Firefox! You complete me!
As promised, my mega long list of firefox extensions. A note, the way any person's browser is customized really depends on how they use it, what they use it for and what they're most comfortable with. I have a desktop and a laptop and you'll find several of these extensions sort of relate to keeping each other up to date. Etc.
Other important thing, I gave in and registered for the mozilla site and found a few updates that weren't showing yet. W00t! (All addons here work with FF3). Once you register look at all versions, the newest one will be on top (and NOT be the one shown on the main page.)
1. Adblock Plus - Takes up tool bar space - Best. Thing. Ever. It comes with a generic list of badbad add sources and it's not too hard to figure out how to add more. Plus it adds little 'block' tags to all things it thinks are adds (gets it right most of the time) so you can just point and click. But it ALSO got rid of that 'snap' crap LJ was using, but for that I had to actually add an entry. A must have for anyone who reads articles anywhere online. (It also kills those heart attack rendering pop up monsters.)
2. Autocopy - takes up status bar space - Automatically copies any text you highlight. OMG. Seriously. I cannot express how useful this is. You can copy, you can send it directly to a new tab, you can make julienne fries! It's small and has just a handful of options but it's not kluge like at all. Great if you're always copying text all over the place. (Which I do. A lot. I don't know why.) (ETA: This is a register with mozilla one.)
3. Better Gmail 2 - No visual real estate - I haven't played around with this all that much yet, but so far I"m liking the 'highlight the message your mouse is hovering over' and as soon as I get it working again the labeling with keystrokes. It has several other features worth exploring if you're a regular gmail user. In general this extension is described as a "combination of the favorite and most useful gmail extensions out there" and that's pretty much it, plus a bit more.
4. Colorful Tabs - No visual real esatate - Basically it does what it says, helpful if you sometimes have many tabs open at once, helps the eye track back to where you want to be based on colors. They don't shift when one tab is removed, it all stays the same, but it's a bit of softness to your tabs and if you're a very visual person, a bit of helpfulness.
5. Del.icio.us. Complete - No visual real estate. Okay okay, it's not QUITE up to snuff. Someone hacked it just enough to make it work with FF3, it's not bad, a bit more buggy, like an older version, but I am HOLDING OUT HOPE that it will be updated soon. See post for more details.
6. Delicious Blog Rescue Tool - No visual real estate - Oh how to explain. Basically if you use a daily delicious blog roll, and have had it crap out because of one of the various links in the chain, then check this one out.
7. Fire FTP - No real estate, unless in use, then it's a window - A generic little ftp program. Fine for basic updates, but not so snazzy for large and bulky stuff. I get nervous when doing a wordpress backup.
8. Flashgot - Facilitates downloading. Gives you a few more options, directs the download to one of any number of download managers (it's very flexible.)
9. Foxmarks - Status bar real estate - OH. My. God. MADE OF WIN. Basically it syncs bookmarks between two PCs. If your bookmarks are organized enough that using the delicious type version of this is good for you, then fine, but I suspect that needs more internet connection than this. Just make sure to specific no profile the first time and then after that you can create a home profile, a work profile, a 'oh god, with the parents' profile. Etc. How I use it: Well to be honest I sort of view what I have in del.icio.us as long term storage, information, shopping, fic. What I have in my bookmarks are different, stuff I use everyday but cannot remember the URLs for (work webmail logins, etc). However one of my biggest problems has always been the laptop switchover when heading off someplace where I can't just check the desktop. Now I have a folder that's simply bookmarked pages of stuff I hadn't gotten to yet or fic I'm almost ready to read. Delicious does this, but that's serious public bookmarking and what I want is just-- the crap waiting for me to see, and I can privatize it, but that's far too many keystrokes, FF3 makes bookmarking really painless. I do have a delicious toread list, but I use that completely differently.
10. Gmail Manager - Medium amount of status bar real estate - Prefer over gmail notifier just because it breaks far less often (meaning hardly ever). If you don't keep your gmail open all the time, this will open it for you, keep track of multiple accounts, etc. Nice bit of info to have.
11. IE View - No real estate - Useful because sometimes stuff only works in IE. If IE isn't in the place the thing thinks it should be, you can easily point to it. Etc. You can set pages to always open in IE, all that jazz. Useful to cut out some tiny little browsing annoyances.
12. Livejournal Addons - None to a lot of real estate in the status bar, depending - this does a LOT of stuff. The way I use LJ, I use it for only a fraction of what it can do (UNFOLDING ALL COMMENTS ON ALL PAGES AT ONCE! WOOT!) but it does a lot of very nifty things, the documentation is sparse so it takes a bit of trial and error, but I suspect if someone had diametrically opposed LJ habits to mine (or read LJ at work *G*) this addon does a lot of things you'd like. Oh and since LJ hook has yet to be compatible, it ALSO has a little popup for when you're writing in an LJ text box for usernames and image adding and linking and stuff. Again, v. useful.
13. LJ login - A little to a lot of status bar real estate - The link takes you directly to the page, apparently the lj addons for ff3 are taking a while to filter through. It DOES work though. This is great for people who have several LJ accounts (and IJ and JF!) and just-- don't want to spent all that time logging in and then out again. It's a quick menu with clicking and stuff. New version has a few less bugs than the previous. No weird logout errors when you get dumped once in a while (relies on cookies, so sometimes you refresh and suddenly are logged out, once every couple of days, no biggy.)
14. Read it Later - Small footprint in toolbar - More useful for laptop than desktop, maybe. This is like-- temporary bookmarks, things to read and mark read and discard. Can ALSO read offline. V. useful for laptop when I have about 20 min of wifi time and just want to snag everything securely. A bit like another tool I'll go into later, but with different usages in mind. I do not believe it goes down link levels, which is why it's not great for grabbing large stories via index, however not too hard to click on each link when in super save it mode. Also you can organize and tag and such.
15. Scrapbook - Small status bar real estate - This is what I used before read it later. It still has its uses, but it really depends on how you use the internet as to whether which will work for you. I keep both because my computer can handle it.
16. Session Manager - No footprint - Some of you might recall session saver, this is the new and improved version. It fixes a few bugs and adds a few features (autosave, etc) and smoothes out the older proccess. In general this lets you save your sessions, it's more detailed and reliable than FF's simple version and more flexible. Say I want to research something for a story, I can open a window and start researching, tabbing lots of things, but I really need to get some real estate back on my desktop and/or not look at it for a day. I can simply save that WINDOW (with all its tabs) to bring back later. It also enhances closed tabs memory.
17. Tab Mix Plus - No footprint - (See comments for link to FF3 compatible version) Adds a whole host of functionality to your tabs. I can't even remember what because this was one of the first extensions I added back in the day. It has to do with context menus and tab flexibility and various little additions that just seem nifty (I think freeze tab is from this one) and it coordinates incredibly well with session manager and will defer to it instead of its own built in stuff (it WILL however convert your old sessions from your old FF2 version if that was worrying you.)
18. Word Count Plus - Tiny real estate in status bar - this is one of the ones you need to register for because it's technically in beta for FF3 but I've had no problems so far. What does it do? It gives you a word count *G*. It'll even tally. Mostly it's for us anal retentive freaks who categorize fic on del.icio.us.
I didn't include greasemonkey because then I would have had to of gone into all my scripts and that's totally another post. *G*
Next up: Get Smart or Steve Carell is not allowed to be a hot action hero.
Other important thing, I gave in and registered for the mozilla site and found a few updates that weren't showing yet. W00t! (All addons here work with FF3). Once you register look at all versions, the newest one will be on top (and NOT be the one shown on the main page.)
1. Adblock Plus - Takes up tool bar space - Best. Thing. Ever. It comes with a generic list of badbad add sources and it's not too hard to figure out how to add more. Plus it adds little 'block' tags to all things it thinks are adds (gets it right most of the time) so you can just point and click. But it ALSO got rid of that 'snap' crap LJ was using, but for that I had to actually add an entry. A must have for anyone who reads articles anywhere online. (It also kills those heart attack rendering pop up monsters.)
2. Autocopy - takes up status bar space - Automatically copies any text you highlight. OMG. Seriously. I cannot express how useful this is. You can copy, you can send it directly to a new tab, you can make julienne fries! It's small and has just a handful of options but it's not kluge like at all. Great if you're always copying text all over the place. (Which I do. A lot. I don't know why.) (ETA: This is a register with mozilla one.)
3. Better Gmail 2 - No visual real estate - I haven't played around with this all that much yet, but so far I"m liking the 'highlight the message your mouse is hovering over' and as soon as I get it working again the labeling with keystrokes. It has several other features worth exploring if you're a regular gmail user. In general this extension is described as a "combination of the favorite and most useful gmail extensions out there" and that's pretty much it, plus a bit more.
4. Colorful Tabs - No visual real esatate - Basically it does what it says, helpful if you sometimes have many tabs open at once, helps the eye track back to where you want to be based on colors. They don't shift when one tab is removed, it all stays the same, but it's a bit of softness to your tabs and if you're a very visual person, a bit of helpfulness.
5. Del.icio.us. Complete - No visual real estate. Okay okay, it's not QUITE up to snuff. Someone hacked it just enough to make it work with FF3, it's not bad, a bit more buggy, like an older version, but I am HOLDING OUT HOPE that it will be updated soon. See post for more details.
6. Delicious Blog Rescue Tool - No visual real estate - Oh how to explain. Basically if you use a daily delicious blog roll, and have had it crap out because of one of the various links in the chain, then check this one out.
7. Fire FTP - No real estate, unless in use, then it's a window - A generic little ftp program. Fine for basic updates, but not so snazzy for large and bulky stuff. I get nervous when doing a wordpress backup.
8. Flashgot - Facilitates downloading. Gives you a few more options, directs the download to one of any number of download managers (it's very flexible.)
9. Foxmarks - Status bar real estate - OH. My. God. MADE OF WIN. Basically it syncs bookmarks between two PCs. If your bookmarks are organized enough that using the delicious type version of this is good for you, then fine, but I suspect that needs more internet connection than this. Just make sure to specific no profile the first time and then after that you can create a home profile, a work profile, a 'oh god, with the parents' profile. Etc. How I use it: Well to be honest I sort of view what I have in del.icio.us as long term storage, information, shopping, fic. What I have in my bookmarks are different, stuff I use everyday but cannot remember the URLs for (work webmail logins, etc). However one of my biggest problems has always been the laptop switchover when heading off someplace where I can't just check the desktop. Now I have a folder that's simply bookmarked pages of stuff I hadn't gotten to yet or fic I'm almost ready to read. Delicious does this, but that's serious public bookmarking and what I want is just-- the crap waiting for me to see, and I can privatize it, but that's far too many keystrokes, FF3 makes bookmarking really painless. I do have a delicious toread list, but I use that completely differently.
10. Gmail Manager - Medium amount of status bar real estate - Prefer over gmail notifier just because it breaks far less often (meaning hardly ever). If you don't keep your gmail open all the time, this will open it for you, keep track of multiple accounts, etc. Nice bit of info to have.
11. IE View - No real estate - Useful because sometimes stuff only works in IE. If IE isn't in the place the thing thinks it should be, you can easily point to it. Etc. You can set pages to always open in IE, all that jazz. Useful to cut out some tiny little browsing annoyances.
12. Livejournal Addons - None to a lot of real estate in the status bar, depending - this does a LOT of stuff. The way I use LJ, I use it for only a fraction of what it can do (UNFOLDING ALL COMMENTS ON ALL PAGES AT ONCE! WOOT!) but it does a lot of very nifty things, the documentation is sparse so it takes a bit of trial and error, but I suspect if someone had diametrically opposed LJ habits to mine (or read LJ at work *G*) this addon does a lot of things you'd like. Oh and since LJ hook has yet to be compatible, it ALSO has a little popup for when you're writing in an LJ text box for usernames and image adding and linking and stuff. Again, v. useful.
13. LJ login - A little to a lot of status bar real estate - The link takes you directly to the page, apparently the lj addons for ff3 are taking a while to filter through. It DOES work though. This is great for people who have several LJ accounts (and IJ and JF!) and just-- don't want to spent all that time logging in and then out again. It's a quick menu with clicking and stuff. New version has a few less bugs than the previous. No weird logout errors when you get dumped once in a while (relies on cookies, so sometimes you refresh and suddenly are logged out, once every couple of days, no biggy.)
14. Read it Later - Small footprint in toolbar - More useful for laptop than desktop, maybe. This is like-- temporary bookmarks, things to read and mark read and discard. Can ALSO read offline. V. useful for laptop when I have about 20 min of wifi time and just want to snag everything securely. A bit like another tool I'll go into later, but with different usages in mind. I do not believe it goes down link levels, which is why it's not great for grabbing large stories via index, however not too hard to click on each link when in super save it mode. Also you can organize and tag and such.
15. Scrapbook - Small status bar real estate - This is what I used before read it later. It still has its uses, but it really depends on how you use the internet as to whether which will work for you. I keep both because my computer can handle it.
16. Session Manager - No footprint - Some of you might recall session saver, this is the new and improved version. It fixes a few bugs and adds a few features (autosave, etc) and smoothes out the older proccess. In general this lets you save your sessions, it's more detailed and reliable than FF's simple version and more flexible. Say I want to research something for a story, I can open a window and start researching, tabbing lots of things, but I really need to get some real estate back on my desktop and/or not look at it for a day. I can simply save that WINDOW (with all its tabs) to bring back later. It also enhances closed tabs memory.
17. Tab Mix Plus - No footprint - (See comments for link to FF3 compatible version) Adds a whole host of functionality to your tabs. I can't even remember what because this was one of the first extensions I added back in the day. It has to do with context menus and tab flexibility and various little additions that just seem nifty (I think freeze tab is from this one) and it coordinates incredibly well with session manager and will defer to it instead of its own built in stuff (it WILL however convert your old sessions from your old FF2 version if that was worrying you.)
18. Word Count Plus - Tiny real estate in status bar - this is one of the ones you need to register for because it's technically in beta for FF3 but I've had no problems so far. What does it do? It gives you a word count *G*. It'll even tally. Mostly it's for us anal retentive freaks who categorize fic on del.icio.us.
I didn't include greasemonkey because then I would have had to of gone into all my scripts and that's totally another post. *G*
Next up: Get Smart or Steve Carell is not allowed to be a hot action hero.