Jason Preston
Writing

Firefox Extensions...

Jason Preston · 3 min read ·

Okay, gripe first:

Before I knew that there were so many plugins available, I spent a good bit of time looking for a “submit idea” link on the Mozilla page. I never found one. It’s my firm belief that if you’ve got any brains as a company (and especially if you’re as “grassroots” as Mozilla is), you should have a very open avenue for this type of thing…after all, who knows what random guy will have a good idea?

Now, since I promised, my favorites:

  • New Tab Homepage - This is possibly the most useful of all the plugins I’ve listed here. Ever since I became addicted to Tabbed browsing, I’ve noticed that 85% of the time I hit ctrl(apple)-T, I want Google, not a blank tab. This thing sets Firefox so that whenever I open a new tab: voila! my home page! (which is Google).

  • Single Window - Single Window is going to be, I suspect, a more controversial idea. I know a number of people who actually prefer that links open in new windows, instead of being essentially in the same frame. My prediction, however, is that most of these people are using Internet Explorer—one of the few browsers that doesn’t offer a tabbed viewing system. This extension simply commandeers a link that says “new window” and instead tells it to open in a new tab. You don’t have a mess of windows to deal with, and you can keep track of where you were previously browsing.

  • Google Pagerank Status - This is a handy novelty if, like me, you don’t feel the need for the extra-clunky Google toolbar. In Firefox, the little search engine box in the upper-right corner makes any sort of search-engine toolbar a bit superfluous. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to see Google pageranks! This thing sticks a pagerank meter in the lower right of the status bar—immensely handy!

  • Wizz RSS Reader - My first attempt at organizing RSS feeds was with SharpReader, which is basically the top hit if you google just about anything related to feed readers. It’s worked well, but my one complaint has always been that it’s not a fully-functional broswer. When I sift through my feeds, I click on most of the links, and generally end up following a web of connections to their various sources. As you can imagine, without things like “back buttons” or “new tabs”—this became an increasingly frustrating process. I’ve even drafted a post entitled “NewsReaders and Browsers need to have a lovechild” that will now never see the light of day. (As a side note, I’m not dead-set on this particular plugin yet. I’m still shopping around…I’ll let you know if I change my mind again).

  • Outlook 2003 Blue - Yes, I know many of you are cringing as you read this. But here’s the deal: I like blue. I’ve always liked blue. And just because you may (unjustly, I’ll write this post later) hate Microsoft doesn’t mean you have to hate what their visual design team comes up with. As a final touch, Firefox themes don’t actually change the literal window that the whole application operates in, so this blue matches the border unlike many of the “hi-tech” and silver-streamlined versions. Try a couple—you’ll see what I mean.