Firefox has been, and will always be my favorite web browser. The developers of this amazing program never cease to amaze me. And although the bare bones fresh install of Firefox is great as it is, there is nothing wrong with making great even greater.

So in this post I will be listing some of the best plug-ins, tips, tricks, and hacks to make your browsing as powerful as it can be.

As always, this will be an ever expanding list. Check back frequently!

HACKS

I have come across 2 different websites that show you how to speed up your internet browsing. A few of these hacks are shared on both websites, but one of them has a lot more than the other. I only tried one of the websites hacks, and I definitely feel the difference in speed.

8 Easy Firefox Tweaks
This is the site that I used and got wonderful results. I highly recommend using this one.

Speed Up Firefox
This is the site with many more tweaks, I did not try this one myself so I can’t vouch for how well they do, or don’t work.

PLUG-INS

Without a doubt one of the most powerful features of Firefox is the ability to install plug-ins that offer any number of functionality. I have installed many, and removed many, and I have come to know some of the most useful plug-ins out there.

FasterFox
Essentially this plug-in does the same as the tweaks above do. I put it to the test and got mixed results. I also still have the previously mentioned hacks already installed, so I don’t know if this adds anything more that the hacks above didn’t. But this is a much easier way to do it. Perfect for someone who doesn’t want to edit things line by line. Some pages were loaded double time, while others a little bit slower. Overall, I am willing to bet this is a decent plug-in.

IE Tab
You can actually run an IE tab inside of Firefox. This has many uses, for instance, you can update your Windows installation via Firefox, when before you could only use IE. This is also great for Web Designers/Developers who have to test their sites in both Firefox and IE to make sure everything works right.

Adblock Plus
Tired of seeing advertisements everywhere, Google ads, Yahoo ads? Yea I was too, until I installed this plug-in. Now I can’t even remember the last time I saw an add.

Adblock Filterset.G Updater
This is an extension for the main Adblock plug-in. This basically keeps track of all the different kinds of ads out there so that Adblock know what to block, and what to not block. This is a necessity.

Clear Cache Button
This is a must have for web developers/designers. This makes clearing your cache easy as pie. It puts a button right next to your home button to help you clear your cache without opening and additional windows or drop downs.

Download Statusbar
This is a cool little plug-ins that shows the status of your download in the bottom corner of firefox, its much neater than the typical huge download manager that always seems to be in the way.

FireShot
Need a screenshot of your browsing window? So did I, and after a little looking around this is what I found. But this plug-in is more than just a screenshot application. It also allows you to add text comments, crop and edit in many different ways. It is much faster than using the print screen feature on windows.

PDF Download
Don’t you hate when you accidentally click on a link and it turns out to be a PDF file. Then you have wait while Acrobat opens up, and takes its dam time about it too. This plug-in will give you the option to open it as a PDF, or open it as HTML in a new tab which takes practically no time at all.

Stealther
Turn this plug-in on and browse the interweb without leaving a trail behind you. Any searches, or website your visit will not be kept in memory. The only drawback of this plug-in is that you MUST restart Firefox in order for this plug-in to do its job.

UnHide Passwords
This plug-in will make previously hidden password fields, a normal one. So you can see passwords as you type. It’s not the safest idea if you have other people using the same computer, but it works great.

Web Developer
My absolute favorite plug-in by far. If you are a web designer, or developer, this is a must have. The amount of tools this plug-in gives you is astounding. There are so many in fact, that I started a whole blog post just about this one plug-in alone.

You can read more about this plug-in in my blog here Web Developer Plug-In Post

As a web designer I encounter all sorts of road blocks that although small, really start to add up to wasted time that I’m not getting paid enough for. The Web Developer plug for Firefox built by Chris Pederick has completely dissolved all those road blocks to make my life a whole lot easier.

Read on to get a generalized summary, review, and small tutorial on this quite amazing incredibly powerful tool. Read the rest of this entry »

From the first day I discovered Mozilla Firefox I was greatfull to the internet gods. I jumped on board and never looked back at the scourge of the internet, Internet Explorer. As far as I’m concerned they don’t even deserve a link back from my site.
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