These Extensions Will Make Firefox Extraordinary!

Firefox is without question one of the great, if not greatest
browsers ever developed. Firefox also has a great community which has
created some absolutely amazing extensions. Here are my favorite
extensions, I consider these some of the best and must have extensions
for Firefox.

Interface Enhancement Extensions

ColorfulTabs - Download Here

If you like variety, then ColorfulTabs is a way to stir things up a
bit with your tabs in Firefox. The idea is simple, but the effect is
quite nice. This extension quite simply adds color to your tabs. You
can select a specific color for each tab or stick with the new color
that each tab is given as it is created.

FaviconizeTab - Download Here

If you use multiple tabs at the same time, then FaviconizeTab is a
useful tool to change specified tabs into smaller versions, only
displaying their favicon.
This gives you more space for other tabs, and makes your favorite tabs
more unique and noticeable. You also might take notice about the fact
that ColorfulTabs and FaviconizeTab work together well from the above
screen-shot. So be sure to take advantage of these two great extensions
that will improve the interface of Firefox.

Bookmarking Extensions


del.icio.us - Download Here

Del.icio.us, which was acquired by Yahoo
in December 2005, is the most popular social bookmarking site on the
web today. You no longer need to fear losing your bookmarks as they
will be accessible through both the del.icio.us
website and the extension. Tagging is the main method of organizing
your bookmarks and it works very well for most situations. It must be
stated that if you prefer organizing your bookmarks by folders, then it
might take awhile to adjust if you choose to do so. Regardless, it is
one of my favorite extensions for Firefox and I highly recommend that
you at least give it a try.

Foxmarks - Download Here

Foxmarks gives you the ability to sync your bookmarks with
multiple computers that have the Foxmarks extension installed. You can
also access your bookmarks from the internet. This service might not
provide you with as much functionality as the del.icio.us
extension, but it is worthwhile if you wish to keep your local
bookmarks synchronized with multiple computers. If you are not
interested in the social bookmarking phenomenon, then this extension is
your best bet. It is better than not utilizing any bookmark extension
at all because your bookmarks will be saved online, and will be
accessible in the event of you losing your bookmarks.

Browser Security

NoScript - Download Here

With NoScript, web-pages that try to run scripts are required by you
to be allowed permission (whitelisted) to run. The great thing about
this extension is that you will be safer and can explore the web more
freely without the fear of malicious code being activated by the
browser without your permission. The only negative might be the fact
that if you like exploring many new sites on the internet, you will
need to approve many of them. It very well should be worth the little
extra time to do this though as system security should be a priority.

Adblock Plus - Download Here

Adblock Plus is another great extension to install even though it is
not completely related to system security, but could prevent
questionable and malicious advertising code from being executed. This
extension blocks advertisements on most web-pages. No more punching
George W. Bush in the face. The extension has come under criticism of
many website owners because advertising is the main source of revenue
for most sites, and this extension potentially prevents sites from
generating revenue. The extension itself still does a wonderful job of
blocking obtrusive advertisements and was also featured in PC
Magazine’s “The Best Free Software.” Check out Adblock Filterset.G Updater as well to extend AdBlock Plus even further.

News & RSS Extensions

Wizz RSS News Reader - Download Here

The Wizz RSS News Reader is one of the best RSS Firefox extensions
you can install. It offers a myriad of options for you to tweak to your
liking. It offers a three pane view: top pane shows your categories and
feeds, the middle pane shows the entries that you can click on and
view, the bottom pane shows a preview of the story itself. For an
extension, and an RSS news reader, it does a very good job. My only
question is, when will companies that deplay web based RSS readers
devlop Firefox extensions to access their online RSS feeds?

Forecastfox Enhanced - Download Here

Forecastfox Enhanced takes the original Forecastfox and adds more
customization and functionality. This extension sits on your status bar
and provides you with either icons, descriptions, or both of the
weather conditions for now or the future. You can customize many of the
features of the extension: the icon sets that you use, the amount of
days to forecast, the size of the radar images, and many more options
that are available to play with.

Functionality Enhancements

Session Manager - Download Here

Session Manager is another extension I find extremely useful if you
like to take advantage of tabs in Firefox. I mainly use it to save my
tabs whenever I close the browser. When opening the browser at a later
time I can immediately have those tabs opened again. You also have a
second chance at restoring that important tab you accidentally closed,
because this extension remembers your recently closed tabs. You can
also save tabs sets to open tabs that you visit often, increasing your
productivity!

Greasemonkey - Download Here

Think of Greasemonkey as a way to hack sites without the hours of
work you would need to put in to do such a thing yourself. Greasemonkey
provides a way for you to install, manage, and run scripts that will
alter the way websites look and/or function. In the above screen-shot,
an installed script improves the Gmail interface in several ways. The
scripts for Greasemonkey can be located here, along with an excellent community. If you enjoy this extension, you might also enjoy Stylish which has similar offerings, but focuses more on modification of site interfaces.

Research Tools

Zotero - Download Here

Zotero is an extension that students, researchers, or even the
average user could appreciate. I think of it as a cataloging system for
the web. You can save links to pages, create notes for pages, and even
save the entire page on your local hard drive. It offers a simple way
of organizing items in collections, and also supports tagging. Scrapbook is a nice alternative if Zotero doesn’t cut it for you.

These are only a few of the numerous great extensions available for
Firefox. If you would like to explore the thousands of available
extensions on you own, check out the Mozilla Firefox add-ons site. Read/Write Web wrote a nice article about Firefox extensions, and check out my article on Mashable if you are looking for some great social networking extensions.

Please feel free to leave a comment and let the world know which extensions you think are must haves!