10 Useful Firefox Extensions That Don’t Get Glamorised


It seems like everyday there is a new extension created for Firefox. Although some of these are quite cool, I try to avoid rushing to install them, as at the end of the day I don’t actually need them.

It’s a shame that everyone seems to focus on the newest and shiniest extensions, so I’ve decided to take it upon myself to promote some of the lesser known extensions that I believe really make Firefox a joy to use, rather than just something to show off to non-Firefox users who haven’t seen the light yet.

  1. Download Statusbar – view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar, so that downloads don’t get in the way of browsing
  2. Colorful Tabs – May sound really boring, but it makes it a hell of a lot easier to distinguish between tabs
  3. Image Zoom – This is one of my personal favs as it allows me to zoom in on images on a page without having to download them
  4. PDF Download – For all those annoying sites that seem to grow and grow where they are worried about you stealing their content. This extension allows PDFs to be opened in a tab for easier management
  5. Tab Mix Plus – Every tweak and option under the sun you could ever want to manage tabs
  6. WebmailCompose – Fantastic extension that opens your chosen webmail compose window if any email addresses are clicked on
  7. Optimoz Tweaks – If you a heavy user of sidebars this great extension makes it easier to open and close them
  8. Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer – The only bookmarks sync tool I’ve found that works seamlessly between PCs
  9. Autohide – This one isn’t promoted heavily, but if you like browsing full-screen it gives some useful control over what elements Firefox displays
  10. MediaPlayerConnectivity- automatically launches all media elements in their correct players, allowing full-screen playback of embedded videos.

I’m sure there are many others that people can’t live without, but these are always the first ones I install on a new PC.


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About the Author: Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University.He also writes for Windows 7 News, Windows 8 News and One Tip A Day.

  • Anonymous
    AutoMarks Extension - It allows Firefox to autocomplete from bookmarks in the URL address bar.
    It is small and simple
  • Anonymous
    Great list, but i'm still after my one true heroic externsion: a toggle button for connection settings so I don't have to go through tools/options/connections to switch off my proxies when i'm not in the office. it drives me nuts.
  • Anonymous
    SiteAdvisor's plugin is the neatest I've seen in a while. It's still in beta, but it overlays your search results with spam/safety information:
    http://www.siteadvisor.com/preview
  • Anonymous
    The four I always load:
    Tab X - put a close X on each Tab
    Colorful Tabs - make it pretty
    SwiftTabs - move between tabs with keyboard
    New Tab Homepage - Load your homepage when opening a brand new tab
  • Anonymous
    the first thing I install is AdBlock and the "Filterset.G updater"
  • Anonymous
    http://sitebar.org/downloads.php offers a bookmarks-synchronisation software that doesn't require you to open an account with any specific provider: just upload your bookmarks file to any FTP or WebDAV host. I've been using it for over a year to synchronise my desktop Firefox's bookmarks with my USB thumbdrive's PortableFirefox bookmarks wherever I go.
  • Anonymous
    You can also try these 50 Best Firefox Extensions for power surfing.
  • Anonymous
    undoclosetab - for all those "fuck, didn't mean to close that" moments.
  • Anonymous
    Note: Tab Mix Plus includes the functionality of both Tab X and undoclosetab.
  • Anonymous
    In response to:
    "SwiftTabs - move between tabs with keyboard"
    Check out keyconfig. You can set those and more.
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