Microsoft guy talking about Firefox extensions? Huh?

February 12, 2006 By

Yesterday at Northern Voice we had a panel discussion called “geeking out.” My part of the panel was spent talking about Firefox extensions. Here’s an audio recording that Kevin Marks did. Huh? Hey, I’m interested in the topic and wanna know which Firefox extensions people find useful. Face-to-face with 100+ geeks you learn a lot that you can’t learn by reading random blogs. Mack Male took notes. “some of which include: Session Saver, Fangs, PDF Download, Download Status, Signature, Fasterfox, Web Developer, Firebug, etc.”
My favorites? Greasemonkey (lets you add all sorts of new behaviors, required for the cocomment greasemonkey script), IE Tab (lets you put IE inside Firefox), Performancing (lets you blog pages you visit), and Del.icio.us (lets you tag your pages and add them to Del.icio.us)

What are your favorite Firefox extensions? Here’s a list of the most popular ones.

Filed Under: Blog Tips, Firefox Extensions, Fires, Office 2.0
  • http://tenyearsofpics.blogspot.com/ Patrick Dodds

    Agree with Performancing. Trying out Peekko chat (not great so far but promising idea). Pleased with StumbleUpon and Foxy Tunes.

  • http://www.tomisblogging.com/ -tom

    Couldn’t live without: AdBlock (really good, works well, after a few weeks of using it you’ve hit most of the big names). Not sure I can MS incorporating it into the IE7 final though, that _would_ be big news!

    Like: ForcastFox (shows me the weather in the toolbar). This works really well, and links through to AccuWeather for more.

  • http://tenyearsofpics.blogspot.com Patrick Dodds

    Agree with Performancing. Trying out Peekko chat (not great so far but promising idea). Pleased with StumbleUpon and Foxy Tunes.

  • http://www.tomisblogging.com -tom

    Couldn’t live without: AdBlock (really good, works well, after a few weeks of using it you’ve hit most of the big names). Not sure I can MS incorporating it into the IE7 final though, that _would_ be big news!

    Like: ForcastFox (shows me the weather in the toolbar). This works really well, and links through to AccuWeather for more.

  • http://www.tombogman.be/ Tom
  • http://www.tombogman.be Tom
  • http://www.2020hindsight.org/ Susan Kitchens

    WebDeveloper! it rocks my world. (will look at other ones mentioned, but that one is essential)

  • http://www.2020hindsight.org/ Susan Kitchens

    WebDeveloper! it rocks my world. (will look at other ones mentioned, but that one is essential)

  • http://www.stephenduncanjr.com/ Stephen Duncan Jr

    Here’s my favorite Firefox Extensions:

    Bookmarks Synchronizer SE
    Bloglines Toolkit
    Gmail Notifier
    WebmailCompose
    ForecastFox
    FoxyTunes
    All-In-One-Sidebar

    And then Web Development tools:

    DOM Inspector
    Web Developer
    View Rendered Source Chart
    Html Validator

  • http://www.stephenduncanjr.com Stephen Duncan Jr

    Here’s my favorite Firefox Extensions:

    Bookmarks Synchronizer SE
    Bloglines Toolkit
    Gmail Notifier
    WebmailCompose
    ForecastFox
    FoxyTunes
    All-In-One-Sidebar

    And then Web Development tools:

    DOM Inspector
    Web Developer
    View Rendered Source Chart
    Html Validator

  • http://www.japaninyourpalm.com/ Al

    if you like Greasemonkey, then you’ll love Platypus. Let’s you right click anywhere on the page for easy altering and does all the greasemonkey coding for you. It even saves the greasemonkey script.

    http://platypus.mozdev.org/

  • http://www.langemark.com/ Gunnar Langemark

    Performancing is surely the most useful extension I have. No IE7 for me without performancing - thank you…. :-)

  • http://www.japaninyourpalm.com Al

    if you like Greasemonkey, then you’ll love Platypus. Let’s you right click anywhere on the page for easy altering and does all the greasemonkey coding for you. It even saves the greasemonkey script.

    http://platypus.mozdev.org/

  • http://www.langemark.com Gunnar Langemark

    Performancing is surely the most useful extension I have. No IE7 for me without performancing - thank you…. :-)

  • http://the-enginerd.blogspot.com/ Anand

    I absolutely can’t do without WebDeveloper and MileWideBack extensions.

  • http://the-enginerd.blogspot.com Anand

    I absolutely can’t do without WebDeveloper and MileWideBack extensions.

  • http://www.mjjones.net/ Marie-José Jones

    Couldn’t live without Scrapbook. It’s cut down my printing by 75%. Use it to do my research on the net. Save the page. Can highlight important sections. Can add notes on the fly. Can add additional text in the virtual folders. Scrapbook makes archives of html files and produces an html index. A wonderful extension.
    Used with all-in-one Sidebar for quick access.
    WebDeveloper is very useful also.
    And so are Flat Bookmark Editing and OpenBook to improve bookmarking.
    Launchy is more useful than ieView ‘cos it gives direct access to more programs (i.e. notepad, pix editor, html editor) apart from launching the file in ie.
    Liked the idea of SessionSaver but its behaviour was unpredictable so now I use Bookmark all instead.

  • http://www.mjjones.net Marie-José Jones

    Couldn’t live without Scrapbook. It’s cut down my printing by 75%. Use it to do my research on the net. Save the page. Can highlight important sections. Can add notes on the fly. Can add additional text in the virtual folders. Scrapbook makes archives of html files and produces an html index. A wonderful extension.
    Used with all-in-one Sidebar for quick access.
    WebDeveloper is very useful also.
    And so are Flat Bookmark Editing and OpenBook to improve bookmarking.
    Launchy is more useful than ieView ‘cos it gives direct access to more programs (i.e. notepad, pix editor, html editor) apart from launching the file in ie.
    Liked the idea of SessionSaver but its behaviour was unpredictable so now I use Bookmark all instead.

  • http://blog.stevienova.com/ Steve

    IETab
    Download Them All
    TabPreferences
    WikiPedia Lookup
    Adblock

  • http://blog.stevienova.com Steve

    IETab
    Download Them All
    TabPreferences
    WikiPedia Lookup
    Adblock

  • Anona

    So, Roberto, are you trying to telescope that IE7 will ship with 10 Firefox extension look-alikes that, of course, only work on Windows? Are we doing Microsoft’s market research here?

  • Anona

    So, Roberto, are you trying to telescope that IE7 will ship with 10 Firefox extension look-alikes that, of course, only work on Windows? Are we doing Microsoft’s market research here?

  • http://russellreno.wordpress.com/ russellreno

    Performancing, coComment, Delicious, GMail Manager

  • http://russellreno.wordpress.com/ russellreno

    Performancing, coComment, Delicious, GMail Manager

  • Innocent Bystander

    I think the key feature is the extension itself (regardless of what it does).

    Here is the key difference in philosophy. Microsoft wants to sell me Disneyland where I’m expected to keep my hands and feet inside their car at all times while they drag me along some path they call “increased productivity”.

    Some of us (actually pretty much all of us) have other places we’d like to go - FF extensions gives us a way out of the car and lets us help ourselves. We don’t fit in your IE 7 box. It doesn’t matter what the extensions do - it matters that we can write and share them.

  • Innocent Bystander

    I think the key feature is the extension itself (regardless of what it does).

    Here is the key difference in philosophy. Microsoft wants to sell me Disneyland where I’m expected to keep my hands and feet inside their car at all times while they drag me along some path they call “increased productivity”.

    Some of us (actually pretty much all of us) have other places we’d like to go - FF extensions gives us a way out of the car and lets us help ourselves. We don’t fit in your IE 7 box. It doesn’t matter what the extensions do - it matters that we can write and share them.

  • http://www.bogglethemind.com/ Jeff L

    Here’s the ones I use on a daily basis

    http://del.icio.us/bruno1378/extension?setcount=25

  • http://www.bogglethemind.com/ Jeff L

    Here’s the ones I use on a daily basis

    http://del.icio.us/bruno1378/extension?setcount=25

  • Stephen N

    Web Developer.

  • Stephen N

    Web Developer.

  • http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox/ Michael Kaply

    CCK

    http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox/

    Do a Microsoft customized version of Firefox :)

  • http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox/ Michael Kaply

    CCK

    http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox/

    Do a Microsoft customized version of Firefox :)

  • Zach W

    The Venkman javascript debugger is GREAT when developing javascript apps:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=216&application=firefox

  • Zach W

    The Venkman javascript debugger is GREAT when developing javascript apps:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=216&application=firefox

  • http://www.drorengel.com/blog Dror Engel
  • http://www.drorengel.com/blog Dror Engel
  • http://www.swoofware.com/posts/2006/02/12/blog-signatures/ SwoofWare » Blog Signatures

    [...] I’ve done it a couple times here and there since my original post, but I was getting tired of typing it in and or locating the text to copy and paste. What I really wanted was some easy mechanism to pick the appropriate signature (HTML, UBB, TextPattern, etc.) and quickly drop it into the comment I am working on. Well, guess what I found tonight? I was reading Scoble’s post on Firefox extensions and he listed off several from Mack Male’s notes from Northern Voice and one of the ones mentioned was Signature. Bingo! This is exactly what I was looking for. I now have the ability to right-click in any textarea and quickly and easily drop a signature in any of the formats that I define. [...]

  • Christopher Coulter

    Data Analytics, imdb Tag/Movie Toolbar, No-Referrer, Bookmarks Synchronizer, Yellowpipe Lynx Viewer, FareCompare, Download Embedded, Grease/Platypus, Kill Google Ads, FlashGot, NoScript, Amazing Media Browser, Fasterfox, ULPS, Forecastfox, Colorful Tabs, Foxpose (IE7 ripped that off), Html Validator, MediaPlayer Connectivity, PDF Download, TabPreferences, DownThemAll, Sage, GeoLocateFox, Cute Menus - Crystal SVG, Foxclocks, ImageZoom, Show IP, Adblock, Who is this Person?, DOM Inspector and Web Developer, Fastforward/Rewind Buttons, ODFReader, Formfiller and that’s just for starters…can’t recall all.

    But then I am a bit edge casey, my tech-clueless mainstream user type sister has just the basics: Amazing Media Browser, Fasterfox,, Forecastfox, Colorful Tabs, TabPreferences, Adblock, ImageZoom, Foxclocks. Amazing enough, she installed them herself. ;)

  • Christopher Coulter

    Data Analytics, imdb Tag/Movie Toolbar, No-Referrer, Bookmarks Synchronizer, Yellowpipe Lynx Viewer, FareCompare, Download Embedded, Grease/Platypus, Kill Google Ads, FlashGot, NoScript, Amazing Media Browser, Fasterfox, ULPS, Forecastfox, Colorful Tabs, Foxpose (IE7 ripped that off), Html Validator, MediaPlayer Connectivity, PDF Download, TabPreferences, DownThemAll, Sage, GeoLocateFox, Cute Menus - Crystal SVG, Foxclocks, ImageZoom, Show IP, Adblock, Who is this Person?, DOM Inspector and Web Developer, Fastforward/Rewind Buttons, ODFReader, Formfiller and that’s just for starters…can’t recall all.

    But then I am a bit edge casey, my tech-clueless mainstream user type sister has just the basics: Amazing Media Browser, Fasterfox,, Forecastfox, Colorful Tabs, TabPreferences, Adblock, ImageZoom, Foxclocks. Amazing enough, she installed them herself. ;)

  • Christopher Coulter

    Themewise, Noia 2 always come back to, BlackJapan and Qute off and on.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Themewise, Noia 2 always come back to, BlackJapan and Qute off and on.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Oh Chatzilla too…and more.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Oh Chatzilla too…and more.

  • http://konsblog.blogspot.com/ Kon ??
  • http://konsblog.blogspot.com Kon ??
  • http://print.wordpress.com/ print

    Why aren’t you using IE7?

    I don’t think you should be allowed to use Firefox - or post about it. I mean, you tow the company line about IE7, you know I installed IE7, it CRASHED.

    Now it isn’t as if I am running this trivial application on an operating system that the same company wrote… oh I am! LOL!

    Now Firefox has crashed on me many times before. They called it the dark age of 0.7 and ‘OMG lok he is usiung a nightly build!!’, and verily the heathen masses with wail and gnash their teeth until 0.8 came along, and it was pretty much plain sailing until 0.5

    I uninstalled IE7, which then did more damage and broke MSN! Yey! I only do this to galvanise my comtempt for Microsoft.

    Aaaanyway - why did you put the ‘put ie in firefox’ extension?

    I want to know - when, and by when I want to know where, as in what sites… do you use that feature?

    Why don’t you exclusively use IE7?

  • http://print.wordpress.com/ print

    Why aren’t you using IE7?

    I don’t think you should be allowed to use Firefox - or post about it. I mean, you tow the company line about IE7, you know I installed IE7, it CRASHED.

    Now it isn’t as if I am running this trivial application on an operating system that the same company wrote… oh I am! LOL!

    Now Firefox has crashed on me many times before. They called it the dark age of 0.7 and ‘OMG lok he is usiung a nightly build!!’, and verily the heathen masses with wail and gnash their teeth until 0.8 came along, and it was pretty much plain sailing until 0.5

    I uninstalled IE7, which then did more damage and broke MSN! Yey! I only do this to galvanise my comtempt for Microsoft.

    Aaaanyway - why did you put the ‘put ie in firefox’ extension?

    I want to know - when, and by when I want to know where, as in what sites… do you use that feature?

    Why don’t you exclusively use IE7?

  • http://chronotron.wordpress.com/ Chrono Cr@cker

    Greasemonkey is without doubt my favorite. Performancing sucks and I hate it. Other than that I use Adblock, Flashblock, Web Developer, FireFTP (Mediocre) and Sage (great RSS Reader) and there was this extend firefox contest announced. Winners coming soon!

  • http://chronotron.wordpress.com/ Chrono Cr@cker

    Greasemonkey is without doubt my favorite. Performancing sucks and I hate it. Other than that I use Adblock, Flashblock, Web Developer, FireFTP (Mediocre) and Sage (great RSS Reader) and there was this extend firefox contest announced. Winners coming soon!

  • http://cwagner.gezeiten.org/wordpress/2006-02-13/geek/microsoft/ vom Untergang

    Microsoft

    Robert Scoble, der Microsoft Geek Blogger musste Microsoft verteidigen. Einmal gegenüber falschen Behauptungen die über /. populär wurden, dass Vista auf über 50% aller Rechner nicht laufen wird. Und einmal darber, dass man MSN nicht so ernst nimmt…

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    print: why don’t I exclusively use IE 7? Maybe because it’s in beta? Maybe because Firefox extensions do some stuff that isn’t available in IE 7? Maybe because I want to keep up to date on what a competitor is doing?

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    print: why don’t I exclusively use IE 7? Maybe because it’s in beta? Maybe because Firefox extensions do some stuff that isn’t available in IE 7? Maybe because I want to keep up to date on what a competitor is doing?

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Anona: IE 7 won’t have this functionality. Which is why I’m using Firefox more and more. I, and others, are pitching more extensibility for IE 8, though. We’ll see how that goes.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Anona: IE 7 won’t have this functionality. Which is why I’m using Firefox more and more. I, and others, are pitching more extensibility for IE 8, though. We’ll see how that goes.

  • anon

    Favorite firefox extensions:

    smoothwheel
    sage
    adblock
    flashblock

    I can’t believe junk like “IE Tab” is on the list (only a list Microsoft could make LOL) while adblockers are not.

  • anon

    Favorite firefox extensions:

    smoothwheel
    sage
    adblock
    flashblock

    I can’t believe junk like “IE Tab” is on the list (only a list Microsoft could make LOL) while adblockers are not.

  • Timothy McClanahan

    abcTajpu (lets you easily enter accented characters)

    Nuke Image - lets you easily remove images from a web page (and prints that way!); stays gone until you reload the page

    MeasureIt - great for web developers; lets you measure the pixel widths of things on the page

    Resize Search Box - because even FF developers are bad at UI; this should SO be built-in to FF.

    Tab Mix Plus - best tab-handling extension out there.

    FlashBlock - not what I want, but pretty close. I’d like the ability to remove already-loaded Flash animations. Any out there that do that?

  • Timothy McClanahan

    abcTajpu (lets you easily enter accented characters)

    Nuke Image - lets you easily remove images from a web page (and prints that way!); stays gone until you reload the page

    MeasureIt - great for web developers; lets you measure the pixel widths of things on the page

    Resize Search Box - because even FF developers are bad at UI; this should SO be built-in to FF.

    Tab Mix Plus - best tab-handling extension out there.

    FlashBlock - not what I want, but pretty close. I’d like the ability to remove already-loaded Flash animations. Any out there that do that?

  • DanaGoyette

    Tab Mix Plus — many options for tab behavior
    (should be included by default, but set to match defaults)

    Adblock Plus — adds whitelisting

    IE Tab — already mentioned

    Configuration Mania

    Theme: “Mostly Crystal” (with some userchrome options applied, such as rounded address bar, native tabs, circular throbber [I want to use penguin icon only on Linux])

  • DanaGoyette

    Tab Mix Plus — many options for tab behavior
    (should be included by default, but set to match defaults)

    Adblock Plus — adds whitelisting

    IE Tab — already mentioned

    Configuration Mania

    Theme: “Mostly Crystal” (with some userchrome options applied, such as rounded address bar, native tabs, circular throbber [I want to use penguin icon only on Linux])

  • http://cetamac.blogspot.com/ CetaMac

    touch people, for example, an employee of nokia, won’t be fired if he’s using a moto mobile.

  • http://cetamac.blogspot.com CetaMac

    touch people, for example, an employee of nokia, won’t be fired if he’s using a moto mobile.

  • http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm David McRitchie

    My choices of Firefox extensions are listed on my website. One extension not mentioned previously is Cutomize Google which is very useful in avoiding “spammy websites” or other sites you want to avoid. I imagine that of almost equal importance would be types of unnecessary extensions that I would not install like search box resizer better done through other means. Also the Key Word Search and bookmarklets should always also be considered along with extensions.

  • http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm David McRitchie

    My choices of Firefox extensions are listed on my website. One extension not mentioned previously is Cutomize Google which is very useful in avoiding “spammy websites” or other sites you want to avoid. I imagine that of almost equal importance would be types of unnecessary extensions that I would not install like search box resizer better done through other means. Also the Key Word Search and bookmarklets should always also be considered along with extensions.