Why FireFox is the best browser

[futureworlds]

The major reason why I use FireFox (besides security & speed) is all of the features that can be
added by installing extensions. My top 15 (out of the 40+ I have installed) are:

1) Weatherfox - displays the weather (current & forecast) for most cities in the world in your
status bar or toolbar

2) Adblock - filters ads from webpages

3) Always Remember Password - allows FireFox to remember passwords for sites that tell your
browser not to remember them (eg. Yahoo, internet banking)

4) DownloadWith - allows you to download files using other software such as Download Express,
GetRight or Fresh Download

5) Down Them All - downloads all of the links in a page (you can also specify the ones you want)

6) FoxyTunes - allows you to control media players such as WinAmp or Foobar via controls on the
statusbar of your FireFox window

7) GetFileSize - shows you the size of a file when you right click on it's URL & choose
properties

8) Linkification - converts text links into clickable ones

9) QuickNote - adds a post-it notes type of feature

10) SpellBound - a spell checker for text boxes such as when posting to a forum

11) StatusBar Clock - displays date & time in status bar

12) SwitchProxy - allows you to switch between multiple proxy configurations easily without
having to change your browser/internet settings. The home page also has a link to a site which
lists proxies open to the public

13) Tabbrowser Extensions - improves tabbed browsing with features such as being able to save
tab sessions

14) User Agent Switcher - allows you to change the user agent FireFox sends to a site (i.e. make
a site think that you are using Internet Explorer, Opera or Netscape)

15) Location Navigator - a useful add-on that allows you to browse up & down through the numeric
portion of a location e.g. www.test.com/01.htm -> www.test.com/02.htm .

The 2 main sites for FireFox extensions are: https://update.mozilla.org/extensions/ (official) &
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showforum=2 (a lot more). When downloading from the
extension mirror, if it says for v0.9, see if there has been one put together for 0.10 (these
often have something like "pass" in the filename) - they are the ones to download.

 

[Blue Dragonfly]

At the top of my list is the Google toolbar extension for Firefox,
which is even better than the toolbar made by Google for I.E.

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

First let me say the abuse of the term 'best' is a pet peeve for me.
What's 'best' for you may be totally useless to me and vice versa.

The major reason why I use FireFox (besides security & speed) is all of
the features that can be added by installing extensions. My top 15 (out
of the 40+ I have installed) are:

1) Weatherfox - displays the weather (current & forecast) for most
cities in the world in your status bar or toolbar

I could care less.

2) Adblock - filters ads from webpages

I use Avant and it has this feature.

3) Always Remember Password - allows FireFox to remember passwords for
sites that tell your browser not to remember them (eg. Yahoo, internet
banking)

Remembering passwords to bank account is a security risk. I have my
browser set to NEVER remember passwords.

4) DownloadWith - allows you to download files using other software such
as Download Express, GetRight or Fresh Download

My browser downloads files just find without a 3rd party application.

5) Down Them All - downloads all of the links in a page (you can also
specify the ones you want)

This might come in handy some day.

6) FoxyTunes - allows you to control media players such as WinAmp or
Foobar via controls on the statusbar of your FireFox window

It's a browser not a media centre!

7) GetFileSize - shows you the size of a file when you right click on
it's URL & choose properties

Of questionable use.

8) Linkification - converts text links into clickable ones

Of minor use.

9) QuickNote - adds a post-it notes type of feature
Yech!

10) SpellBound - a spell checker for text boxes such as when posting to
a forum

It's a browser not a word processor.

11) StatusBar Clock - displays date & time in status bar

I already have that in my system tray.

12) SwitchProxy - allows you to switch between multiple proxy
configurations easily without having to change your browser/internet
settings. The home page also has a link to a site which lists proxies
open to the public

Of no use to me as I don't use proxies.

13) Tabbrowser Extensions - improves tabbed browsing with features such
as being able to save tab sessions

My browser does this as well.

14) User Agent Switcher - allows you to change the user agent FireFox
sends to a site (i.e. make a site think that you are using Internet
Explorer, Opera or Netscape)

I have never had a need for this.

15) Location Navigator - a useful add-on that allows you to browse up &
down through the numeric portion of a location e.g. www.test.com/01.htm
-> www.test.com/02.htm .

Not sure where I would use that.

The 2 main sites for FireFox extensions are:
https://update.mozilla.org/extensions/ (official) &
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showforum=2 (a lot more). When
downloading from the extension mirror, if it says for v0.9, see if there
has been one put together for 0.10 (these often have something like
"pass" in the filename) - they are the ones to download.

FWIW I use Avant.

 

[Bruce the Shark]

I could care less.

Nit-pick: "Couldn't care less" is the actual correct phrase. This is
a pet hate of mine, along with "loose" when "lose" is meant to be used.

My browser downloads files just find without a 3rd party application.

So does Firefox, but it allows other apps to handle it if desired, if
you don't like the built-in functionality.

It's a browser not a word processor.

Word processing is a feature of a web forum.

 

[Buzzy]

The major reason why I use FireFox (besides security & speed) is all of the features that can be
added by installing extensions. My top 15 (out of the 40+ I have installed) are:

.......... and from another angle:

http://www.buzzys.net/firefox.html

Cheers,
Buzzy

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

Nit-pick: "Couldn't care less" is the actual correct phrase. This is
a pet hate of mine, along with "loose" when "lose" is meant to be used.

Well, actually, although you are technically correct, one can argue
that the phrase "could care less" is in fact re-inforcing the disdain
by implying that one COULD care less but in fact one really doesn't.
You are IOW deliberately using "bad" grammar to make the point.
It may have started out as bad grammar but it's slang now.

 

[Chakolate]

Well, actually, although you are technically correct, one can argue
that the phrase "could care less" is in fact re-inforcing the disdain
by implying that one COULD care less but in fact one really doesn't.
You are IOW deliberately using "bad" grammar to make the point.
It may have started out as bad grammar but it's slang now.

That makes absolutely no sense to me. If you couldn't care less, that
means that you care as little as possible, i.e., not at all. If you could
care less, it means you do care some.

Chakolate

 

[Aaron]

t

The major reason why I use FireFox (besides security & speed) is all of the features that can be
added by installing extensions. My top 15 (out of the 40+ I have installed) are:

I have 53 currently. And even between the both of us we haven't
exhausted the 300+ extensions available on extension mirror. Granted
many are broken , overlap in function the remaining extensions still
cover a very wide scope, covering almost every functionality you can
think of.


If only the thunderbird extensions were as numerous.

2) Adblock - filters ads from webpages

Nice one, I don't often notice this, but it does its work quietly.

5) Down Them All - downloads all of the links in a page (you can also specify the ones you want)

One of my faves. I don't use download managers, but I use download
status-bar, which shows files being downloaded at the bottom of the page.

8) Linkification - converts text links into clickable ones

Another one if it works well, you won't even notice. It's amazing the
number of people who still post urls in web-pages and don't convert them
to hot-links.

10) SpellBound - a spell checker for text boxes such as when posting to a forum

I use this too.

12) SwitchProxy - allows you to switch between multiple proxy configurations easily without
having to change your browser/internet settings. The home page also has a link to a site which
lists proxies open to the public

I use Proxomitron to switch or rotate proxies. But I use prefbuttons to
add a dropdown menu to switch between no proxy, manual proxy and autoproxy.

Prefbar together with Toolbar enhancements, gives me the ability to add
buttons, to turn on or off Java,javascript, cookies,popups, images,
quick access to options ,downloads etc practically everything.

13) Tabbrowser Extensions - improves tabbed browsing with features such as being able to save
tab sessions

Yes, also as tab groups, ability to load/unload tab groups, undocloe
tabs etc etc etc

14) User Agent Switcher - allows you to change the user agent FireFox sends to a site (i.e. make
a site think that you are using Internet Explorer, Opera or Netscape)

I use this. The latest versions allow you to spoof even more headers,
but I find this more cool in theory than useful.

15) Location Navigator - a useful add-on that allows you to browse up & down through the numeric
portion of a location e.g. www.test.com/01.htm -> www.test.com/02.htm .

I find it more useful to move up the directory, eg from
www.test.com/home/index.html to www.test.com/ , I use diggler for that.

 

[Aaron]

.. eht fo It's quite interesting that for most part your top ones are not
mine.

Here are mine

1) Advanced highlighter button - highlight terms typed into the search bar.


2) All-in-One gestures - I'm not one of those ultra power users who can
remember dozens of mouse gestures, but I do use some.

Basically,

i)close tab
ii)unclose tab - very handy if you accidently close a tab
iii) translate a webpage with googletranslation (do a "L" for language)
iv)open new tab


3) Bugmenot - automatically fills in with the password and username of
any site that demands that you register (for free) to access it site.
Great time saver.



4) Conquery/Context Search - Highlight some text, right click and choose
which search engine (from the list defined in the search bar) to search
the highlighted term with. If you just want a google search, drag the
text with the extension Super DragandGo.

Conquery can do everything that Context Search can do and then some.
Instead of sending the highlighted text to the search form, you can send
the url of the page you are on or the base domain etc.

This is mainly useful for searches you do that involve urls.

For example, you can do a xhtml validation of a page with a click, or
translate that page, and most useful of all, check out how the page
looked like in the past with webarchive/waybackmachine! I'm sure there
are many other uses.

Together with the powerful find as you type and keyword searches (and
the corresponding extension that works with it smartsearch), firefox
provides multiple search systems and multiple ways to access them.



5) Cookiebutton/Cookieculler - The former adds a toolbar button that
allows you to set permissions of the site you are on with a single
click. The latter lists the cookies you have currently, giving you the
option to protect them ,clear them, etc. Together they replace the
cookie manager functionality of Mozilla suite.



6) EMbuttons - A must have for extension crazy people. Adds a toolbar
button to allow quick access to the extension manager, extension manager
also opens in a tab and you can arrange your extensions alphabetically.
Infolister also helps lists and exports extensions you have onto a
website or a text file.



7) IEview- With one click, open the site you are currently on (or the
link you right clicked on) with another browser. It says IEview, but you
can associate it with any browser or IEshell.



8) Keyconfig - Want to open new tabs with cltr-N ? No problem. You can
bind keys to whatever function you want.



9) Menueditor - Too many extensions will cluster up your context menu,
use this to rearrange the order of the entries and/or hide the rest.




10)Pastequote/bbcode/pastehappy/makelink - Makes posting in web forums
easy. Adds a context menu option to paste text copied into the clipboard
with tags around it. The bigger extension, BBcode adds
more tags. Makelink is useful for setting up links for formatting on web
forums or on your webpage.




11) Tinyurl Creator - adds a toolbar button that instantly sends the url
you are on to tinyurl, gets the url, copies it into clipboard. Works
seemlessly. very configurable.




12) X - cleans up cache, forms, cookies etc with a single click of a
toolbar button.


Others I'm trialling are autofill, Permit cookies (adds a hotkey to
permit cookies on current site), Image zoom, OpenBook (when adding
bookmarking, bookmark tree is automatically expanded), policy manager
(adds IE style zones for setting permissions for different sites) and
searchstatus (adds google pagerank bars in the status bar).


There are others that I occasionally use but usually keep disabled
because they duplicate the functions I already have e.g Translate,
Translate page, Translate panel (allows translation of the page via
toolbar&context menu, menubar and sidebar respectively)or

Spoofbar&Verfyurl for antispoofing.

 

[Bruce the Shark]

Well, actually, although you are technically correct, one can argue
that the phrase "could care less" is in fact re-inforcing the disdain
by implying that one COULD care less but in fact one really doesn't.
You are IOW deliberately using "bad" grammar to make the point.

Not deliberate, it's just poor English skills. Don't give them credit.

 

[Chaos Master]

Aaron puts out:

I have 53 currently. And even between the both of us we haven't
exhausted the 300+ extensions available on extension mirror. Granted
many are broken , overlap in function the remaining extensions still
cover a very wide scope, covering almost every functionality you can
think of.

My 2 "can't live without" extensions:

- Adblock
- Web Developer (to switch down stuff on broken sites)

I still would like that Tab Browser Extensions worked with 1.0PR!

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Brazil.
"People told me I can't dress like a fairy.
I say, I'm in a rock band and I can do what the hell I want!"
-- Amy Lee

The Evanescen(t/ce) HP: http://marreka.no-ip.com

 

[Atomhrt]

I still would like that Tab Browser Extensions worked with 1.0PR!

For me, there are two extensions that worked better than TBE and work
with 1.0PR:

Focus Last Selected Tab 0.8.1
MiniT

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi CM - Tab Browser Extensions, v. 1.11.204082801, here
http://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_tabextensions.html.en works find for me
in 1.0PR. Download here
http://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_tabextensions.html.en#download and save
the .xpi, then open it from File|Open File to install, then close and reopen
FF.

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

Aaron puts out:

I have 53 currently. And even between the both of us we haven't
exhausted the 300+ extensions available on extension mirror. Granted
many are broken , overlap in function the remaining extensions still
cover a very wide scope, covering almost every functionality you can
think of.

My 2 "can't live without" extensions:

- Adblock
- Web Developer (to switch down stuff on broken sites)

I still would like that Tab Browser Extensions worked with 1.0PR!

[]s

 

[Aaron]

For me, there are two extensions that worked better than TBE and work
with 1.0PR:

Focus Last Selected Tab 0.8.1
MiniT

These 2 are nice, but you need one more extension to enable "one window
mode" ?

You can choose from

Window-Q
TBP
Single window
Petite TBE

and of course TBE!