odin_dax
15th August 2007, 10:51 PM
So, here's my first guide to Firefox. Mozilla has a list of recommended add-ons worth looking at. You'll have to decided which ones are for you. Here is a list of Firefox extensions I reviewed for the readers. Extensions with *** means I recommend them. To browse more quickly through the list, you can use the "Find" feature to look for ***'s.
*** VideoDownloader
"Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, Pornotube..."
Useful, but not as one might think. At 14KB, it won't take up much space.
AdBlock Plus
"Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them."
Only dial-up users will benefit from this. I had this installed with NoScript, but NoScript stopped most crap anyway.
***Download Statusbar
"View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing."
This is, perhaps, my favorite extension, in that it gets rid of that annoying download window. This extension is a MUST!
***NoScript
"It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site, and guards the "trust boundaries" against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS)."
This one can be annoying to use. I recommend having it rather than not, but be warned, not all pages will work properly, and if temporary or permanent scripting isn't permitted for a site, be ready to fill in forms all over again. Some sites require script permissions outside the domain to work properly. I'm still not 100% used to it, but it's a routine.
As a side note, I globally turned it off recently, and I was hit with pop-up ads and annoying banner advertisements. Definitely get this one.
FlashGot
"Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular, lightweight and reliable external download managers."
I never found a use for this, but maybe you will.
PDF Download
"Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!"
I can do this through Google.
FasterFox
"Performance and network tweaks for Firefox..."
I saw no benefit from this extension. Maybe your experience will be better.
***ColorfulTabs
"Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface."
I don't use this one, but it can be useful.
***StumbleUpon
"Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations. With StumbleUpon you can also connect with friends and share your discoveries, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering."
ENOUGH SAID, GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FoxyTunes
"Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser."
I didn't recommend this one, only because some music players already minimize in the background.
***Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
"If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized."
After Windoze crashed on my system, I lost years worth of bookmarks (though I'm sure I found most of them again). I use this extension everyday. Not only do all my computers have my bookmarks, but so does a central sync file. I will never lose them again! Be careful not to screw up! :oh: I also recommend backing up to disk/hard drive occasionally.
ChatZilla
"A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client."
I recommend all-in-one chat clients, like Gaim, that includes IRC.
***FoxLingo
"The Ultimate Language Tool!
Main Features:
Web Page Translation - Translates full web pages (over 1,000 different language pairs)
Translated Search - Searches foreign pages using terms written in your language
Auto Translation - Automatically translates websites by recognizing their domain
Text Translation - Translates text entered in the search box or selected on any web page
Language Resources - Over 90 language services
Ixquick - Metasearch with unique features, language search and complete privacy
Learning Languages - Over 100 links to language learning sites
Freeware - FoxLingo is completely free and contains no adware or spyware
Complete Privacy - FoxLingo does not take any information from it's users"
If you find yourself on a page written in a different language, this will be a blessing! Better than google translation, IMHO!
***translator
Basically the same as above. Both have a tiny bit of language holes the other fills.
***Update Scanner
"Monitors web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don't provide Atom or RSS feeds."
How is this not useful? :tongue1:
***UnPlug
"UnPlug scans web pages and tells you where media players are getting their data from, and displays it as a simple hyperlink: in most cases, you can then follow the simple download link to save the media file."
***Bookmark Duplicate Detector
Enough said!
Clipmarks
"With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it's a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page."
I have it, but never used it.
Map+
"View a Yahoo! map of a selected address without having to open a new window or tab."
Again, I have it, but never used it.
Yoono
"While you are surfing, Yoono instantly suggests what others have discovered: websites, people and articles. Create a rich scrapbook of your favorite stuff with the new "Buzz It!" feature, one-click grab and share videos, photos and texts from any web page."
Again, again, I have it, but never used it.
***CookieSafe
"This extension will allow you to easily control cookie permissions."
***Media Pirate
"More and more websites publish their videos in those neat flash players. But if you want to download a video there is no download link. This doesn't mean that you can't download it. Media Pirate creates a download link for you!"
I've used this a couple of times, and it works great!
***WOT
"Can you recognize good and reliable Internet content? Did you have a bad experience that you would like to share with others? WOT can help you. Seeing website reputations on your browser allows you to learn from other people. This shared knowledge makes it easier to avoid online fraud, including phishing and spyware. WOT can add reputations also to web search results, Digg, Gmail, Wikipedia, and other selected sites."
I've usually follow the recommendations, but sometimes they're wrong. If you know a site to be good, maybe someone else just had a personal problem with it for whatever reason. It's a good indication for porn or warez sites, etc.
Worth Looking At:
FoxyProxy*
TorrentBar*
Torrent Finder Toolbar - I'd be cautious about using this one.
Stealther
DownThemAll!
Greasemonkey
Wizz RSS News Reader
ScribeFire
BlogRovr
*Newly downloaded, but not used yet.
================================================== ===============
That's it! Hope you enjoyed it!
-O.D.
*** VideoDownloader
"Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, Pornotube..."
Useful, but not as one might think. At 14KB, it won't take up much space.
AdBlock Plus
"Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them."
Only dial-up users will benefit from this. I had this installed with NoScript, but NoScript stopped most crap anyway.
***Download Statusbar
"View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing."
This is, perhaps, my favorite extension, in that it gets rid of that annoying download window. This extension is a MUST!
***NoScript
"It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site, and guards the "trust boundaries" against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS)."
This one can be annoying to use. I recommend having it rather than not, but be warned, not all pages will work properly, and if temporary or permanent scripting isn't permitted for a site, be ready to fill in forms all over again. Some sites require script permissions outside the domain to work properly. I'm still not 100% used to it, but it's a routine.
As a side note, I globally turned it off recently, and I was hit with pop-up ads and annoying banner advertisements. Definitely get this one.
FlashGot
"Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular, lightweight and reliable external download managers."
I never found a use for this, but maybe you will.
PDF Download
"Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!"
I can do this through Google.
FasterFox
"Performance and network tweaks for Firefox..."
I saw no benefit from this extension. Maybe your experience will be better.
***ColorfulTabs
"Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface."
I don't use this one, but it can be useful.
***StumbleUpon
"Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations. With StumbleUpon you can also connect with friends and share your discoveries, meet people that have similar interests, and check out what other people are discovering."
ENOUGH SAID, GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FoxyTunes
"Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser."
I didn't recommend this one, only because some music players already minimize in the background.
***Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
"If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized."
After Windoze crashed on my system, I lost years worth of bookmarks (though I'm sure I found most of them again). I use this extension everyday. Not only do all my computers have my bookmarks, but so does a central sync file. I will never lose them again! Be careful not to screw up! :oh: I also recommend backing up to disk/hard drive occasionally.
ChatZilla
"A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client."
I recommend all-in-one chat clients, like Gaim, that includes IRC.
***FoxLingo
"The Ultimate Language Tool!
Main Features:
Web Page Translation - Translates full web pages (over 1,000 different language pairs)
Translated Search - Searches foreign pages using terms written in your language
Auto Translation - Automatically translates websites by recognizing their domain
Text Translation - Translates text entered in the search box or selected on any web page
Language Resources - Over 90 language services
Ixquick - Metasearch with unique features, language search and complete privacy
Learning Languages - Over 100 links to language learning sites
Freeware - FoxLingo is completely free and contains no adware or spyware
Complete Privacy - FoxLingo does not take any information from it's users"
If you find yourself on a page written in a different language, this will be a blessing! Better than google translation, IMHO!
***translator
Basically the same as above. Both have a tiny bit of language holes the other fills.
***Update Scanner
"Monitors web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don't provide Atom or RSS feeds."
How is this not useful? :tongue1:
***UnPlug
"UnPlug scans web pages and tells you where media players are getting their data from, and displays it as a simple hyperlink: in most cases, you can then follow the simple download link to save the media file."
***Bookmark Duplicate Detector
Enough said!
Clipmarks
"With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it's a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page."
I have it, but never used it.
Map+
"View a Yahoo! map of a selected address without having to open a new window or tab."
Again, I have it, but never used it.
Yoono
"While you are surfing, Yoono instantly suggests what others have discovered: websites, people and articles. Create a rich scrapbook of your favorite stuff with the new "Buzz It!" feature, one-click grab and share videos, photos and texts from any web page."
Again, again, I have it, but never used it.
***CookieSafe
"This extension will allow you to easily control cookie permissions."
***Media Pirate
"More and more websites publish their videos in those neat flash players. But if you want to download a video there is no download link. This doesn't mean that you can't download it. Media Pirate creates a download link for you!"
I've used this a couple of times, and it works great!
***WOT
"Can you recognize good and reliable Internet content? Did you have a bad experience that you would like to share with others? WOT can help you. Seeing website reputations on your browser allows you to learn from other people. This shared knowledge makes it easier to avoid online fraud, including phishing and spyware. WOT can add reputations also to web search results, Digg, Gmail, Wikipedia, and other selected sites."
I've usually follow the recommendations, but sometimes they're wrong. If you know a site to be good, maybe someone else just had a personal problem with it for whatever reason. It's a good indication for porn or warez sites, etc.
Worth Looking At:
FoxyProxy*
TorrentBar*
Torrent Finder Toolbar - I'd be cautious about using this one.
Stealther
DownThemAll!
Greasemonkey
Wizz RSS News Reader
ScribeFire
BlogRovr
*Newly downloaded, but not used yet.
================================================== ===============
That's it! Hope you enjoyed it!
-O.D.