Updated: Jan 22, 2008

I have always enjoyed finding new extensions and they have constantly increased my browsing experience over the last couple of years. I put together this list when I wanted to share these wonderful extensions to my friends new to Firefox. Now, this is the most visited page in our site and I have decided to keep it updated as and when I find new or better extensions.

What it is and What it’s not?
This is by no means a comprehensive list. Official Firefox Add-ons site is. This list is meant to serve as a guide with most of the links pointing to the official site.

I have the created the following categories based on the type of extensions you might be looking at. This is very subjective, so please feel free to browse through the whole list and see what you like.

Tips

• It’s always a good idea to backup your profile, extensions, etc. with FEBE before you try a new extension. Some extensions don’t play well together. (Use FEBE - see below)
• If your Firefox seems very slow, it could be because you are using a lot of extensions.
• Remember the Profile Manager option. In Windows, start Firefox from command prompt: firefox.exe -profilemanager
• Power users can alleviate the overuse of extensions by creating different profiles. I switch between profiles for casual browsing and web development which keeps my Firefox lean and mean.

What type of extensions are you looking for?

• Essential - This section aims to help you achieve extension nirvana.. features some of the best.
• Usability - Aimed at improving browser usability.
• Fun - Email, RSS reader and other fun stuff.
• Blogging - Useful for bloggers. (also check out the next section)
• Web Developer - Aimed at techie’s like myself who either run a website or do some web development.

Essential Extensions

• 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.
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater - This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days.
• Fasterfox - Performance and network tweaks for Firefox…
• Firefox Environment Backup Extension (FEBE) - Schedule and automatically back up everything about Firefox.. bookmarks, profiles, saved passwords, form history, etc. No more fear of re-installing Firefox or breaking it with a new extension.
• CLEO package - CLEO is (Compact Library Extension Oraganizer) an extension that helps you create your own extension package (as a .xpi file) from your favaorite extensions (backed up using FEBE). When you want to move your extensions to another computer or three, just copy the custom xpi package you created and open it. Voila! You have cloned your Firefox extensions..
• IE Tab - Switch to IE for ‘those sites’ that work only on Internet Explorer without leaving Firefox. Mark it and it will remember next time you visit those sites.
• MouseGestures - Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward, close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage, without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard…
• MR Tech Local Install - The primary goal of this extension is to provide the tools needed to install and manage extensions and themes locally. For a power user, gives you numerous options to tweak Firefox settings to your hearts’s content.
• 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!
• Restart Firefox - Adds “Restart Firefox” menuitem to “File”, and a toolbar button for easy restarting…
• SecureLogin - It uses the Firefox’s built in password manager and disables automatic pre-filling. It highlights the form fields if it detects a saved password and with a customized click or a keyboard shortcut, it fills the username/password as well as signs you in, in one short step. Very useful!
• TabMixPlus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox’s tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more.
• Update Scanner - No RSS in a website? Add the page you are interested in to this extension and get notified right in your status bar when the page has been updated.
• Web Search Pro - Search the web the way you like…

Useability Extensions

• Back to Top - Back to Top helps navigate long pages. Go to the top or bottom of a page with a single click. Using right clicks and control clicks you can scroll a page or line at a time.
• Better Flickr - A compilation of GreaseMonkey user scripts that enhances Flickr.
• Better Gmail - A compilation of the best Greasemonkey GMail enhancements in one extension. I have found it to slow down initial page load but the features it comes with makes it very likeable.
• Better GReader - A compilation of GreaseMonkey user scripts that enhances Google Reader.




• ChromaTabs - Tints browser tabs with a color specific to the website loaded. This helps you identify tab contents based on a distinct visual cue.
• FaviconizeTab - If you are in the habit opening a dozn tabs anytime you are browsing, this can be save you some real estate in your tab bar. You can also preset certain to sites to always show just the Favicon and not the name of the site in the tab.
• FullerScreen - Really full screen… You still have access to the tabs and the status bar in this Full Screen mode. Use F11 to toggle between the modes.
• Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
• InformEnter - It adds a small clickable icon (that can be turned off with a right click) next to every form field. You can configure it to fill in semi-automatic mode with any frequently used field values for e.g. not just usernames & passwords, but address, website url, multiple email addresses, phone numbers etc.
• It’s All Text! - If you hate the little comment boxes in blogs or little text boxes where you need to type a long reply or complaint, this extension is for you. It adds a little edit button to the box and on clicking will take you to your favorite editor and on saving will transfer the content over to the box in the web page. Very handy.
• OPML Support - OPML Support adds OPML import/export functionality to the Firefox Bookmarks manager. OPML is a file type that is widely used to distribute lists of RSS/newsfeeds…
• Operator - Detects Microformats that are starting to get popular in many web sites.
• Personal Menu - For the power user looking to customize the Firefox Menu beyond what the Tiny Menu offers. You can remove unwanted menu items as well.
• Super DragAndGo - Drag a link or anything like a uri ( e.g. abc.com), and throw it to anywhere blank on the webpage to open the it in a new tab.
• Tiny Menu - Replace the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup… Save real estate by customizing the toolbars while shrinking the menu space with this.

Fun Extensions

• del.icio.us Complete - Provides a sidebar and excellent post dialog with popular tags, recommended tags plus your tag with toolbar support.
• GMail Manager - Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail…
• PicLens - Lets you view pictures in full screen with a single click in various popular sites like Flickr, Facebook, Google Images, Yahoo Images, etc.
• Sage RSS Reader - Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox. It’s got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don’t.
• SimpleDelicious - Access to your del.icio.us bookmarks right from your browser menu. It synchronizes your bookmarks seamlessly and makes adding and deleting bookmarks very simple.
• StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you “channelsurf” the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for finding and sharing great sites. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn’t think to search for.
• Time Tracker - Do you spend too much time on Firefox? Do you open tabs faster than you can close them? Cannot get things done? Keep track of how much you browse with TimeTracker. …
• Woot Watcher - Woot Watcher monitors the Woot! web site, and keeps you updated with the current item, price, and if it is sold out. During Woot-Offs, it will also let you know what percent of the item is…

Blogging Extensions

• Clippings - Makes saving and reusing clippings really easy in 2 clicks. Makes all your saved clippings available in right click context menu for easy reuse.
• Copy as HTML Link - Creates an HTML link to the current page using the selected text and copies it. Highly useful.
• Copy Plain Text - Copies text without the formatting.. no more embedded html in your copied text.
• Google Notebook - Add text clippings, images and links to your Google Notebook and share them with friends.
• ImageBot - Upload your images in bulk/mass to a free imaging service like ImageShack or PhotoBucket. If you do this a lot consider using Flock browser which makes this process a breeze.
• One-Click Installer for WordPress - A must have for a WordPress blogger. As the name implies, you can install WP themes and plugins with a single right click on a url.
• Screengrab! - Save entire webpages or a particular selection or a frame as images. Excellent tool to get screenshots of different things for blogging. Various image formats like jpg, png, etc. available as well for saving..
• ScribeFire (previously Performancing) - ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.

Web Developer Extensions

• Aardvark - Powerful and user-friendly selector utility for selecting elements and doing various actions on them. It can be used for cleaning up a page prior to printing it (by removing and isolating elements), for making the page more readable, and (most appreciated by web developers), for analyzing the structure of a page.
• Adsense Notifier - Displays your Adsense earnings on the…
• Colorzilla - Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies…
• EditCSS - Stylesheet modifier in the Sidebar.
• Firebug - Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page…
• FireFTP - FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
• FireFTP button - Nothing special just a simple Toolbar button for…
• MeasureIt - Draw out a ruler to measure height or width of any element in a web page. A must have.
• Niche Watch Tool - This wonderful SEO extension provides you the technical information required to beat your competitor websites in serps.It gives you backlinks number, indexed pages, keyword occurences on the page, page rank, all in anchor, all in title and all in text rank for both domain and webpage information.
• Reload Every - Reloads web pages every so many seconds or minutes. The function is accessible via the context menu (menu you get when you right click on a web page) or via a drop down menu on the reload button …
• SearchStatus - Displays Google Pagerank, Alexa, Compete ranking, etc. Fast keyword density finder, highlighting keyword/nofollow, backward/related links, etc.
• Server Spy - Server Spy indicates what brand of HTTP server (eg. Apache, IIS, etc.) runs on the visited sites. When a tab is selected, the corresponding server name is shown on the right-hand side of the browser’s status…
• ShowIP - Show the IP address of the current page in the status bar. It also allows querying custom services by IP (right mouse button) and Hostname (left mouse button), like whois, netcraft. Additionally you can copy the IP address to the clipboard.
• Tamper Data - Use tamperdata to view and modify HTTP/HTTPS headers and post parameters…
• View Dependencies - View Dependencies adds a tab to the Page Info window, in which it lists all the files which were loaded to show the current page.
• View Source Chart - * Creates a Colorful Chart of a Web Page’s Rendered Source Code * Displays Source in its Altered State After the DOM has been Manipulated by JavaScript.
• Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
• Xinha Here! - Portable WYSIWYG editor! No matter what site you’re visiting you can launch a WYSIWYG right in your browser.
• X-Ray - See the tags on a page without viewing the sourcecode. …

Hope you enjoyed this list. Check back later to see new additions.

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