Among the many reasons why Firefox is superior to Internet Explorer is its use of extensions, add-ins that give it all kinds of cool new features.
Wei-Meng Lee tells you how to use extensions and picks some of his favorites in his article Using Extensions in Firefox. But there are more great extensions than can be fit in a single article, and so I thought I’d tell you about some of my favorites as well.
If, like me, you hate having to register at Web sites before you can do something as simple as read an article, then you should get BugMeNot. When you get to a page that requires a user name and password, right-click on the page, and the extension will give you a pair you can use.
One of the slimier and increasingly popular scams on the Internet are phishing attacks, in which a site looks like real ecommerce site like PayPal or CitiBank, but in fact is a forgery, including what appears to be the real URL in the address bar. Type in your name and password, and a scammer has access to your account. The great SpoofStick extension fixes the problem by showing you the true URL you’re visiting, no matter what the address bar says.
Like it or not, some sites are built specifically for Internet Explorer - they don’t display properly in Firefox. So get the ieview extension and when you come to a page like that, right-click and choose View This Page in IE, and Internet Explorer launches, with the page displayed.
Single Window helps you get the most out of tabs. When a page launches that would normally launch in a new browser window, the extension instead puts it on a new tab. And Close Tab on Double Click does exactly what it says - it lets you close any tab by double-clicking it.
There are a lot more great extensions you should check out as well. Get them here .
What are your favorite Firefox extensions? Let me know.
Single Window
Unfortunately when I tried the Single Window extension on Firefox for Mac OS-X, it clobbered my bookmark toolbar showing a blank bar, and removed some of the theme setting chrome.
Hummm... and this was the only flaw I saw in Firefox, the lack of a setting as in Safari, to open external links in new tab instead of new window.
I wonder if Windows users have the same experience or is the Mac platform unique.
Gmail notifier
gives gmail some full fledged mail client functionality, and when decide to check it can open your gmail in a new tab.
Single Window
try opening a blank tab and draggind a link to the blank tab...
Single Window
If you're on a Mac, control-clicking a link will open a contextual menu that will allow you to do a number of things including opening the contents of a link in a new tab (behind the current tab by default - your current tab stays in front). Other this you can do inlcude opening the link in a new window, bookmarking the link, copying the link; try it you'll see the rest... This way you can choose on a link-by-link basis what you want to do.
Them All
Gmail Notifier is prolly my favorite extension. But Im A bit Of An Extension Nut. So Much So i made my own extension mirror. It updates every day and everyone is welcome to use it :)
Here
A mistake when installed it
The newest version of Firefox is 1.0.1 or 1.0.2. But there's a mistake in this new version. Step 4 which that in the article "Using Extensions in Firefox", at "Figure 4. Installing an extension", then click "Install Now". It can't be installed, such as Auto Copy - Firefox Extension.
Eventually I downloaded the ".xpl" file. Started the Firefox, click "File¨Open File¨**.xpi(which I just downloaded)" in the menubars. It would be installed successfully. Ho
there is firefox extension called clipmarks that has solved a problem I often experience online. basically, i find the depth and breadth of content on any given page to be quite overwhelming. Often, I only want to save a specific piece of content on a given page without having to add the whole page to my favorites or make a bookmark.
clipmarks solves this problem by allowing me to clip and collect that specific piece of content. for example, I read a lot of blogs and often want to retain a specific post. with clipmarks, i simply clip, tag and save that specific post and now its super easy for me to reference later.
during the save process, i can choose to add my clips to my own private space on clipmarks.com or I can add to the public exchange at clipmarks.com. personally, I love this public exchange because it fosters a discussion based on what I have clipped and I am gaining tons of new perspectives there.
So now I have an easier way to manage the stuff I find online while enjoying stimulating conversations based what interests me. But be carefull, this public exchange becomes a very addicting forum...