paper graffiti

Firefox has been my favorite browser for years now. I love that it’s open source and I love how customizable it is–I was absolutely hooked when I started loading in great extensions that made Firefox so much more than JUST a web browser.

I’ve tried lots of extensions, but I feel like I’ve finally narrowed it down to the ones that make Firefox the most productive for me to use when I’m deep in writing research mode, or even just surfing the web casually.

1. del.icio.us - The del.icio.us extension for Firefox is the first one I always install. I use the del.icio.us bookmarking service constantly, and having it integrated with Firefox makes it super easy. I am still rocking the older extension on my Firefox install at work, but the new bookmarks extension that I installed on my eeePC (with the Firefox 3 Beta 5) is awesome as well. One click to tag, one click to bring up my account, one click to bring up my del.icio.us bookmarks in the sidebar. I love it! I think that the key to using something frequently is making it easy and convenient to use, and these extensions make using del.icio.us as easy as possible.

2. TinyURL - I’m dying without the TinyURL Creator extension on my Beta install of Firefox on the eeePC. I use TinyURL a lot, especially on Twitter, and the TinyURL Creator is fantastic. I hate having to open up another tab to go to the TinyURL site, paste in my link, and do all the manual work, especially on the small screen of the eeePC. The TinyURL Creator extension gives options in the right click menu that let you create quick, easy TinyURLs and copy them directly to your clipboard. Please update the extension for FF3 soon!!

3. Tab Mix Plus - I love Firefox tabs. One thing I absolutely hate is having a ton of browser windows open! When I discovered how much additional functionality Tab Mix Plus provides, I had to install it and see for myself. I am forever closing tabs and then forgetting where I had just been, so the ability to see a list of closed tabs and re-open one from there is incredibly helpful for me.

4. TinyMenu - On the eeePC, space is in short supply. I like to tweak programs to save it wherever I can so that I have the maximum amount of workspace available. TinyMenu is great for that–it combines the Firefox menu into one small drop-down menu. I like to arrange everything on that menu bar, turn off the toolbars completely, and then even use fullscreen (F11) to view pages with heavy content, like Google Reader or Wikipedia.

5. FireFTP - I use FireFTP all the time to upload files to my various webservers. FireFTP is quicker and easier for me than using a desktop FTP program while still maintaining the easy directory view you’d find in a desktop program. Kudos to the developers for creating a great extension that I can’t live without!

6. Evernote Web Clipper - I’ve mentioned my love of all things Evernote, and for my Windows work machine that I have the desktop app installed on, I use the Web Clipper extension to grab information from my browser and send it straight to a notebook in Evernote. On my eeePC, where I don’t have a desktop app installed, I use the Web Clipper Bookmarklet. Evernote, you’re practically perfect…now just build a Linux desktop app and I’ll be your best friend.

7. DownThemAll! - I can’t be writing or working all the time…and when I’m not, I love to download new DRM-free music from places like eMusic. I don’t like having to install separate download managers for services, so I rely on DownThemAll! to be my ultimate download manager. I have filters set up for my various services, and now I can download entire albums in just a click or two. This is a must for heavy downloaders!

8. Colorzilla - Colorzilla is something my friend Eric turned me on to when I was trying to pore through the CSS of my blog’s WP theme to figure out the RGB color for my header. Colorzilla gives you an eyedropper that you can use to capture any color on any site you visit. You can download multiple color palettes as well if you need to customize to a certain one. This is a great tool for developers and designers!

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