John Desu

So this topic of Firefox Extensions is discussed quite often on blogs and sites like digg and reddit. Generally there are Top 10, 20, etc. lists of what the best firefox extensions are. One that was published recently is Lifehacker’s Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, 2009 Edition. While I can’t say that I agree or disagree with what they’ve chosen (because I honestly haven’t used many of them), I feel as though I can still be somewhat contributive to this blossoming area of discussion and add what firefox extensions I use on a daily basis. So without further delay, here are my (in no particular order) top 5 firefox extensions.

1. AutoCopy – This extension gives mIRC copy and paste functionality to your Firefox. This means that you no longer have to select text and then press Ctrl+C. Just select the text you want and it is in your clipboard. To paste the text somewheere else, just hit the middle mouse button. This is an extremely useful tool for bloggers who do a lot of copying and pasting. It also has come in handy for me as a quick way to copy code snippets from Pastie, etc. Another sort of bonus feature of autocopy is the fact that it fixes wrap-broken URLs that are sent in e-mails. Just select the whole url from the e-mail or IM or document and then paste it into the address bar and it works again.
2. Delicious Bookmarks – This firefox extension allows youto access and create Delicious bookmarks from within firefox. For those of you not familiar with Delicious, it is a social bookmarking website that allows you to organize and access your bookmarks from any computer online. With the delicious bookmarks extension, you no longer have to worry about keeping your bookmarks synced or organized, and tagging a website is a simple two click process.
3. ScribeFire – ScribeFire describes itself as “an extension for the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser that integrates with your browser to let you easily post to your blog: you can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.” And that is exactly what it does. ScribeFire is an extremely easy and productive way to store information you want to blog about while browsing the web, whether it be pictures, text, videos, or anything. Save notes and then gain instant access to them when you are ready to write a new blog entry. Then preview and publish it straight from ScribeFire. The only thing I wish it had was notes and draft syncing so I could switch from desktop to laptop more easily.
4. Ubiquity – From Mozilla Labs, comes Ubiquity: the do-it-all easy to access web interface that allows everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily. If you are familiar with the Quicksilver App, you will feel right at home with Ubiquity. I would go on about it, but just check out the video below for more info.
5. Firebug – Without a doubt, this is one of the most useful developer tools available for Firefox. It allows you to analyze and optimize websites with an easy to learn and understand interface. As decribed on their homepage, “Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.”

Tags: autocopy, delicious, extensions, firebug, firefox, scribefire, ubiquity, Web Development