[GUIDE] Must Have Firefox Addons

[John]

Ok, this is going to be my first official guide at DZ. Hope y'all like it. *fingers crossed*

Now that everyone is shifting form the *crap* IE to mozilla its just as important how much you can tweak this browser to expand your browsing pleasure.
Here I'll list the best addons you can get for firefox.

Update 22nd April 08

Tor
What is tor?
Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world use Tor for a wide variety of reasons: journalists and bloggers, human rights workers, law enforcement officers, soldiers, corporations, citizens of repressive regimes, and just ordinary citizens.

Recommended by : Blake
Get the addon here

Download StatusBar



Despite its compact size, Download Statusbar packs in more useful features than the standard download window. The fully customizable interface auto-hides when not in use, allowing full control without interruption.



Very useful and compact. Great alternate to the lousy default d/l window.

Recommended by : Blake
Get the addon here

Zotero

- Automatic capture of citation information from web pages

- Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages

- Flexible notetaking with autosave

- Fast, as-you-type search through your materials

- Playlist-like library organization, including saved searches (smart collections) and tags

- Platform for new forms of digital research that can be extended with other web tools and services

- Formatted citation export (style list to grow rapidly)

- Integration with Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org

Very useful addon for students especially those who do a lot of online research and need a way to organize there material effeicently and productively.

Recommended by : Blake
Get the addon here

UPDATE 14th March 08

All-in-One Sidebar

Developers Description:
All-in-One Sidebar (AiOS) is an award-winning sidebar control, inspired by Opera's. It lets you quickly switch between sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar.

Click on the left edge of your browser window to open the sidebar and get easy access to all your panels.

You can set the orientation to left or right, set the minimum, default and maximum width and the behavior on browser startup. Furthermore AiOS provides enhancements for many built-in features.

AiOS includes a slide-out button and a toolbar, all of which can be extensively customized.

Enjoy a clear browser window, more toolbar space and much more...

Get it here


FoxyTunes

Awesome addon!! Well, atleast for those who listen to media on ur browser itself.

Developers Description:
Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web?

FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

Supports WinAmp, iTunes, Yahoo Music Engine, Pandora, foobar2000, Windows Media Player, Xbox Media Center, Musicmatch, Quintessential, J. River, jetAudio, XMPlay, MediaMonkey, Media Player Classic, Sonique, wxMusik, Real Player, XMMS, Noatun, Juk, Amarok, Music Player Daemon, Rhythmbox and many other players.

Just click on the orange note and select your player.

CNET Editor's Rating: 5/5 stars
PC Magazine: Top 15 Firefox Extensions
PC World: Top Download Picks

Get it here

Get Skins for it here




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Fast Video Download



This is a real cool video downloader that sits i n the corner of your browser. When you visit a site with embedded video such as you tube just click it.


Heres the developers description:
Fast Video Download can save embedded video files from following video-hosting servers:

ag.ru, angryalien.com, animeepisodes.net, badjojo.com, break.com, bublare.dk, current.com, dailymotion.com, hi5.com, metacafe.com, vids.myspace.com, mult.ru, putfile.com, Streetfire.net, vidiac.com, video.google.com and sure YOUTUBE!

* Just in ONE click on the status-bar or custom toolbar icon, FVD immediately open the regular "Save As" dialog with already placed video title and extension.

* FVD is able to pick any multimedia links from embeded objects and links on ordinary pages.
If there's only single link, standard dialog open immediately. Otherwise, links are listed in pop-up window.

* Processing of embedded YouTube video objects: Special download link will appear under every embedded YouTube Flash-Player posted on common pages such as blogs and web-boards. This feature at this moment is not compatible with modern Livejournal iFrames.

* At last, FVD supports DownThemAll and FlashGot: You can turn on interaction with your desired download manager in preferences.

Get it here

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer


This little addon allows you to automatically sync your saved bookmarks to their server.
Why I posted this is because unlike the GOOGLE firefox sync plug-in, you can visit my.foxmarks.com and check your bookmarks from any computer regardless of browser

Heres the developers description:

If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.foxmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer.

A simple wizard guides you through the startup process. After that, just forget about it. It's simple and solid.



Get it here


Google Browser Sync

This also saves your bookmarks, history, cookies and saved passwords across firefox browsers on multiple accounts. Just login with you Google account.
Unlike Foxmarks, you have to install the plugin on each browser to retrieve everything.

Heres the developers description:
After successfully downloading and installing the extension, then restarting your browser, you'll see a setup wizard.The setup wizard will take you through a series of quick and easy steps. You'll need to choose which browser components you'd like to keep synchronized with your other computers (the standard install includes all possible components), and choose a PIN to protect your sensitive information. Configuring your second computer is even easier. You only need to install the extension, log in with your Google Account username and password, and provide your PIN.


Get it here

iMacros for Firefox

Now this is the COOLEST thing you can fiddle around with.
THE CATCH?? If you ever figure out how to use please PM me, im still trying.

You can set it up to do any task automatically. When i mean anything, I mean anything from automatically loging in to your (multiple) Neopets accounts and doing anything you can program it to or just automatically goto you email accounts inbox. In fact its only limited by your imagination.

Developers Description:
If you love the Firefox web browser, but are tired of repetitive tasks like visiting the same sites every days, filling out forms, and remembering passwords, then iMacros for Firefox is the solution you’ve been dreaming of! iMacros was designed to automate the most repetitious tasks on the web. If there’s an activity you have to do repeatedly, just record it in iMacros. The next time you need to do it, the entire macro will run at the click of a button! With iMacros, you can quickly and easily fill out web forms, remember passwords, download information from other sites, scrape the Web (get data from multiple sites), and more. You can keep the macros on your computer for your own use, or share them with others by embedding them on your homepage, blog, company Intranet or any social bookmarking service. The uses are limited only by your imagination! ***Whatever you do with Firefox, iMacros can automate it.***

Automate Firefox. Record and replay repetitious work. Here are just a few examples of how you can use iMacros to automate your web browser.

(1) Form Filler & Password Manager

With iMacros for Firefox, you no longer need to check the same sites every day, remembering passwords, and filling out web forms. iMacros is the only form filler that can autofill web forms that stretch over several pages. All information is stored in human-readable, plain text files that can be easily edited. Passwords are stored securely with 256-Bit AES encryption. Users memorize only one master password and iMacros remembers all the others, providing a truly automated login experience, that beats the Solution to Enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO).

(2) Automated Download & Upload

iMacros can automate the download of images, files, or entire pages (with or without images). In the other direction, it can automate the upload of data to websites. You can use variables inside the macros and import data from CSV files. iMacros includes a user agent switcher, PDF download and Flash, and ad- and image-blocking functions. When combined and controlled with Javascript, the recorded Macros can script even very complex tasks.

(3) Data Extraction, Web Scraping/Mining & Enterprise Data Mash-Ups

The iMacros EXTRACT command automatically reads data from a website and exports it to CSV files – the exact opposite of filling out forms. iMacros includes full Unicode support and works with every language, including multi-byte languages such as Chinese. You can use this feature to download stock quotes, gather and compare web store prices, and more.

(4) Web Testing

Web professionals can use iMacros for functional, performance, and regression testing of web applications. The built-in STOPWATCH command captures precise web page response times. iMacros also includes support for many AJAX elements.

(5) Social Scripting (Social Bookmarking)

Sharing your favorite iMacros with friends and colleagues is easy. Simply right-click the macro to add it as a bookmark, or select "Run Everywhere" and embed the complete macro in a simple link. You can send the link to others, or embed it on your homepage, blog, or company intranet. Instead of telling your site visitors how to fill out a form, let iMacros do it for them. All the information is stored inside the link as a text string, with nothing stored on our servers, which is why iMacros work on intranets, too. See an example at del.icio.us/imacros/imacro.

(6) Other Uses

For more ideas on how to use iMacros, please visit www.iopus.com/imacros/firefox and/or our active support forum at forum.iopus.com.

iMacros is extremely versatile and can be combined with other extensions such as Greasemonkey, Web Developer, Firebug, Download Statusbar, and Adblock.

iMacros for Firefox is free for personal and commercial use. Download the add-on today to start simplifying your Web tasks and sharing your macros with others!

Whatever you do with Firefox, iMacros can automate it.



P.S. PLEASE READ THE GUIDE ON THEIR SITE WELL!!


Get it here

Adblock Plus

Personally, I think this is one of the best addons for the browser. It allows very advanced ad blocking methods.
Whats remarksble about it is say your browsing neopets and you dont like the ads that come on top of the page. What will you do? Just right click and select adblock, it wont be downloaded again.



Develpers Description:
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.

Right-click on a banner and choose "Adblock" from the context menu - the banner won't be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or you select a filter subscription when Adblock Plus starts up the first time, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.

Get it here

Mouse Gestures

Developers Description:
Mouse Gestures are a fast way to execute commands without using the keyboard, menus or toolbars. Instead, the user holds down a mouse button (usually the right one), moves the mouse in a certain way to form a gesture, then releases the mouse button.

Read more here
Download here

Torrent Search Bar


Another useful addon. It searches the most popular torrent search engines and displays result.



NOTE: I havent tested this personally so if theres any errors pls PM me.
Download here


Tab Mix Plus


The best feature I've found abt this is that you can right click any tab and duplicate it into another tab. Thats not all it does though.

Developers Description:
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. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.

Get it here

IE Tab

This addon actually made me laugh. Why?
Because it acts like and Internet explorer tab in your Firefox browser that allows you to run windows updates.



Get it here

DownThemAll


Developers description:
DownThemAll (or just dTa) is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want.
DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400%, it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time and, last but not least, it's fully integrated into your favorite browser!

Get it here


ColorZilla

When I found this addon the first thing i thought of was the GFX team. I know they're gonna love this!!



Developers Description:
It assists web developers and graphic designers with color related tasks - both basic and advanced.
With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes. DOM spying features allow getting various information about DOM elements quickly and easily. And there's more...

Get it here


PicLens


This is one wicked addon that turns your web page images into a 3D browser view for selected site listed.



Developers Description:
PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D experience for viewing images across the web. Our new interactive "3D Wall" and built-in search function lets you effortlessly drag, click, zoom, and zip your way around a wall of pictures for an extraordinary viewing experience.

"Coolest Web photo viewer ever . . . It's stunning."
-- Review by CNET

"Visually, the results are stunning. This Firefox plugin is going to find a lot of fans very, very quickly."
-- Review by Techcrunch.com

"Gorgeous . . . a great idea."
-- Review by Macworld

"Fun and addictive."
-- Review by Wired blog

Piclens is currently works on:

* Flickr, Smugmug, DeviantArt, Photobucket, Picasa
* Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster
* Image search on Google, Yahoo, Ask, Live, and AOL
* A growing number of Media RSS-enabled web sites

With PicLens, viewing images on the web will never be the same again.

Now available for Windows and Mac.


Get it here
CookieSwap

A very useful addon, it saves cookies in multiple profiles (upto three) which in plain english means logging into multiple accounts of the same site like hotmail or neopets .
So that means hassle of managing multiple accounts and transferring items/neopoints is over.

Get it here



Mozilla Shortcuts
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Shortcuts


Thats all i could fill in right now more coming up later. If theres any mistake, mis-links, typos fell free to message me.
Also, if theres any addon you'd like me to add, just PM me.

ENJOY!!

[Matt://]

Nice Job
I wish i could use any of them, might be able to use 1 or 2.
Useing the new FF Beta 3, and yeah...no updates as of yet for alot of addonds ;-;
anywhoo.....+rep

[John]

One of them has support 4 ff3 beta. I think its tab mix plus, not really sure. Why dont u use ff2 and enjoy these than w8 for beta 3 updates?

[Perm]

Nice job, thanks for all those add-ons

[supersour]

Nice guide. Personally I use Adblock Plus, it's probably one of the best add-ons ever for firefox. oh yeah +rep :]

[glowstix]

Thanks for the list of add-ons, I had a few already.
iMacros definitely sounds interesting, I'm going to see if I can figure it out >_<

[andyh2]

Great list! I've noticed if I add too many addons firefox gets pretty sluggish, so I'll just install the ones i absolutely need thanks again

[Blake]

I went through and tried out a few of these add-ons and they're quite useful. I especially like and recommend the Tab Mix Plus.

Also, you can add on a few more that I find useful, and others may as well.

Tor:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275

Torbutton is a 1-click way for Firefox users to enable or disable the browser's use of Tor. It adds a panel to the statusbar that says "Tor Enabled" (in green) or "Tor Disabled" (in red). The user may click on the panel to toggle the status. If the user (or some other extension) changes the proxy settings, the change is automatically reflected in the statusbar.
Some users may prefer a toolbar button instead of a statusbar panel. Such a button is included, and one adds it to the toolbar by right-clicking on the desired toolbar, selecting "Customize...", and then dragging the Torbutton icon onto the toolbar. There is an option in the preferences to hide the statusbar panel (Tools->Extensions, select Torbutton, and click on Preferences).
Newer Firefoxes have the ability to send DNS resolves through the socks proxy, and Torbutton will make use of this feature if it is available in your version of Firefox.


Or read more available here: http://torbutton.torproject.org/dev/

Zotero:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3504

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources...

Or read more about it here:http://chnm.gmu.edu/
Note: This one is brilliant! Especially if you're a college student who researches tons of citations for papers.

Download StatusBar:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26

View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

Video DownloadHelper:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

The easy way to download Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
This works also for audio and picture galleries

I'd like to thank Mario for showing me like 2 of these; I've enjoyed them through my use so far.

Hope these help you guys as well.

Thanks,
Blake

[zach]

Nicely done there. I will check out a few of them.