19 Great Firefox Extensions That Everybody Should Have

One of my favorite thing about Firefox is the “add-on” capability, allowing you to install tiny extensions that add additional functionality that you might find useful. Mozilla has a bunch of add-ons which are always worth browsing through, but I’ll save you some time with this small list of my favorites:






Essentials:

• AdBlock Plus – Gets rid of virtually every ad on the Internet.
  Firefox extensions are surprisingly useful.
• Download Statusbar – Creates a bar at the bottom of the page when you’re downloading so you can easily track your download’s progress.

• Greasemonkey – Allows JavaScript scripts to be installed. These scripts can do a huge array of things — check out userscripts.org to find some scripts for sites you like.
• FoxyTunes – You’ll wonder how you ever lived without this one. FoxyTunes creates a small interface in the status bar that you can use to interact with your media player — you can quickly change songs, mute the volume, pause it, and so forth all from your browser window.
• StumbleUpon – The end of your boredom on the Internet. StumbleUpon displays new and interesting sites that fit your interests.

These are cool to have:

• DownThemAll! – Allows you to download all of the media on a page quickly and efficiently. Useful if you’re saving a ton of pictures at once.
• Video DownloadHelper – Quickly download embedded media on sites like YouTube. Essential for downloading movies onto your iPod.
• Image Zoom – Zoom into images or zoom out.
• Linkification – Turns a text URL into a clickable link. Useful on some websites.
• ReloadEvery – Automatically refreshes the page every so often. Great for checking for updates and for watching eBay bids closely at the end.
• FoxTab – Creates a cool 3D interface for switching between open tabs.
• Cooliris – Creates a similar 3D interface for viewing pictures.
• Brief – Directly integrates RSS into the browser, creating a simple layout for you to catch up on your feeds.

Site-Specific:

• TwitterFox – Incorporates Twitter into the browser for quickly receiving updates and tweeting your own.
• CustomizeGoogle – Allows slight changes to many of Google’s services to make them more useful to you.
• Gmail Notifier – Informs you when your Gmail account receives a new e-mail.
• Google Reader Watcher – Checks for updates to your feeds in Google Reader. A great way to subscribe to feeds in Firefox.

Web Development:

• Firebug – This list would’ve been longer, but Firebug does a lot now. From CSS to HTML to JavaScript, this extension helps web developers see changes in real-time.
• DOM Inspector – If you’re working with JavaScript, visualizing the DOM is essential.

What extensions are you particularly fond of? Do Comment so that I can update them to in the Post.