Must-have Firefox add-ons

2008-12-28 • ,
Here is my condensed list of the extensions I consider give me the most added value to Mozilla Firefox:
tweez
This is the way to bookmark pages. Just Shift-T, type in a few tags (keywords) and hit enter. Done! I don’t bother with bookmark categories anymore, I just type tag names directly into the AwesomeBar instead of browsing through a hierarchical category system (like, so totally 2007). Unlike categories, multiple tags can also be combined. For example, I add work to anything related to my job which makes it really easy to find later. There are also other tools, such as TagSifter which provides a better way to browse bookmarks by tags.
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
If you bookmark pages and use multiple computers, you need this one. Once set up, it is completely transparent.
Greasemonkey
I have this for wikiEd. While wikiEd is really great, and by having it as a Greasemonkey script it is instantly available on all MediaWiki platforms, it is hardly even the tip of the iceberg of what is possible with Greasemonkey. One starting point is userscripts.org.
It’s All Text
Just like the Pragmatic Programmer says: “Use a Single Editor Well. The editor should be an extension of your hand; make sure your editor is configurable, extensible, and programmable.”. How configurable, extensible, and programmable is the default text field? Great book, by the way.
Tabs Open Relative
Makes you wonder why this is not the default way to open tags.
Web Developer
Very useful when working on HTML and CSS. Sometimes slightly useful when browsing the web. Like when you stumble upon a form that should have had its method set to GET.
Flashblock
Nice to have on old or slow computers.
Ubiquity
I use this mostly for doing Google and Amazon searches by highlighting a term or title in the text. Getting an instant preview of the results saves you for first opening up a search page. Like with Greasemonkey above, there are tons of scripts available.
A pretty big downside to becoming dependent on add-ons is that the compatibility with Firefox beta-versions is pretty poor. At the moment, only Flashblock, It’s All Text and Ubiquity of the above mentioned are compatible with the latest leading-edge: 3.1b2. Further reading: Fashion Your Firefox and Recommended Add-ons.

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