OPIE is a Firefox add-on that lets you backup your other Firefox add-ons. While that might sound a lot like FEBE, another popular Firefox extension, there's at least one major difference: OPIE works with Firefox 3. Actually, make that two major differences, because OPIE also gives you the option of saving multiple extensions in one file, while FEBE users will need to install a separate application called CLEO.
You can use OPIE to choose from your list of installed plugins, selecting just the ones you want to backup, and where you want to save them. The result is a file which you can use to load your favorite plugins into Firefox on another machine.
FireGestures is a new Firefox extension that enables mouse gestures in the Firefox web browser.
If you've never tried using mouse gestures with Firefox or any other program, FireGestures is a great place to start, offering out-of-the-box functionality along with accessible advanced options.
With FireGestures, you can perform various commands with five types of mouse gestures:
Mouse Gestures (Move mouse with holding right-click)
Wheel Gestures (Scroll wheel with holding right-click)
Rocker Gestures (Left-click with holding right-click and vice versa)
Keypress Gestures (Mouse gesture with holding Ctrl / Shift key)
Tab Wheel Gestures (Scrolling wheel on the tab bar)
A default set of gestures is activated upon installation of FireGestures, though you can remap any function to most any gesture. You can also add your own gesture with its own specific function through use of scripts.
We like the FireGestures extension, but we've also become accustomed to having system-wide mouse gestures with programs such as XGestures, and/or the Quicksilver plug-in Abacadabra (with functionality equal to the keypress gestures in FireGestures). Of course those programs are for the Mac only.
We're sure that someone out there has found a good Windows program to implement system-wide mouse gestures...or are we better off with program-specific solutions such as FireGestures?
It pains us to say it, but sometimes tabs are a waste of time. We hate when we're on a site, and see a story with an accompanying link that promises to be the epiphany we've been waiting for all our lives. We eagerly click the link, and feverishly switch to the new tab. Our hopes and dreams are tragically dashed to pieces when we find the link is to a parked domain that has nary a thing to do with the subject at hand.
Interclue is a Firefox extension that allows for previewing web pages before you click the link. It gets a little less buzz than the similar Cooliris extension, but we think it's just as worthy. Cooliris doesn't require clicking on the preview icon to pop up a preview window, a simple mouse over will do. It's amazing how often we mouse over the icon, not meaning to, and get the preview.
Interclue gives the option to click on the preview icon, which might give us carpal tunnel in the long run, but is much easier on our psyche than having preview windows seemingly appear at random. From the Interclue preview window, we see the contents of the page in question, as well as some optional vital stats for the site we're viewing (called metaclues). We can bookmark, email, open in tabs, and paste the site link to the clipboard. We can easily resize the preview window and change our settings to not recognize certain links or certain pages.
Interclue 1.5.1.4896 was released January 2nd, and works in Firefox 1.5 and up. Despite its impossible version number, its simple interface and unobtrusive application is a breath of fresh air for those poor souls traumatized by dead end links and madly popping preview windows. We highly recommend it for those wanting link previews who have been less than happy with other applications' execution.
If you spend a lot of time on the Internet then you've probably accumulated dozens hundreds of bookmarks. Here are a few Firefox extensions to help keep them -- and you -- organized.
Bookmark synchronizer Foxmarks is a must-have if you like to access your bookmarks from multiple locations. Install the Foxmarks extension on your laptop and your desktop PC, and whatever Web site you add to your bookmark manager on one machine will automatically show up on the other. You can also access your bookmarks via the Web from any computer with Internet access, no download required.
People who use the Opera Web browser often rave about its "Speed Dial" function, which allows you faster access to sites you visit regularly than searching through a long list of bookmarks. Though similar functionality isn't available natively in Firefox, there are a couple of extensions that get the job done. Speed Dial for Firefox places a button on your toolbar; click it to bring up thumbnails of up to nine Web pages whose addresses you've pre-programmed. Adding a Web site to the list is easy: simplfirefox; ffy right-click and select "Set as Speed Dial." Fast Dial does the same thing as Speed Dial, and also adds middle-click functionality and keyboard shortcuts.
If you like your browser's address bar to do your thinking for you, then take a look at Autocomplete Manager. This little extension checks what you type in the address bar for matching bookmarked Web sites; it even checks page titles and names you've assigned to the bookmarks in your folders.
Want to give your boring old bookmark folders a face-lift? Use Favicon Picker to decide what icon you want appearing next to each bookmarked Web site. Once installed, simply open Firefox's Bookmark Manager and right-click on a bookmark. Choose "Properties", then the "Browse" button in the Icon section. Select a .jpg to replace the existing default icon and click "OK".
New to the whole concept of bookmarks? Then make sure this is the first site you save to your Bookmark Manager.
There's good new and bad news in the fact that Google is rolling out an updated version of Gmail. On the one hand, pages load quicker and there's an advanced contact manager. On the other hand, many of your favorite Firefox extensions for tweaking Gmail may have stopped working.
For a while now, personal productivity site Lifehacker has been rolling up some of the best Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail into a package called Better Gmail. And Google went ahead and broke pretty much every single one of those scripts with its new version.
Now Lifehacker has released the initial version of Better Gmail 2. It doesn't have all the features of Better Gmail 1. In fact, right now there are only about 6 options, compared with more than 25 in the old version of Better Gmail. But considering the fact that most users are just starting to see the new Gmail interface, we suspect it will take a little while before the Greasemonkey coders get around to making all of their hacks "newer version" compatible. In the meantime, Lifehacker promises to continue updating both the Better Gmail 1 and Better Gmail 2 packages until Google eliminates the "older version" option. Then all development will be on Better Gmail 2.
On its way to becoming a popular development platform in its own right, Firefox is attracting developers who are busy creating extensions using third party API's.
ProgrammableWeb has put together a list of 12 Firefox mashups that use API's in order to help the productivity of users. The mashups range from sharing intriguing content on digg, delicious and facebook to uploading files to Flickr, Picasa, YouTube and Box.net accounts. Who needs to use standalone applications and timely website based uploaders after integrating these Firefox extensions?
The folks at lifehack.org, (not LifeHacker.com) have cooked up the 17 best Firefox extensions that will make blogging easy. I'm sure you've seen some of these before, but just in case you haven't seen them all, they are:
There are some widely-used extensions on the list, such as ScribeFire (formerly performancing), Split Browser, Session Manager and Google Notebook, but there are some that aren't so well known, like Picnik, DocuFarm, Deepest Sender, and Tabinta. Once installed, these extensions greatly help the organization and communication of information.
Are there other extensions that should have made this list from lifehack.org? What are the best extensions that make blogging easier, fun, or enjoyable for you?
What happens when power shoppers demand more from the eBay experience? Why, Firefox add-on developers pick up the slack, of course! Nathan Willis at Linux.com has posted a good writeup of three key Firefox add-ons that help you find better bargains, view the total cost of items and run a quick, fine-toothed search of eBay from any selected text.
The most interesting of these add-ons, and the one Nathan spends the most time on, is Biet-O-Zilla, an über-eBay add-on that offers a plethora of options like managing multiple accounts, viewing currency rates and - perhaps most importantly: scheduling bids in advance to help land those late-night deals that no one seems to catch.
If you've been looking for a way to save even more cash while trying to flex your eBay muscles, the add-ons Nathan explores might just be the ticket you need.
It seems that no list is complete without being labeled as 'Must Have' these days, but we'll let you decide as to how indispensable these OpenOffice extensions listed by Linux.com really are. In the spotlight are extensions that add tabbed windows, a library of maps, more templates, clipart and fonts and even an annotation tool that enhances the suite's built-in Notes feature. For anyone looking to administer a booster shot to OpenOffice, this list is at least a good place to start.
Computerworld has a recent article that lists 10 Firefox extensions that they believe users should avoid, with a subtitle stating "Just because an extension is popular doesn't mean it belongs in your Web browser." Unfortunately, the criteria used to determine what should be avoided seems very loose; everything from "so you don't hurt yourself due to your own ignorance", to more self-serving interests like ensuring that readers actually see the ads on Computerworld's website.
Some inarguably essential extensions are on it, making this list pretty difficult to accept. Greasemonkey, for example, is listed as an extension to avoid. The author clarifies that at the very least if you're going to use it, be careful about which user scripts you use. While there's nothing wrong with that sentiment, it's one that goes without saying for any user that is sophisticated enough to be using an extension that exists as a way to actively modify web content locally in your browser.
Similarly, Computerworld lists AdBlock and AdBlock Plus as extensions to avoid, simply because they attempt to block all online advertising. Truthfully, these extensions aren't great for online publishers, but to be fair they do make for a significantly better web browsing experience. This recommendation doesn't appear to be made in the reader's best interests.
While an article that lists extensions that should be avoided seems like a good idea, it should be based on some sort of specific criteria, like extensions that have stability, performance or security flaws. A few recommendations on the list fall into this category, but the list is pretty inconsistent in this regard.
The list of extensions that probably shouldn't have made this list is longer than those that belong on it. If you're a computing neophyte, Computerworld's list might apply to you. For anyone that has consciously chosen to download a 3rd party browser like Firefox, you're probably more than capable of figuring out how to responsibly use these extensions if they have features you'd like to use.
Exactly as its name implies, the Tiny Menu extension allows you to compress your entire Firefox menu bar into one item. And, thanks to a recent update, that item is now even smaller. Setting up Tiny Menu isn't entirely intuitive, so I'll outline the steps to save you a bit of time:
Download and install Tiny Menu (don't forget to restart Firefox)
Click your 'new' menu (the M) and then select View > Toolbars > Customize...
One at a time (not that you have a choice) drag the items from your Navigation Toolbar into your menu bar until there's nothing left in the Navigation Toolbar
Click Done to return to the main Firefox window
Again, click your new menu and this time choose View > Toolbars > and then uncheck the Navigation Toolbar
If nothing else, we humans are good at pushing the limits of common sense just to see what will happen. Installing a ridiculous number of add-ons (and taking pictures, of course) has long been a tradition for Internet Explorer, uh, "enthusiasts," and now the Firefox fans are carrying the torch: Inspired by a 100-extension test back in February, the fine folks at CyberNotes doubled their pleasure and installed 200 add-ons in Firefox 2. The result? Well, it isn't pretty. Predictably, the screen is almost totally overwhelmed by toolbars, leaving but a few square inches for actually navigating the web. Perhaps more impressive is the Tools menu which takes up almost two full screen heights. What's impressive, though, is even after two hundred add-ons are installed, CyberNotes finds that Firefox still, essentially, works, and takes up a hefty but not outlandish 200MB of RAM.
Okay, okay, the "essential Firefox addons" list has been done to death, but if everyone else can beat a dead horse, why can't I? Having just freshened up my system I had the unique opportunity to take a fresh look at which Firefox addons I have installed and which ones I can't live without. As it turns out, there's quite a lot of them, so without further ado, here's my 15 essential Firefox add-ons:
Adblock Plus: I don't like red-and-green flashing YOU ARE A WINNER!! ads any more than you.
BugMeNot: I don't like giving my e-mail address, much less taking the time to fill out yet another form and click on another e-mail confirmation link, any more than you.
DownThemAll!: DownThemAll! isn't just useful for downloading a ton of files at once (though that's most certainly its best feature)--it also makes a great general-purpose download manager for when Firefox's built-in options aren't enough.
ErrorZilla: Firefox's standard the-site-could-not-be-reached error message is so passé. ErrorZilla augments the lowly "Try Again" button with six more: Google Cache, Coral Cache, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Ping, Trace Route, and Whois.
... if you use Windows and don't mind installing a third-party, standalone application.
FireTune is not a Firefox extension. It's a downloadable app - for Windows only - that "tunes" Firefox depending on your computer's speed and internet connection. You give FireTune some information about your setup, and it adjusts the browser's settings accordingly.
The big question for me, though, is why anyone would go to the trouble of installing FireTune, when the extension Fasterfox includes the same functionality and more. I have yet to uncover any features in FireTune that aren't present in Fasterfox; and Fasterfox includes other perks in addition to speed, such as blocking Flash-initiated pop-up windows. So far, the only benefit I can see to FireTune is that it apparently supports Firefox 2.0 - which, of course, still hasn't been officially released.
Microsoft is busy developing its new AJAX toolset using the codename Atlas. There is a lot of excitement and interest in this new tool that Microsoft is expecting to release at the end of 2006, but is currently only available as a prerelease. The final release will depend on user feedback from a beta release version. Microsoft has said that along with Atlas, we will see the release of certified Atlas products that will work in conjunction with Visual Studio 2005, and ASP.Net. Atlas will be launched into two main categories. A JavaScript library called AJAX Library, and Server side components which will be called ASP.Net 2.0 AJAX Extensions.
What happens when power shoppers demand more from the eBay experience? Why, Firefox add-on developers pick up the slack, of course! Nathan Willis at 
It seems that no list is complete without being labeled as 'Must Have' these days, but we'll let you decide as to how indispensable these 
Computerworld has a recent article that lists 
DownThemAll!
