Essential Firefox Mods

Customize Google

2007-09-25T12:44:00.000-05:00

While 90% of the time I am able to easily find what I am looking for just by searching Google, sometimes I do want to try other search engines. The Customize Google extension provides additional links to Google search results that make it really easy to try other options without having to copy and paste the search terms.

ResizeSearchBox doesn't work anymore

2007-09-05T08:30:00.000-05:00

Ran into another problem with the ResizeSearchBox extension in Windows XP: it doesn't seem to work with the latest version of Firefox. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find an alternative to it in the Mozilla website, other than using the Google toolbar and completely replacing the built-in search bar. The problem with this is that the Google search bar does not allow the use of other search plug-ins, such as Merriam-Webster or Wikipedia.

QuickRestart

2006-11-07T13:04:00.000-06:00

As soon as I started installing Firefox add-ons it was clear that restarting the application after each installation was a real pain. The latest version, 2.0, sometimes displays a Restart button but for some reason it does not make that option available always. The QuickRestart extension gets around that issue by always making that option available under the Tools menu.

Download Statusbar

2006-11-02T10:57:00.000-06:00

Download Statusbar is a neat utility that adds information on files being downloaded to the status bar at the bottom of the screen, so you don't have to go an open the Downloads window. It allows you to easily open or delete files right from the status bar, which reduces the number of clicks you have to go through to do these common tasks.

QuickProxy

2006-11-01T15:51:00.000-06:00

As of this writing my previous favorite add-in for enabling the proxy, ProxyButton, has not been updated to work with Firefox 2.0, so I had to look for a replacement. QuickProxy gets my kudos for simplicity. All I want is a simple on/off switch, and that is what this add-on does.

Google Browser Sync

2006-06-09T21:56:00.000-05:00

I almost thought this day would never happen. I really like Firefox, but I still use Safari heavily because I can easily synchronize my bookmarks and passwords across different computers. But now Google has come up with an extension to do just that.

Theoretically, this could be even better than Safari because you could retrieve your passwords across different operating systems supported by Firefox.

ProxyButton

2006-05-13T13:33:00.000-05:00

It is extensions like ProxyButton that keep me coming back to Firefox. I use my laptop at home and at work, so I need a way to easily turn the proxy settings on and off. This is as useful an extension as they come!

Google Toolbar

2006-05-13T12:17:00.000-05:00

I know, this probably doesn't make sense. Why would you need the Google Toolbar if Firefox comes with a built-in search box? The reason is that Google's toolbar adds a great deal of functionality that I have come to depend on. For example:

Search history
I often find myself wanting to quickly look back at an old search.

Keyword highlighting
This makes it significantly easier to quickly focus on the information being sought.

Easily switch between different types of search
I know I can add additional search engines to the Firefox search box, but I like the fact that Google's toolbar already has all of this pre-built. Furthermore, I like having the extra search box allotted by the Google Toolbar so that I can leave the Firefox search box to do, for example, Amazon or Wikipedia searches.

I am sure that there are hacks out there that will enable Firefox do some of these things, but I am lazy and prefer that Google has already done the work for me.

ResizeSearchBox - Issues in Mac OS

2006-05-13T12:09:00.000-05:00

I found a problem with this extension: when used in a Mac computer to increase the size of the search box the size of the oval does not appear to increase as the resizing handle is dragged to the left. This is just a visual glitch.

IE Tab

2006-05-05T15:59:00.000-05:00

The IE Tab Firefox extension serves the same purpose as IE View (which was discussed in a previous post) but in a more seamless and elegant way. They are both used to view web pages using Internet Explorer. But where IE View opens the web page in a new Internet Explorer window, IE Tab allows you to never have to leave the Firefox environment by using the embedded Internet Explorer engine. Both extentions allow for a web page to always be automatically opened using Internet Explorer, but IE Tab seems to take it a step further by making it complete seamless.

Restart Tabbed

2006-05-05T14:00:00.000-05:00

The Restart Tabbed extension allows me to restart Firefox while keeping any existing open tabs. It works great and comes particularly handy when I am installing new extensions and themes.

IE View

2006-04-28T12:02:00.000-05:00

While Firefox is clearly a better brower than Internet Explorer, often I am forced to switch to it whenever a web application does not support Firefox. This is particularly the case at work where Internet Explorer is the corporate standard and few of the internal applications are tested for functionality across different platforms.

This is where the IE View extension comes in. It allows you to load a page in Internet Explorer with a single click. But more importantly, it allows you to specify that a particular page always be loaded in Internet Explorer.

Being the absent-minded person I am, I sometimes forget that an application won't work in Firefox so I waste my time loading it only to then have to open Internet Explorer and load the application again. IE View allows for this to occur automatically and seamlessly. It truly is an indispensible extension.

ResizeSearchBox

2006-04-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

One of the first annoyances I experienced when I switched to Firefox was that I could not resize the search box on the upper-right side of the browser window. Hence, the ResizeSearchBox extension was a God-send.

As stated in its homepage "ResizeSearchBox is an extension that adds a resize thumb to the toolbar which can be used to resize the search box." It does what is expected and nothing more, which makes it ideal.