spherebox

Many people said Firefox is not as good as Opera and/or Maxthon because it has less functions; they claimed, goodies like mouse gesture and super drag-and-go should be included by default in Firefox, instead of relying third party developers to deliver them through the form of extension.

IMO, Firefox is on the right track. I’d anytime prefer a web browser that is originally simple but can be shaped/tweaked/configured to the way I like. In contrast, I don’t need a bloated browser that has tons of functions but end up utilizing maybe only 30% of them.

However, not all extensions are perfectly developed. Some of them come with spyware/malware, some of them aren’t actually practical to use, while some of them are just too bloated for minimalists. Thus, I’m here to share all my favorite extensions that are proven to be trustworthy and I personally find them useful:

• Adblock Plus
• Are you one of the web surfers who’s annoyed with web banners and irritating flash animation? Adblock Plus is very efficient extension that allows you to block unwanted content to make your web surfing experience better. Comes with Filterset.G, it has actually blocked 95% of the ads without having you to do anything. For the rest of the 5%, just block it manually! (for example, Right Click and click “Adblock Image” in the menu)
• All-in-one gestures
• It allows you to send specific commands to the browser by combining mouse movements (for example, holding the right mouse button, pushing it up, and release the button will open a new tab for you). It’s one of my favorite extension in Firefox, and its convenience cannot be just described in words! I can even add new gesture whenever it’s needed!
• BBCodeXtra
• As a LYN regular, I use BBCode very often to add formatting to my posts. With this extension, it can be done easily without having to type all the tedious [b][/b], [img=XXX][/img] or [url=xxx][/url] tags.
• DownloadThemAll
• You can call it an extension, but I’d call it a fully functional download manager that’s integrated into my Firefox. With DownloadThemAll, I don’t have to install external download manager and install Flashgot to get them integrated together. Other than that, I’m also very impressed with its download speed.
• Fasterfox
• A zero-configuration extension that significantly increases the speed of your net surfing, also comes with a pop-up blocker. However, choosing “Turbo Charged” preset is not recommended as it exceeds the RFC spec and increases the server load.
  
• ImageShack Toolbar
• Imageshack is one of the most popular yet reliable free image hosting sites. If you upload images to the web frequently, this is a useful extension as you can just do it with two clicks instead of going to the homepage. However, because it’s a toolbar by itself – it does actually occupy some space of the browser.
• Tab Mix Plus
• An excellent extension that greatly enhances Firefox Tab-browsing capabilities. For example, you can force all the links to be opened in existing tab instead of a new tab, you can choose whether or not to have ‘X’ button in every tab, just to name a few. On top of that, it also comes with a built-in session manager.
• Video Downloader
• I’m a frequent visitor of YouTube and Google Video. With the pathetic speed of my “broadband”, it’s almost impossible to view the videos smoothly, moreover, some of the good videos are meant to be collected :) Video Downloader is a simple add-on that adds a small icon on the status bar, allowing you to click on it and get the direct download link of the video.

Of course, the above are just the extensions I’m using. I’m sure they are more FF extensions that you might like. Just visit the add-on homepage to discover it by yourself!

[ Original thread in LYN ]