Firefox 3 Extensions

Well, I love Firefox, but was really tired of the memory leak that pushed Firefox up into the 200Mb range.  So I've upgraded to Firefox 3 (beta 4), and here are the extensions that I'm using, trying, or rejecting.  Of course, I am waiting for my favorite Firefox 2.x extensions to be ported to 3.0.  (BTW, creating this initial list took me about 6h of research and trial and error.)

Last Update:  03.31.08

Updates:

• Added CuteMenus, Fission, Toolbar Buttons  to TRYING
• Added Yapta to REJECTED

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1. DOWNLOAD them all at once!

• Download all of my Essential, Cool, and Trying extensions in one file by right clicking the link (not available until FEBE/CLEO get updated to ff3).

2. ESSENTIAL

• Adblock Plus - does what it says
• Customize Google - cool idea - I especially like the links to other search engines, numbering of results, and filters (filter out certain sites from results).  Might conflict with Better Google 2, not sure.
• Download Statusbar - don't use the awful download window, use this sleek status-bar toolbar.  Awesome.
• Flashblock - a nice button for your toolbar that toggles flash objects - works perfectly.
• Foxmarks beta - sign up for one of the few beta test slots if you can't wait for the final port of this great extension.
• Google Preview - adds preview images to google results.
• Greasemonkey - naturally - here's my fav scripts, not sure if some overlap with the Better Google extensions (below in TRYING)
  
  • Auto Add Feed - If you use Google Reader, this plugin allows you to skip that intermediate page when adding a new feed, and you end up directly in Google Reader.
  • Autopager (GM Script) - nice!  As you page down with the space bar on google results, it appends the next 10 results, forever!  No more page changes.  Nice.
  •  Google Reader Print Button - allows better printing of items from GR.  NOTE:  To make this script work, you need to modify it (instructions) by (1) commenting out two lines from the script, and (2) going in to the GM options for this script, and in the Included Pages section, add a * to the end of http://www.google.com/reader/view/*
  • Google Saved Searches - Adds a nice sidebar with saved searches.  Slows down GR a little, but may be worth it.
• IE Tab - allows you to emulate IE in a Firefox tab for apps that require IE (like Sharepoint or OWA)
• It's all Text - tired of typing up your comments in some puny comment box? Automatically launch your text editor of choice. Just click the 'save' icon to copy your text back to the original text box.
• PDF Download - enhances PDF features in FF
• WOT - community-feedback based evaluation of sites, measures trustworthiness.  Although I never rate sites, it has caught some evil sites for me.

3. COOL BUT NOT ESSENTIAL

• Faviconize - minimizes tabs to their favicon.  Good if you have lots of tabs open.
• Nuke Anything Enhanced - Temporarily remove anything from a page before printing - if you refresh page, nuked items return.  Nice.
• StumbleUpon - find related sites to ones you visit and like
• TabScope - popup image when you rollover tabs
• Woot Watcher - see your daily woot in the status bar - now updates and shows percentages for WootOffs - WOOT!

4. TRYING

• Autofill Forms - just another form filler, like AI Roboform.
• Better Gmail 2 - compilation of GreaseMonkey scripts to make gmail work better
• Better GReader - bunch of GM scripts to enhance Google Reader
• Better YouTube - automatically loads higher res videos if available, and other GM scripts to enhance YouTube
• BugMeNot - I still haven't figured out how this works for bypassing mandatory registration for sites like the NYT
• BuyLater - amazon price drop notifier (see also my Guide to safe, effective online shopping)
• Configuration Mania - shows lots of FF3 config items without having to go to about:
• Copy Link Text - right click on a link and choose from drop down
• CuteMenus - menu enhancements
• Digg Firefox Extension
• FireGestures - same as MouseGestures, I think (but fire works in 3.x)
• FireShot - screenshot util
• Fission - adds progress bar to address bar, like Safari
• GA? - Is Google Analytics Installed
• Grab and Drag - I love and hate this extension - to love it, use the Setup Wizard, or try makomg these changes in the options, then tweak from there:
  • General tab
    • Features (all checked)
    • Text Toggle - First drop down set to '1', second one set to '2'
  • More Options tab
    • Drag multiplier - set to slower (I use 1.2)
  • Momentum tab
    • Enable momentum
    • Set time sensitivity to about 25% (close to short)
    • Set Decel to about 40%
    • Set Friction to about 10%
  • Gestures tab
    • Enable Flick Gestures checkbox
    • Set Scroll Speed to aboue 40%
    • Set Time Limit to about 25%
• HyperBK - bookmark manager enhancement. 
• Print/Print Preview - Replace the default "Print" button with the Mozilla Suite style "Print/Print Preview" toolbar button/menu
• Router Status - lots of network stats available from status bar icon
• Toolbar Buttons - this excellent addon worked well in ff2.  We'll see how well it works in ff3.

4. RARELY USED BUT OK

• Firefox Activities - experimental, adds ie8 Activities functions - not too many yet, so not that great.
• Flash Killer - Flashblock works fine

5. REJECTED

• Glubble Family Edition - safe, child-oriented browser experience, but too intrusive.  Better to just install something on the back end like K9 Web Protection.
• Quick TransLation - language translation tool.  For some reason, this thing kept adding a bunch of javascript into my blog posts in HTML view.  Scary. I think it was just bad coding, though, not malicious.
• Yapta - airline ticket search and notification - but no real value add

Firefox 3 Tips, Tricks, and Resources

• Firefox 3 beta 2 and incompatible extension workarounds
• Strange but complete list of all firefox extensions, with current level of FF3 readiness (mouse over the boxes to see which extension you are looking at)
• Animated PNG article and tools (Mozilla labs, very cool)