I use Firefox both in work and at home, so I’m used to using it on both OSX and Linux (Ubuntu). Since so much of what I do is either centred around email or web based systems, my usage of my browser and a few other tools, is quite important to me. Things that make my life that little bit easier are always welcome.
So which addons do I currently have installed:
- Google toolbar – shows a site’s pagerank and gives you access to a few other handy little tools
- Zemanta – a handy tool for bloggers which allows you to easily access images and links based on your post’s content. You can also use it to easily link to products on Amazon
- Mozbar – direct access to the Seomoz tools
- Delicious – probably the addon I use most. I spend a lot of my time bookmarking sites, so doing it via a web service like Delicious makes sense
- Alexa sparky – gives you access to Alexa data on any site you’re viewing
- Ebay toolbar – if you use ebay as much as I do then this makes it a lot easier to track your current bids (I was trying the AIR desktop, but it was annoying)
- Blacknight domain search – allows you to search for available domains directly from within Firefox
Which Firefox tools / addons are you using?
From Paul:
There’s a heavy slant towards web development in my list of installed extensions…
From Michele Neylon:
Paul
Thanks for sharing
Michele
From Mark:
Nice post Michele. The ‘addons’ functionality in Firefox is so powerful. I’ve included some of my add-ons below (biased towards sys admin/security & paranoia) -
Netcraft – anti-phishing toolbar. The toolbar prvides extensive information of the current website – where it’s hosted, risk rating of the site, popularity of the site amongst Netcraft toolbar users, how long the site has been up etc.
Tamper Data – excellent tool – primarily use it for viewing & modifying HTTP headers. I used it quite a bit for research & POC testing of application firewalls.
NoScript – extra protection while browsing. Allows me to whitelist sites that I trust to allow them to run scripts. It regularly prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities though it can be a pain for damaging the functionality of various websites.
Show IP – shows the IP of the site you’re browsing & allows various querying such as ‘whois’.
WOT – warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam etc.
A few others but I’m getting tired
Have you checked out Opera – I think it’s a great browser. It’s paranoia (not surprising given the amount of browsing exploits these days) but I like to separate my secure browsing (e.g. Internet Banking) into a separate browser from my standard, daily browsing.
Cheers..Mark
From Mark:
Oh yeah and Switch Proxy – so much easier to change your upstream proxy (very useful when you manage multiple proxy servers).
m
From Michele Neylon:
Mark
Thanks for the comments
I wouldn’t consider using a second browser, though I have several installed, as I switch between desktops quite a bit and like to maintain some level of continuity and sanity
Michele