October 2006

Last updated: November 24, 2006

Useful extensions for Firefox for web browsing and web development.

There are thousands of add-ons for Firefox. In this list I have concentrated on those extensions that minimize and cleans Firefox user interface and makes web browsing easier and more effective. Last part is for extensions for web developers.

Web Browsing

• Aging Tabs: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Makes unused tabs fade with age and highlights the selected tab. If you usually have many tabs open at the same time, this extension might be visually helpful.
• All-in-One Sidebar: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Sidebar control lets you quickly switch between sidebars, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source code or websites in the sidebar. This extensions cleans nicely the user interface by gathering all opening windows into sidebar.
• BetterSearch: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  While waiting for Firefox 2 version look GooglePreview. Enhances Google, A9, MSN, Yahoo, Answers.com (web results), AllTheWeb, del.icio.us, Ask.com, Clusty.com, Vivismo.com, Dogpile and Simpy.com by adding preview thumbnails and Amazon product info as well as new special links to the search results.
  This extensions is great with search sites as well as with del.icio.us lists to help to memorise the tagged sources.
• Blogger Web Comments: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Waiting for Firefox 2 version. Post and read comments on any webpage. You can see on any web page list of blogs which have a links to the current page.
• BugMeNot: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Bypass compulsory web registration with the context menu via www.bugmenot.com.
• del.icio.us: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Keep, share and discover all your favorite thins. For del.icio.us users. There is a new extension by del.icio.us called del.icio.us Bookmarks. It integrates more tightly with Firefox’s bookmarking system, so it conflicts with other extensions like Google Browser Sync and Foxmarks. The new extension might be worth trying.
• FaviconizeTab: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage Added 2006-11-24
  The width of the specified tab becomes small up to the size of favicon. This is a must tab space saver add-on!
• FxIF: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  View EXIF data in image properties.
• Google Notebook: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Allows notetaking while browsing. Well, for Google Notebook users this is a must.
• GooglePreview: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Inserts web site thumbnail previews in Google and Yahoo search results. This extension feels faster than BetterSearch.
• Greasemonkey: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  A user script manager.
• IE View Lite: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Cut down version of IE View (Firefox add-ons page). Open Internet Explorer view in a tab. IE View and IE Tab extensions does the same thing, but both of these extensions use C++ code to do their thing, which means they use DLLs, which means they’re larger than the JavaScript-based IE View Lite and more susceptible to changes not only in Firefox but in Windows itself.
• IE View: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Opens pages in IE via Firefox menus. There is also IE View Lite (Firefox add-ons page), which is, according to the author, a cut down version of IE View. Both of them allow the current page or a selected link to be opened in Internet Explorer. Third option is IE Tab (Firefox add-ons page), which works like IE View but opens IE pages in Firefox tab. IE Tab extension uses C++ code to do its thing, which means it uses DLLs, which means it’s larger than the JavaScript-based IE View and more susceptible to changes not only in Firefox but in Windows itself.
• Menu Editor: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Customize application menus. This is a nice way to hide unnecessary menu items.
• Mouse Gestures: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Allows you to execute common commands using mouse gestures.
• New Tab Button on Tab Bar: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Adds a new tab button to the tab bar. When you have only couple tabs, it is easy to open new tab by double-clicking empty area on tab bar. But when there is no empty space, New Tab Button on Tab Bar extension is handy. Now that Tab Mix Plus is Firefox 2 compatible and if you use it, it includes this extension’s functionality.
• SearchStatus: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Display the Google PageRank and Alexa ranking with search-related tools.
• Stealther: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Surf the web without leaving a trace in a Firefox.
• Stop-or-Reload Button: Firefox add-ons page :: homepageTurns the stop and reload buttons into a single one. When you can stop, you have a Stop button, otherwise you have a Reload button. This is a small extension to minimise a little user interface.
• Stylish: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Customize the look of websites and of the user interface. This is a must extension if you want to tweak Firefox user interface. For example to show only those web site icons on tabs that have a favicon and fade the not selected tabs icons like in Flock web browser (I guess code needs some cleaning):

  @namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);
  /* Fade just the icon */
  .tabbrowser-tabs tab:not([selected="true"]) .tab-icon {
    -moz-opacity: 0.25 !important;
    display: -moz-box !important;
  }
  .tabbrowser-tabs tab:not([selected="true"]) *|tab:not([image]) .tab-icon {
    display: none !important;
  }
  .tabbrowser-tabs tab:not([selected="true"]) .tab-text {
    margin-left: 2px !important;
  }
  .tabbrowser-tabs tab[selected="true"] .tab-icon {
    -moz-opacity: 1 !important;
    margin-top: 1px !important;
  }
  /* Alternatively, kill only default tabbrowser icons (no site icon) */
  .tabbrowser-tabs *|tab:not([image]) .tab-icon {
    display: none !important;
  }
  /* Show icons (no matter what) when hovering over the tab */
  .tabbrowser-tabs *|tab:hover .tab-icon {
    -moz-opacity: 1 !important;
  }

• Tab Mix Plus: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Tab browsing with an added boost. This is a must., but waiting for Firefox 2 version…
• Tab Sidebar: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Displays previews of your tabs in your sidebar. Occationally this might come handy.

Web Development

• ColorZilla: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Advanced eyedropper, color picker, page zoomer and other colorful goodies.
• FireBug: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Web Debugging Evloved.
• LiveHTTPHeaders: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Waiting for Firefox 2 version…
• Modify Headers: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Add, modify and filter http request headers.
• Selenium IDE: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Record, edit and play Selenium tests.
• UrlParams: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Displays the websites get/post parameters in the sidebar.
• Web Developer: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  Adds a menu toolbar with various web developer tools. This is de facto extension for web developers.
• X-Ray: Firefox add-ons page :: homepage
  See the tags on a page without viewing the sourcecode. Nice little extension to quickly check the tags.