Firefox Plugins

Now, being a Microsoft kid, I should probably be plugging IE7 here instead, but in my eyes, it's still just Not Good Enough. It's about as secure as Firefox now, and probably even more so once you're running Vista, but the usability is still a bit of an issue for me. It seems almost as though they've just copied the best features out of Firefox - and I've got no problem with them using an idea that works, my qualm is that the copy is just slightly worse than the original.

The other great thing about Firefox is the fact that it's so, so much easier to write your own plugins for it. Here's a couple I'd highly recommend:

1) FoxyTunes
This nifty little plugin installs a set of controls for the media player of your choice straight into the browser window. This saves on precious desktop real-estate, meaning you can pop your player into the system tray and just select your controls whilst browsing the web. Particularly useful if you're wandering around the internets and you bump into the odd video or soundclip you want to listen to - you can pause and restart your music collection without ever having to alt-tab. Now I really can counter every argument people give me to update to one of these fancy new keyboards stuffed with extra controls. Except of course, for this one.

2) Download Statusbar
This one's my favourite Firefox plugin - a very simple idea well executed. You know that annoying downloads window that pops up? Well, this pretty much just moves it down into a small statusbar at the bottom. Now you don't have one extra window cluttering up your alt+tab display and your startbar, but you still get to see how your downloads are progressing, and to open up your recent downloads (as well as rename them, and a few other cool things). This bar obviously needs clearing a lot more than the download manager window - which might have been a bit of a drag, as I love being able to go back 50 downloads and find something I put somewhere on my hard drive that would take 6 precious clicks to reach. Fortunately though, the old window can still be reached with Ctrl+J, or Tools > Downloads, so that's still there if you want it. Highly recommended.

3) Clear Cache Button
A very simple little button, that lets you clear your cache with a single click. Nothing fancy, but this is something I couldn't find in Firefox 2.0, and anyway - I fairly often have to clear my cache for one reason or another, so it's nice to have a button right there on the toolbar.

4) IETab
The other problem with Internet Explorer (pick any version you want) is that it simply won't conform to web standards! If you don't believe me, then go run it through the Acid Test and see for yourself. This plugin allows you to open a website using embedded Internet Explorer...from Firefox. So now you can see how that webpage you just made looks in both browsers from one window, or you can browse some Microsoft created pages without having to go and find that IE shortcut! Great for me.

5) Tab Mix Plus
I've still got my doubts about this one, but it's growing on me. When the Mozilla Foundation released Firefox 2.0, they were so busy making it work wonderfully, that they forgot to give us the hundreds of options we all love. With this addon, you can specify pretty much anything, from silly things such as what to do when you shift+click a tab, to very useful things, like how a long string of bookmarks should be displayed. I ignore most of the options, but there are a few things that I'm really going to appreciate, mostly the mouse gestures and being able to use my scrollwheel on tabs.

6) ReloadEvery
Are you sitting on this page, refreshing every 10 seconds just to see if I've made a new post? If so, I recommend suicide, fast. If, on the other hand, you do need to see when a website's been updated, or you're cheating on a game or doing something a bit more (or less!) sinister that requires a lot of refreshing - try this addon. Does what it says on the tin really, you tell it to reload every... and it does. Lovely.

7) Flashblock
Saved the best till last here, I really can't speak highly enough of this addon. Lately there's been a trend to put flash all over webpages, in the adverts, in an embedded preview of a movie, very notoriously on myspace to play you the user's out of tune guitar recorded straight through their line in...everywhere. This addon doesn't block flash entirely, but merely stops it from loading until you want it, one click and the flash is there for you. Infinitely useful, and along with Firefox's pop-up blocking, you'll never be annoyed by a site again once you've got this installed. Well, nearly never.

Hope you enjoy the addons, let me know if you find any more I might like. Although I love all of the above, and I suggest you get them all, IETab and Flashblock are the most useful for any user, and you really have to get them.

Xx