Ten Useful Firefox 4 Add Ons

Here's a list of the ten best Firefox 4 add ons that I have found useful throughout my daily use..

If you are a Firefox Browser user, you know that not only is it a fast browser, but one that has terrific third party plug in support. As Firefox's upcoming version 4 is in beta, developers are scrambling to upgrade their plugins for version 4.

• Vertical Toolbar

  Great for those who have widescreen monitors! Use that extra space to get at your most often used actions. The Vertical Toolbar is a really nifty plugin that lets you place buttons along the sides of your browser.

  

  You can customize what you place in the toolbar with buttons and text. Simply drag and drop features into the toolbar and you are off and running.

• Internote - Sticky Notes For Web Pages

  Ever visit a website and want to leave a sticky note on the page so when you come back again you are reminded what was so great about it? Internote lets you do just that by managing private sticky notes for web pages. Simply click on the Internote New Note button and sticky note pops up to type into. You can drag and drop it anywhere on the page close to the source of interest.

  

  Internote lets you change the color, text font style, and even look up and manage all the notes placed in your everyday surfing. Think of it as a better way of bookmarking because not only does the page URL get stored but also your note. The cool thing is that Internote stores the notes in it's own local database so you will never lose your notes. What I like to do is store this on an external drive so I will always have it available if my primary hard disk crashes. It also means that I have one less thing to worry about when backing up.

• ScrapBook

  Scrapbook lets you save web pages to local disk and recall them at a later time. This is a useful tool for those on the move and can't be connected to the Internet at all times.

  

  Simply save all web pages you want to read to disk and read them offline. Scrapbook also allows you to save bookmarks and web pages across all open tabs.

• Flagfox

  When surfing the Internet, its wise to know what country the website is located in. You want to know this especially when you want that extra level of security to avoid Internet scams.

  

  Flagfox puts a little country flag right on the address bar.By hovering over it, you will get a box that shows you the IP address, the domain name, and the server location. If you click on the flag, you will get a map on the approximate location of the web server.

• ReminderFox

  A very useful utility that puts a calendar and to do list in your browser. A list of categories are available so you can tag them to your to do item or reminder.

  

  And to make sure you get those chores done, ReminderFox has a built in alert system too.

• Quick Translator

  How many times have you searched for great content only to find that it exists in another foreign language you can't read or understand?

  

  Quick Translator uses Google Translate services. You can translate selected text or an entire web page. Very useful if you want to know what's going on in other parts of the world.

• Foxtab

  Foxtab puts the cool into cool. Similar to Apple Safari's Top Sites view, Foxtab lets you quickly add a favorite site and get to it from a cool looking 3D perspective.

  

  You can change your perspective to include any of carousel, row, grid, wall, page flow, and stack.

• Download Manager Tweak

  I don't know about you but I'm not too fond of the popup window Firefox puts up when downloading. Because it is not always on top and can be hidden if you navigate to another application, you can lose sight if not forget you are downloading at all. Along comes a nice little add on to solve this problem.

  

  Download Manager Tweak lets you put your download list in a sidebar or its own tab while you are surfing in Firefox. If you have multiple downloads going on at the same time, you can easily see the progress.

• Ghostery

  As you surf the Internet, companies are monitoring your movement as you move site to site leaving tracking content like pixel files, cookies, and beacons. To protect your privacy, the Ghostery add on can alert you and do something about it.

  Ghostery has a rich set of options that you can configure:

  • Show an alert bubble when tracking occurs
  • Delete flash and silverlight cookies on exit
  • Scan and block images from the tracking domain
  • Scan and block embedded objects from the tracking domain
  • and more

  

  You can also enable a feature called GhostRank that will let you anonymously participate in gathering information and submit information to Ghostery's database. By doing so, you can help the Internet community become more aware of trackers.

  Note that some of the alerts maybe false alarms. For example, if you visit a site with facebook connect, google adsense, or one with ads, false positives will show up in the alert bubble. Still, it is a very useful feature to know when you can potentially be tracked.

• Cutyfox URL Shortener

  Use Twitter? Got web pages to promote? Cutyfox is a URLshortener that takes http://www.mysite.com/your-really-really-long-url and turns it into a short one. Simply type in your URL in the address bar and press the cutyfox URL shortener button. The URL will be shortened and placed in the clipboard.

  

  Note that this add on uses the is.gd service.

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.