# Firefox - what are your favorite extensions? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 10, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404 "2004-07-10T03:38:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/1 "2004-07-10T03:38:46Z")
Inspired somewhat by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5052306), was wondering what Firefox users’ favorite extensions/plugins are? I basically use IE at work and Firefox at home, but am switching more and more to Firefox at work (you’ll see why in a second). But I’m also kinda new to the whole extension thing…so am looking for other cool add-ons. The two I have are: 1. [Googlebar](http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/googlebar): may sound silly, but this was the main reason I kept on using IE. The Googlebar is my favorite plugin thingy of all time, but Google hasn’t built one for Firefox. Lo and behold I found that someone had done one anyway. It doesn’t have all of the capabilities of the IE one, but it’s good enough for me. 2. [Tabbed Browser Extensions](http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/tbe): Got this for one reason - so that external links open in a new tab, rather than a new window (not sure why Mozilla doesn’t have this as a built-in option). So, any other ones you use? [Googlebar](http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/googlebar) ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/2 "2004-07-10T03:57:07Z")
Haven’t downloaded any, until now. I was wondering about where to find the tab extention, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/3 "2004-07-10T04:39:10Z")
The BugMeNot one is really useful. You can go to a site like the NYTimes where you don’t have a registration, choose BugMeNot off the context menu, and it will give you a username/password to use. OTOH, I don’t rely on extensions much because they seem to get screwed up every time I upgrade the browser and it’s a bit of work to fix it. So I just make do with the base browser. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/4 "2004-07-10T06:01:39Z")
[Linky.](http://gemal.dk/mozilla/linky.html) Right click a page, select ‘Linky’, and you can open all linked images in tabs with a single click. Useful for, uh, well, you see, ‘educational’ sites sometimes have lots of thumbnails and pics. Very nice extension. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/5 "2004-07-10T07:50:17Z")
Adblock is really great - after about a week of training it, I no longer see any ads on the net at all. Mouse Gestures are good too. Now browsing without them seems akward. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/6 "2004-07-10T10:55:18Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > The BugMeNot one is really useful. You can go to a site like the NYTimes where you don’t have a registration, choose BugMeNot off the context menu, and it will give you a username/password to use. Huh? How does it do that? I use no extensions at all. I guess I’m a minimalist kind of web user. I’ve never felt a need for anything not already included in Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/7 "2004-07-10T11:02:49Z")
All-in-One Gestures Google Bar Tabbed Browser Extensions IE View Yea, tell us more about BugMeNot! ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/8 "2004-07-10T11:51:07Z")
I’m a newbie to Firefox but I downloaded bugMeNot as a result of this post, and from what I understand, this is how it works: You go to a site like NYTimes and it asks for a name and password to view content. Right click on the log-in page (with BugMeNot installed) and a pop-up box appears with a username and password. You can then copy and paste the username and password into the log-in form, and view the webpage contenet without registering for the site yourself. What I want to know is there any way to resize or move the toolbars in Firefox? Especially the bookmarks toolbar. With IE I could drag and move all my toolbars so I onkly had two small lines taking up pixels on the top of my screen. The address bar doesn’t need to be 3/4 the length of my browser width, can I shorten it? ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/9 "2004-07-10T11:52:54Z")
:o ::looks at post:: And is there a spell checker (like IE has IE Spell) for Firefox? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/10 "2004-07-10T14:04:40Z")
> [@Boscibo](#): > > I’m a newbie to Firefox but I downloaded bugMeNot as a result of this post, and from what I understand, this is how it works: You go to a site like NYTimes and it asks for a name and password to view content. Right click on the log-in page (with BugMeNot installed) and a pop-up box appears with a username and password. You can then copy and paste the username and password into the log-in form, and view the webpage contenet without registering for the site yourself. That part I already understood. How does it get a valid username and password? ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/11 "2004-07-10T14:15:41Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > That part I already understood. How does it get a valid username and password? People give them to a central BugMeNot database. You can, for instance, go sign up at NYTimes or Washington Post, then go to BugMeNot and give them that one. BugMeNot only deals with free registration sites, so it’s not like they’re cheating pay registration sites. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/12 "2004-07-10T21:24:52Z")
Tabbrowser Extensions is probably my favorite. And then the Googlebar, which I’ve added ebay and [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) to. You can add tons of engines like yahoo, imdb, amazon, wikipedia, and a bunch more. And Tab X, which puts an X on the right hand corner of each tab to close them easily. I think the newest version already has that feature built in. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/13 "2004-07-10T22:07:50Z")
> [@psycat90](#): > > And then the Googlebar, which I’ve added ebay and [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) to. You can add tons of engines like yahoo, imdb, amazon, wikipedia, and a bunch more. Wow- thanks! They even have a Straight Dope archive engine. Cool. Is there any way to get those engines on the Googlebar? Right now they are in the little Google bar in the corner, the one that comes standard with Firefox. I added the Google toolbar add on because I was so used to using it with IE. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/14 "2004-07-11T02:45:59Z")
> [@Boscibo](#): > > Wow- thanks! They even have a Straight Dope archive engine. Cool. Is there any way to get those engines on the Googlebar? Right now they are in the little Google bar in the corner, the one that comes standard with Firefox. I added the Google toolbar add on because I was so used to using it with IE. Thank you! I didn’t even see the SD archive. I added it! I don’t know if there is a way to use it with the Google toolbar add on. I was used to the Google toolbar as well, but when I made the switch I found I didn’t miss the other features much, with the exception of the news button. I just added a totally useless but pretty fun one that changes the name of your browser every time you open it, and you can customize the naming database. [Firesomething](http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=31&vid=32&category=Top%20Rated) And I added all in one gestures and adblock thanks to this thread. Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/15 "2004-07-11T03:51:35Z")
I was enjoying the Preferences Toolbar for awhile, until I hit the “Hide Toolbar” button, and now I can’t figure out how to get it back. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/16 "2004-07-11T13:22:31Z")
> [@psycat90](#): > > And then the Googlebar, which I’ve added ebay and [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) to. You can add tons of engines like yahoo, imdb, amazon, wikipedia, and a bunch more. Where can I set up all the different engines? I don’t see a place in preferences or options to do that. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/17 "2004-07-11T16:54:07Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > Where can I set up all the different engines? I don’t see a place in preferences or options to do that. Well, I stand corrected, as it’s not an option on the Googlebar add on, but on the Google bar that comes standard with Firefox, the one in the left hand corner. There’s a drop down arrow in the box, click it and you should see an option that says ‘add engines’, that’ll load [mozdev.org](http://mozdev.org), where you can pick from literally hundreds of different engines to add. Once added, it’s just a matter of selecting which engine you want to use the box to search, via a drop down selection. Very handy. I was having a grand old time testing out extensions last night, as I was a tad bit bored. I uninstalled Firesomething, since I never look at the browser name anyway, but the kiddies got a kick out of it. 😉 I installed one called FoxAmp, that puts a few tiny buttons in the browser’s status bar to control Winamp. I think I like it. It makes it easy to skip to the next track, etc. while browsing without pulling up Winamp. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/18 "2004-07-11T21:52:48Z")
> [@psycat90](#): > > Well, I stand corrected, as it’s not an option on the Googlebar add on, but on the Google bar that comes standard with Firefox, the one in the left hand corner. Is the googlebar that is “standard with Firefox” only in .9 or later? ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/19 "2004-07-12T02:29:37Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > Is the googlebar that is “standard with Firefox” only in .9 or later? No, I don’t think so, I dled 8-something a few months ago and the Google bar came with that one (and that was my first experience with Firefox, so, I can’t say if it was on previous releases.) I do have 9 now, and when I first dled, I’d wished I’d stuck with 8, it was a little wonky, but I’ve installed a patch or update since and it seems fine now. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404/20 "2004-07-12T12:56:26Z")
> [@Boscibo](#): > > What I want to know is any way to resize or move the toolbars in Firefox? Especially the bookmarks toolbar. With IE I could drag and move all my toolbars so I onkly had two small lines taking up pixels on the top of my screen. The address bar doesn’t need to be 3/4 the length of my browser width, can I shorten it? It’s not as flexible as IE, but with View/Toolbars/Customize… you can drag toolbar items around to your heart’s content. I have the address bar on the same row as the menu, for example, and if my monitor was wide enough I could have everything on the same row. A couple of nice extensions not mentioned so far: Session Saver, which provides the Opera-like feature of remembering what tabs you had open. Useful if you have a crash or power cut while browsing, or if you just want to carry on where you left off. RSS reader - for, um, reading RSS news feeds. You just create a bookmark for each feed. Nice and simple, I find it more convenient than running a separate RSS reader alongside the browser. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-what-are-your-favorite-extensions/254404.md?page=2)