
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Believe it or not, this article barely scratches the surface of Mozilla's add-on architecture for Firefox. For an in-depth look at the latest, coolest, and lamest extensions, check out Scot Finnie's ongoing coverage of the Best Firefox Extensions And Customizing Tips. You'll also find links to useful Firefox-related sites and timely how-to content -- and best of all, Scot's site never dispenses advice older than the magazines in your dentist's waiting room. For a basic guide to installing Firefox extensions, don't waste your time wandering the Web -- look no further than the browser's own Help menu, under "Customization: Extensions" in the Contents list. If things begin to get weird (they probably won't), Scot's brief tutorial on How To Install Firefox Extensions will get you back on the right path. |
Adblock Plus With Filterset.G Updater
The original Adblock extension isn't just popular; it's THE reason why some people switch to Firefox in the first place. It's easy to see why: For every tasteful, thoughtful online ad, there are ten blinking, neon-colored insults to your intelligence -- and each one of them wastes a little more of your time and bandwidth.
Here's what you'll see without Adblock Plus.Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
In recent months, however, the original Adblock has piled on the new features for power users. Unfortunately, that means it's also getting a bit bloated, runs more slowly, and has wrestled more than its share of compatibility problems in recent months.
Firefox: Essential Extensions |
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• Introduction• No More Ads• Flash Control Plus Three Tiny Gotta-Haves• Better Tabs, Downloads, And IE• Speed And Secrecy• Bonus: Search Plug-Ins• Quick-Click Chart• Image Gallery |
Here's my advice: Start instead with the latest version of Adblock Plus. Like Adblock, it turns Web pages into something that doesn't require a Dramamine patch to view without losing your lunch.
Unlike Adblock, it's designed to be lightning-quick, lightweight, and easy to use -- and since taking over Adblock Plus just a few days ago, the new developer, Wladimir Palant, has already taken some big steps towards these goals. Until you need more, this is the banner-ad management tool that belongs in your Firefox toolkit.
The Straight Dope On Adblock Plus | |
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In the days following the handoff of Adblock Plus from the previous developer to his replacement, Wladimir Palant, there has been a lot of confusion, and a discouraging amount of ignorance and FUD, concerning both the project and Wladimir himself.Here's what you need to know, before you encounter any misinformation in the AMO forums: The Adblock Plus project handoff was a voluntary and mutually agreed-upon event, and Wladimir Palant has already earned a lot of praise for his work on Adblock Plus from his predecessor, other developers, and longtime Firefox users. Please take any comments on the AMO user forums that attack either Adblock Plus or its new developer with a very, very big grain of salt. These kinds of misunderstandings are unfortunate and very annoying when they get out of control, and they are inherently unfair to developers who may be too busy even to notice such comments, much less respond to them. |
The perfect Adblock Plus setup includes one more ingredient: the one and only Adblock Filterset.G Updater. Named with its creator's initial tacked onto the end, this is a pre-compiled set of regular expressions to filter and catch virtually every banner ad before Firefox wastes your bandwidth downloading it.
The same page after Adblock Plus and Filterset.G have done their thing.Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
Filterset.G, a set of filters maintained for Adblock, will, if you give it the OK during its first startup, update itself about once a week. In addition, both Filterset.G and Adblock Plus 0.6 now support whitelisting -- a great way to support and thank sites that put their users first. All in all, I consider Filterset.G every bit as essential to the Firefox experience as the Adblock Plus extension itself.Download Adblock Plus
Download Adblock Filterset.G Updater
FlashBlock
The sheer quantity of bad Flash content choking the Web these days is enough to make me wonder if there's a guy with horns and a pointy tail sitting on the Macromedia (whoops, make that Adobe) board of directors. Enter FlashBlock, which allows you, and not some design-challenged satanic dimbulb, to decide whether or not to load a given piece of Flash content.
Macromedia isn't the worst offender, but there's still more Flash on its home page than most of us want or need.Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
If you've ever watched a bloated piece of Flash trash slow your system to a crawl, only to serve up a silly banner ad or a souvenir from some designer's ego trip, this extension will put a smile on your face faster than you can say "exorcism." And as with Adblock Plus, you'll find a whitelist option (just open the Extensions Manager under the Tools menu, select the extension, and click Options) to allow well-behaved sites to load Flash without a detour through purgatory.
FlashBlock makes the Web a calmer place.Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
Firefox: Essential Extensions |
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• No More Ads• Flash Control Plus Three TinyGotta-Haves• Better Tabs, Downloads, And IE• Speed And Secrecy• Bonus: Search Plug-Ins |
Disable Targets For Downloads
This diminutive extension weighs in at just 10KB, and it serves exactly one purpose: Keeping a new browser tab or window from opening for no reason when you download files.
It's a little thing, but it drives me nuts -- and a lot of people feel the same way. In terms of benefit-to-size ratio, I can't not recommend Disable Targets For Downloads as an essential part of every Firefox setup.
Download Disable Targets For Downloads
This extension is essential for uninstalling unwanted search-engine add-ons. At just 4KB, it's another gotta-have that punches way above its weight.
History Menu
This is another small-footprint extension (just 7KB) that adds a set of submenus -- one for each day, going back a week -- below the standard list of your last 10 visited Web sites under the Firefox "Go" menu.
Simple, but solid: History Menu makes your history menu more useful.Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
You'll find other extensions that add much, much more to your History menu, and some of them are quite good. But if you're looking for a fast, elegant, effective extension that will benefit just about any Firefox user without piling on the bells and whistles, this is the one you need.
Tab Mix Plus
Firefox has spawned a whole category of extensions devoted to tweaking one of the browser's most popular and practical features: tabbed browsing. Yet this cornucopia hides more than its share of bad apples: Some tab-management extensions are notorious for breaking themselves, other extensions, and Firefox itself if you even look at them the wrong way.
Firefox: Essential Extensions |
---|
• Introduction• No More Ads• Flash Control Plus Three TinyGotta-Haves• Better Tabs, Downloads, And IE• Speed And Secrecy |