Firefox Extensions: Picks of the Week 08-04-10

Originally posted 2008-04-10 08:35:31.

Firefox 3 beta 5 has been in the wild for a few days. If you haven’t had a chance to try it yet, you can snag this portable version of it and read this post to run Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 simultaneously. The advantage of the portable version is that there is no installation and you can even carry it in your usb flash drive. When the next beta/release candidate comes out, you can simply delete the Firefox directory and grab the new one.

Let’s look at some of the new Firefox extensions I came across in the last couple of weeks:

• CraigsToolbox: If you are a heavy Craigslist user, you will appreciate the features this extension offers. One of the primary feature is that it loads thumbnails of pictures attached to a listing in the listing page. Saves you from clicking into every listing to see the pictures. Plus, it lets you save a dollar amount and a favorite search string to search by default. Check out this video to find out more.
• Download Statusbar: A very nice download manager that can be run in full or mini mode. The full mode gives you a visual progress bar above the status bar of ongoing downloads. Also has a plenty options to set colors, etc.  No more annoying download window to manage.
• OpenDownload: Ever been annoyed by the fact that when you download .exe files, Firefox doesn’t have an option to just run the .exe. Well, this extension gives that to you.
• RetailMeNot: There are plenty of sites to find online coupons. With this extension, when you are on a site like Amazon you will automatically see if there are any coupons available. Your online shopping just got snazzier.
• BuyLater: Another one for you online shoppers. If you find an item out of stock or would like to follow a price closely, this extension adds a ‘Buy This Later’ button. It’ll monitor for updates every minute and notify you by email or Twitter. I like the Twitter idea as you can get these updates as tweets without flooding your inbox.
• FoxTor: If privacy and anonymity is in your radar when you are browsing for whatever reason, FoxTor gives you just that. Make your browsing anonymous with the touch of a button.

Hope you find an extension or two that you can use to make your daily browsing a little easier. Has anyone noticed the performance increase in Firefox 3 beta 5? I love it.