The Best Firefox Addons

Everybody has their own favorite Firefox addons. These are one of the reasons that everybody loves this reincarnation of the Mozilla suite: it is completely customizable. In fact, addons are one of the very few reasons that I haven't yet switched over to Google's new Chrome browser. Some of them are just for fun, but many of them are indispensable parts of my digital life. Here are the addons on my Firefox installation, ranked in by importance.

10. Classic Compact Theme

You need to have a good Firefox theme. I put this at the bottom of my list because it's frivolous, but something that I love to have. I use this theme simply because it maximizes my screen real estate. Really, the standard "Tango" theme that Firefox uses is pretty wasteful. I get at least an extra centimeter or so of space by using this theme. Plus, it has a nice metallic look to it that is much easier on the eyes than the standard Firefox theme.

9. NoScript

This is an excellent security addon, but one that I have so low because it is far too intrusive. Now, I keep it off for the most part, but still installed because it is very useful if I have to go on a suspicious website. What this addon does is keep every single script off unless you give explicit permission for the script to run. You can either specify which scripts to run, or "trust" websites, which will let all scripts on that site run. However, you wouldn't believe how much scripts are necessary now. You really end up having to trust every website, because scripts are now necessary on every single site.

8. User Agent Switcher

This is a very useful addon, especially if you're using an operating system other than Windows. What it does is allow you to change how your browser identifies itself, so that you can say you are on any operating system and using any browser. What I use it for is sometimes sites will only allow the download for your specific operating system, so on my Linux operating system, if I need the Windows download, I will use this to say that I am using Windows. Also, it can be useful to test view ages or see alternate content ased on your browser.

7. Speed Dial

As I said before, I like to maximize screen real estate. Therefore, I don't keep my bookmarks toolbar on. What this addon does is put a page that you can access that shows a certain number of sites in thumbnails, that can be easily accessed. You can vary the number of them, and can make it the default home page or default page for a new tab. I do both, and whenever I need to access a bookmark, I just go to the home page or open a new tab. Works like a charm, and so convenient.

6. StumbleUpon

This is another frivolous addon. Stumbleupon adds a toolbar to your browser that you can use to click the "stumble" button and it will bring you to a random website. Then, you tell it whether you like the site or not. In only a little while it will have a profile built, and will know exactly what kinds of sites are your favorite. It is so fun, I've wasted hours playing with this thing.

5. Web of Trust

Another security addon. Web of Trust (known as WOT) has an incredible archive of sites and user ratings, based on child safety, trustworthiness, reliability, and privacy. If you go to a bad site, you can set it to warn you, or you can just watch the icon to see the warning based on an easy color code. It actually has saved me before.

4. Download Statusbar

This is the best download manager that I found for Firefox. When you start a download, this addon causes a small bar to open, unobtrusively, at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll over any icon on this bar, you can see the time left, time expired, and information left in any given download. You can have the downloads remain in the bar when complete, vanish, or change it based on filetype. It is extremely convenient.

3. Adblock Plus

This does what you think. It blocks advertisements. You can also set it to block flash content and add your own rules to block whole domains or anything else. It will also sustain if you want it to block a single piece of content every time you visit a website. I can't stand using other browsers now without this addon.

2. Greasemonkey

This is the most versatile addon that I have ever used Greasemonkey allows you to write or download scripts that will permanently modify parts of websites, whenever you visit it with your browser and the script on. This means, for example, that if you don't like the layout of, say, Associated Content, you can write a script that will move the header to the bottom, or anything else. It's awesome and has a whole archive of scripts that can be used here.

1. Webmail Notifier

I literally could not survive without this addon. I have about twenty (literally) email accounts that I use for work, school, home, etc. I wouldn't even be able to remember them all on my own. Plus, they are in many different clients and websites, so I couldn't possibly use one of those downloadable wemail notifiers. However, this one can monitor any number of webmail accounts and with all of the most common ones. I have to say that this has saved my life on any number of occasions.

So yeah- there they are. I recommend trying them. I love these addons and, unless another browser gets such a strong addon following, I will never switch away from Firefox.