Firefox add-ons

[lizbee]

sajee asked for our favourite Firefox add-ons.  Here are mine, plus a few other bits and pieces that I can't live without:

1.  LJ addons.  Confusing name, confusing interface.  But it has some useful points: it notifies you when your flist updates, enables comment unfolding even for unpaid accounts, unfolds cut-tags without the tedium of opening another page, randomly selects userpics, and various other things that I don't really need. 

2.  Adblock Plus.  Maybe I should have mentioned this first?  Anyway, it doesn't block all ads, but it helps.  Particularly useful in suppressing pop-ups.

3.  Download Statusbar.  Condenses downloads into a single handy status bar.  Much less clunky than the separate download window!

4.  DownThemAll!: A really useful download manager/accelerator.  Can be used with free Mediafire accounts, too.

5.  Flashblock: Replaces flash with a clickable icon.  Includes options to always allow flash from a chosen site, but every now and then I think of replacing it.  It gets a bit annoying on flash-dependent sites like YouTube.

6.  LJ Login: This isn't actually an official Firefox add-on, but I've never had a problem with it.  Lets you switch between LJ accounts with a couple of clicks, which is handy if you're running a sockpuppet.  *eyedart*  Or roleplaying, or moderating a site with a single mod sock.

7.  Net Usage Item: For those of us in danger of using up our download quotas -- this tells you what percentage of you're quota you've used.  The House o'Squid depends on it, even though it frequently leads to discussions that go, "32%?  HOW CAN WE BE AT 32% IT'S ONLY BEEN A WEEK WHAT THE  HELL HAVE YOU PEOPLE BEEN DOWNLOADING????!!!"

8.  Tab Mix Plus: Features a session manager, a facility to undo closed tabs, marks unread tabs, and generally makes itself useful.

9.  TinyURL Creator: ...Does exactly what it says on the tin.  Handy for Twitter, which brings me to...

10.  TwitterFox: Runs Twitter as a small pop-up in the corner of your browser.  Unobstrusive, attractive and handy.  I didn't really start using Twitter until I got this.

11.  WordCount Plus: Tells you the word count in selected text.  Handy if you (a) use GoogleDocs and (b) like to obsess over wordcounts.

I also use a couple of Greasemonkey scripts, but the only one I have active at the moment is one that removes a permission clicky thingie from Gmail when you're replying to comments.

In terms of other nifty tools, I really like KeepIt!, which lets you save YouTube videos in a couple of file formats, and LyricsWiki, which is just plain handy.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you for the KeepIt link.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

*tips hat* No worries! I've been using it to get screencaps from interviews for freema.mirrordance.net, although getting caps from Quicktime is a bitch.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Funny, I'd already tumbled to Ljaddons and all its gubbins (being able to open comments without opening the entirety of a post has been occasionally v. handy) but hadn't heard of LjLogin. Will have to investigate, though unless I start setting up socks probably not terribly useful...

[sajee.livejournal.com]

YAY!

[aquila1nz.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Netusage one looked really, really good, but it doesn't cover my ISP (all the other large NZ ISPs, but not mine :-(
I went through my allowance in a week the month before last, because I discovered a new fandom, and ran out a week early last month too).

Yes to TabMixPlus (tabs at the bottom - I can't live without that) and Download statusbar

Additional addons I love:
Delicious bookmarks
NoScript
FoxClocks - Easily stick the time in as many different timezones as I like in the statusbar - so I know when downloads will come available, when friends might be awake, and what it means when websites say they will be back up at
Gmail Manager - when it works properly, though the little green zeros and black 1s that gmail has introduced also rock
Stop or reload button (because you never need both at once)

I'm using DownloadHelper at home to save video files - it only saves as .flv (with some tied up conversion options) but it works with a multitude of sites.

[johnnypurple.livejournal.com]

What a useful post. Super! :D

I wonder if that Tab Mix one will help me manage my obsessive tab-opening compulsion.

[onomatopoetry.livejournal.com]

Oooh, excellent. I like the idea of the download bar.

For anyone doing anything web code/developy or even web troubleshootery ever, I highly recommend Firebug; I can no longer remember how I survived without it.

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

LJ Login sounds *very* handy. Thank you! (Edit: Also, I'm totally bookmarking LyricWiki.)

I already use TabMixPlus (love it) and TwitterFox. I need the Firefox Facebook Toolbar back, though. I misses it so...

[amaresu]

Oh shiny. I will be looking into Tab Mix Plus and WordCount Plus. I've tried LJ addons multiple times, but it annoys the hell out of me.

I would add:

Delicious bookmarks
Easy Drag and Go
Linkification
Read It Later
Screengrab
Snap Links Plus
The Nethernet

[infiniteviking]

Flashblock, KeepIt, and LJlogin own my soul. Or at least my browser.

*snatches at the download statusbar* Thanks for posting all these... it's a great list.

[mousagetes.livejournal.com]

Great post! LJ addons and login own me, they're so damn useful. Some ff add-ons I find useful are Sharaholic, which lets you save to del.icio.us, post to twitter, facebook, etc, and I use Stylish to optimize screen real estate for various apps like Google docs, and Greasemonkey with Writing Room for Google docs and Google Account Multi-Login to manage aliases, if that helps.

And if anyone has an iPhone or iPod Touch, Instapaper is a great free service/app that lets you save web text to your iPod in plain text format via browser bookmarklet. It's great for saving fic you want to read later when you may not have a wireless connection.

[mousagetes.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot to mention Leechblock, for those of us with zero self-control. *g*

[kerravonsen]

Oh yes, I love the download statusbar.

I haven't tried "KeepIt!", I've been using "DownloadHelper" instead.

FEBE backs up my settings automatically, which is one less thing to worry about.

I find FoxClocks useful, because it gives me a quick way of seeing what time it is for my international friends.

Many people may not care for it, but I really like Vimperator, because it makes it a lot easier to use hot-keys in key-combos that I'm used to; for working on my little eeePC it makes browsing (or reading multi-file fanfic) a lot easier; for example, to get the next page in a set of pages which are in the form pagenamenumber, I just have to go Control-A - so much easier than going back to the index page and clicking on the next page.

Hmmm, WordCount Plus sounds potentially useful...

ETA: I used to use TabMixPlus, but then it didn't work with Firefox 3, so I removed it. (goes off to get new version)

[purple-smurf.livejournal.com]

I love LyricsWiki, it is so much better than those other lyrics sites and deserves to be higher on Google's register. I may have to replace my Java-based TinyURL link, though, and install this add-on. And thanks for the link to NetUsage!

(DownloadHelper (http://www.downloadhelper.net/) is also very good for YouTube)

[tree_and_leaf]

Fantastically useful stuff - thank you!

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I'll have to give LJ addons a try. Hmm.

[lizvogel.livejournal.com]

The description of LJ addons makes me wish Firefox didn't run like roadkill on my machine. Decent comment unfolding... *is jealous*

[copracat]

Ooh! Things I've not seen before! *grabbity*