Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers
Downloadsquad Firefox Add-on Pack 2009 ready for subscription!
If you hadn't guessed from past posts, most of the bloggers here at Downloadsquad use Firefox - some of us more than others, of course, but it's still a trusted cross-platform tool.
Earlier today I showed you Mozilla's new Add-on Collector which makes it easy for anyone to do the whole "Fashion Your Firefox" thing. After going back to the comments you contributed to past Firefox add-on posts and firing off a few dozen mailing list messages to each other, we've put together our "inaugural collection," as it were.
The Downloadsquad Collection is now available for subscription!
What made the cut? Popular picks like AdBlock Plus, NoScript, Better Privacy, Greasemonkey,TabMix Plus, and DownThemAll, and some lesser-knowns like Amazon S3 Organizer, Textarea Cache, and Taboo.
Would it be too Google of us to slap a permanent Beta tag one this thing? You know, just in case you guys have a few hot additions we need to work in. But seriously...If we missed your favorite, tell us what it is and why we should add it!
Update: Thanks for the comments! Download Statusbar has been added, and we'll keep listening to your suggestions.
Remember, simply subscribing to a pack doesn't mean you'll end up with every single add-on. Just install the ones you like!
Earlier today I showed you Mozilla's new Add-on Collector which makes it easy for anyone to do the whole "Fashion Your Firefox" thing. After going back to the comments you contributed to past Firefox add-on posts and firing off a few dozen mailing list messages to each other, we've put together our "inaugural collection," as it were.
The Downloadsquad Collection is now available for subscription!
What made the cut? Popular picks like AdBlock Plus, NoScript, Better Privacy, Greasemonkey,TabMix Plus, and DownThemAll, and some lesser-knowns like Amazon S3 Organizer, Textarea Cache, and Taboo.
Would it be too Google of us to slap a permanent Beta tag one this thing? You know, just in case you guys have a few hot additions we need to work in. But seriously...If we missed your favorite, tell us what it is and why we should add it!
Update: Thanks for the comments! Download Statusbar has been added, and we'll keep listening to your suggestions.
Remember, simply subscribing to a pack doesn't mean you'll end up with every single add-on. Just install the ones you like!
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rcarm said 9:22PM on 6-10-2009
Adding GooglePreview would be nice.
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Jash Sayani said 8:47AM on 6-11-2009
I totally agree! Here's mine: Google Preview, Site Launcher, Feedly, Read It Later... http://tr.im/o2mK
Bufsabre said 9:56PM on 6-10-2009
id say good call, i already have 90% of these installed, the one im missing is the s3 one, cause i dont use s3 servers
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Slashee the Cow said 10:24PM on 6-10-2009
Add-ons I have that aren't included in your pack...
ColorfulTabs - makes each tab a different colour, because a grey bar of tabs is just plain boring. Plus it helps differentiate the tabs (if you're a tabaholic like me).
Download Statusbar - because I'm too lazy to open the download window every time I download something, plus this lets me check on progress without looking away from what I'm doing.
FEBE - I find it's just the easiest way to synchronise everything to do with my profile between my desktop and my laptop.
Gmail Manager - fairly obvious why I use this one.
Google Reader Watcher - see above.
Remove It Permanently - helpful for getting rid of some of the crap Adblock doesn't (probably because they're not technically ads, but annoying nonetheless).
Screengrab - if there's an easier way for saving a whole web page as an image, I'd like to see it.
SearchLoad Options - because the search bar doesn't behave quite the way I'd like it to.
Speed Dial - adds an Opera style grid of pages to new windows/tabs.
Tiny Menu - more of a cosmetic thing, I save space on-screen by having my menus, location bar and search bar all on one bar.
Undo Closed Tabs Button - since I'm using the mouse 90% of the time, it saves me a few clicks.
Update Notifier - I have it set to automatically download and install updates, so I never need to worry about keeping my myriad of add-ons updated.
All of these can be found on the official add-ons website. I'd have included URLs but the comment system doesn't allow you many per comment.
Oh, and if you think this is a lot... you haven't seen how many WoW mods I use.
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Kenn.keeper said 10:58PM on 6-10-2009
Well since Firefox is my #2 browser ( I'm a long time Opera user) I do have some add-ons that I consider well worth having. All-in-one sidebar is a must to have and since I see a lot of people mentioning Themes, Personas for Firefox is one add-on to have. Beats the heck out of finding a right version Theme to use....
And for security there is WOT,,,,similar to McAfee SiteAdvisor
Kenn.....
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Skrying said 10:59PM on 6-10-2009
You included an add-on designed to directly reduce the income of your website... smart.
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Josh said 11:08PM on 6-10-2009
I prefer much, much more simple browsing.
Stop or Reload - Merges the stop and reload button into one button. One less button to deal with.
Fission - Eliminates the only need I had for the statusbar by placing the load bar behind the text of the URL bar
Download Statusbar - The first extension I ever install on a clean install of Firefox. Again, makes things simpler by eliminating the need for an entire window
Other than that, I have Greasemonkey (generally used to simplify webpages), Linkification (to turn text links into real links), Adblock Plus, and X Marks.
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David Chartier said 11:44PM on 6-10-2009
You are a web publication that relies entirely on ad revenue, and you're pushing AdBlock Plus?
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Grant Robertson said 12:27AM on 6-11-2009
David! Long time, man!
You know as well as I do, if you're going to use AdBlock, you're going to use it. DLS not mentioning it, or including it in a bundle, isn't going to make it go away.
Personally? I've never used AdBlock. But I'm certainly not going to stand here and tell you that it shouldn't be distributed or linked to.
David Chartier said 12:38AM on 6-11-2009
Hey Grant. I can see your point, but it still doesn't make sense to actively pimp software that lets readers steal your content. Not everyone knows about ad blocking extensions. But more importantly, by actively promoting stuff like AdBlock, you're spreading a sentiment that even publishers don't care if they're giving away content and getting absolutely no revenue in return.
It is an issue of cultural roots, and it is tremendously difficult to fix problems like this once they spread. Ads, for better and worse, allow you and me to eat, put a roof over our heads, and get married. ;) Extensions like AdBlock completely ignore those fundamental, common necessities, and for what... to satiate a petty annoyance?
Matt said 2:46AM on 6-11-2009
Please, now not looking at your ads is "stealing your content"? Get a grip. If you have good content, you will get the traffic.
David Chartier said 8:44AM on 6-11-2009
Matt: "Traffic" does not equal money. You could have 10 million visitors on a page, but if there isn't an ad displayed on it, you won't make a dime.
You will, on the other hand, have to pay the bandwidth bill for serving the files to handle all that traffic. If you're a serious publication, you will also have had to pay the person who wrote or created whatever content that brought those 10 million visitors in the first place.
So far, ads are the only thing that have brought sites like Download Squad, Macworld, Wired, Ars Technica, and TUAW (all which I currently work for or have in the past) the revenue they need to keep the lights on and give people full time jobs. Donations and subscriptions, so far, have been unsuccessful.
These are the realities of online publishing: the general public hates paying for things, and now tools like AdBlock are an assault on the only legitimate, working revenue model for online publishers. Good content will cease to remain good without a way for the people who create it to make a living.
Matt said 11:34AM on 6-11-2009
This sounds more like "felony interference with a business model" than stealing. You can't fight your users, you will lose.
David Chartier said 11:40AM on 6-11-2009
And you won't have any users if you have no way of making money. This is an incredibly simple system.
What do you do for a living? How would you make a living doing it if all of your customers said they wanted everything for free, would not view ads in return for your services or product, and would not offer donations or pay for a subscription?
You wouldn't be able to do what you do anymore, and you wouldn't have a living.
Christina Warren said 12:07PM on 6-11-2009
I direct you all to the excellent Farhad Manjoo's post on the matter at Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2218386/. No offense to any of the tech writers here, but Farhad is better than all of us (myself most definitely included) and I think his discussion with the Adblock Plus creator about a potential way to view ads with a "clear" conscience.
I like Farhad's take on the whole issue "I understand the irony here; Slate and other publications I've written for make money from advertisements, so my blocking them is akin to an airline pilot siphoning fuel from his tank before he takes off."
I'm not going to call anyone who blocks ad a content thief. That's just too Rupert Murdoch ("if you skip commercials you are stealing television"), and much as I have a bizarre fascination with all things Murdoch (I hate many of his practices but he's so smart, and evil -- I can't help but kind of love him), that was just the height of stupidity and self-righteousness.
B.SkiLLs said 11:51PM on 6-10-2009
Most useful ever. I use all these pretty much everyday and on a daily bases.
Stylish
Customize the look of the application and of websites with Stylish, a user styles manager
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108
Both these below are awesome for copy and pasting links or anything and converting them into html or bbcode automatically for those who do not how to do them or even experienced coders that do like myslf but are to lazy to.lol.. but for like posting links on myspace or those certain sites alike or forums or whatever..
Cop link text:
A simple extension to add an option to the context menu so that when right-clicking a link, its text can be immediately copied. awesome for copy and pasting links or anything and converting them into html or bbcode automatically for like posting links on myspace or those certain sites alike
and
CoLT:
CoLT makes it easy to copy either a hyperlink's text or both the link and the link's text (in a format you specify).
BBCode 0.5.2.4:
Adds BBCode, HTML, XHTML & Symbols formatting to the context menu for forums. You can also add up to ten custom tag or standard text strings.
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Those most deff should be added.
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Grant Robertson said 12:10PM on 6-11-2009
You know I think the world of you David but, I agree with Matt here.. he puts it so perfectly, "you can't fight users"
What you can do is educate them, and hope they see the light. You can also fight back against really crappy ads that do things like expand outside their bounds on mouseover, or make noise.
If you think Adblock is popular now, wait till we live in a Minority Report future :)
Cam said 11:52PM on 6-10-2009
I use 5 addons
Adblock Plus
Weave (Mozilla's version of XMarks)
DownThemAll!
Better GMail 2
and the Addon Collector
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Josh said 12:12AM on 6-11-2009
I used Weave for a while but I like Xmarks now because you can sync across different browsers. Having my Safari and Firefox sync on both of my MacBooks in Leopard and XP is quite a handy tool
ntw1103 said 1:20AM on 6-11-2009
from your list, I only use Greasemonkey, and AB+
Others I use:
Cookie Monster
CustomizeGoogle
DownloadHelper
GeckoTIP (for tablet input)
LogMeIn, In Remot access plugin.(this is really cool as I use logmein all the time.)
mediaplayerconnectivity.(very useful. it also serves as a flash blocker.
NewTabURL(every time I hit ctrl+t it open my custom homepage)
Open in Browser(very useful for sites that want to try and force you to download something)
(I also use Vista on XP) because I think the blue looks cooler. :)
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