# Post your favorite Firefox add-ons **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 14, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151 "2007-09-14T07:56:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/21 "2007-09-14T19:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] [Long Titles](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1715) This one is _indispensable_ for the boards. It allows for the whole amount of thread preview in the mouse-over box when you hover on a thread title. How you people use these boards without this I’ll never know… 😕 [/QUOTE] Wow. That is a truly awesome extension. Thanks for posting it. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/22 "2007-09-14T20:19:32Z")
I present to you the most useful Firefox extension of all: **FireSomething** - Makes fun of the Firebird -\> Firefox name change that happened years ago. Randomizes the name of your browser, so in the title bar instead of “Mozilla Firefox” you see something like “Mozilla Hyperpenguin” or “Mozilla Turbodonkey.” Or “Mozilla Hypnodeer.” ---
**Author:** ![Pithy\_Moniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/23 "2007-09-14T20:53:30Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] I present to you the most useful Firefox extension of all: **FireSomething** - Makes fun of the Firebird -\> Firefox name change that happened years ago. Randomizes the name of your browser, so in the title bar instead of “Mozilla Firefox” you see something like “Mozilla Hyperpenguin” or “Mozilla Turbodonkey.” Or “Mozilla Hypnodeer.” [/QUOTE] I like this one already. I’ve already gotten “Powerjellyfish” and “Webvulture”. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/24 "2007-09-14T21:16:36Z")
[QUOTE=ambushed] All of those are your _favorites_, **Crusoe?** Are you sure that removes Flash animations? I didn’t see that happen for me, at least not out of the box. I had to add-on **Flashblock** for that, which is nice because it’s easy to allow them to show whenever you want. [/QUOTE] Yes. (not meant to sound snappy at all, honest guv’nor, but, well, it does) ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/25 "2007-09-14T21:45:38Z")
I use [DictionarySearch](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/68) fairly often. Long titles does kick ass, I’m so glad I asked about hover lengths a few months ago. Image zoom is now my current favorite. Thanks for that one! ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/26 "2007-09-14T21:57:30Z")
My favorite of all time was _Abe Vigoda Status_. In the status bar would be the words “Abe Vigoda is alive”. The guy that wrote it didn’t keep up with updates, so sadly I now I have to go to [abevigoda.com](http://abevigoda.com), which just isn’t very convenient ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/27 "2007-09-14T22:15:41Z")
**Tab Mix Plus** will give you a whole boatload of tab-related options, including moving the close tab button, or having it in both places. **All-in-One Gestures** is the mouse gestures one I use. **IE Tab** is nice for those sites that don’t look right in Firefox. **Plain Text to Link** is fantastic. Don’t you hate it when a page has a URL that isn’t a hyperlink, and you actually have to copy and paste the URL into the location box? No more! **Stop-or-Reload Button**. Think about it. Why do you need both? ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/28 "2007-09-15T02:38:54Z")
**[Paste Quote](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/244)** is nice for the boards. It pastes whatever you have in the clipboard with quote tags around it. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/29 "2007-09-15T02:41:58Z")
A few others: ScribeFire is a really nice blog editor, especially if you maintain more than one blog. TwitterBar is great if you use Twitter–you just type your Tweet in the address bar and click the tiny plus sign. It even tells you as you’re typing how many characters you have left. Colorful Tabs makes the tabs appear in different colors, which actually makes a big difference for me visually. ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/30 "2007-09-15T06:51:01Z")
[QUOTE=Crusoe] Yes. (not meant to sound snappy at all, honest guv’nor, but, well, it does) [/QUOTE] I assume that response is in regarding Adblock Plus. I thought _everyone_ was using it, so I didn’t list it. However, one huge advantage to FlashBlock is that it automatically blocks all Flash animations for you in advance, so that you don’t have to go to each Adblock tab and turn it off manually. ---
**Author:** ![some\_white\_dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@some\_white\_dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/some_white_dude)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/31 "2007-09-15T07:23:30Z")
[FoxyTunes](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/219) - Great if you listen to music while browsing. It adds standard music player controls to the bottom of the browser, so you can skip songs, pause, toggle volume, etc. all while keeping your music player minimized. Compatible with many different players. [AllPeers](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3234) - Peer to peer program. Apparently it has BitTorrent support now too. I did not know that. [Bork Copy](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/507) - View web pages or mail as spoken by the Swedish Chef. It’s pretty useless, boot a lut ooff foon! Bork bork bork! So what’s with this mouse gesture thing? Being able to go forward/back by “drawing” with your mouse? That doesn’t seem much more convenient than simply clicking forward or back. Maybe someone can enlighten me. I just downloaded StumpleUpon earlier today. It is fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Timchik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/32 "2007-09-15T09:19:10Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] Is there a Firefox 2.0 add-on that moves the 'X" to close tabs back to the upper right, like it was in Firefox 1.5? That’s the one thing about 2.0 that drives me nuts - having the ‘X’ on each individual tab, and having to move-click, move-click, move-click, move-click, move-click, if I want to close five consecutive tabs, rather than just moving it to the upper right and going click-click-click-click-click. [/QUOTE] This bugged the hell out of me too. You don’t need an add-on for this. Type about:config in the address field, find browser.tabs.closeButtons, double-click it, change the value to 3, and all is well. ---
**Author:** ![Phantom\_Dennis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@Phantom\_Dennis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phantom_Dennis)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/33 "2007-09-15T09:41:22Z")
I came in here to mention StumbleUpon. Beware – it’s addictive. I had NoScript installed for awhile, but too many pages don’t work without script, and it’s a pain to constantly update your allow list. I’d rather deal with the occasional annoyances. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/34 "2007-09-15T10:08:48Z")
Adblock Plus and Flashblock are the very first things I install. ChatZilla is an OK IRC client if you’re just too lazy to install a ‘real’ one. StumbleUpon is cool, but I don’t use it much when I have it installed. FoxyTunes is another good one–controls iTunes, Winamp, etc. from your browser. This add-on was my best friend when I lived in a college dorm. DownloadHelper is invaluable when you download as many, er, videos and pictures as I do. You can choose to just download every media file on a page (or every jpg, or every mpg, etc.) in two clicks and let it work for you in the background, grabbing one file at a time so as not to hog the bandwidth and make your roommates/parents/SO bitch at you. It can also grab videos from an incredibly large number of YouTube-style websites, both “savory” and unsavory. **MrSquishy** , IE Tab has some memory-management problems. IE View seems to be the way to go, there. **dnooman** , I just add the dictionaries I like (OK, dictionary–Webster) to my drop-down search toolbar. Is DictionarySearch that much better? > [@Team of Scientists](#): > > So what’s with this mouse gesture thing? Being able to go forward/back by “drawing” with your mouse? That doesn’t seem much more convenient than simply clicking forward or back. Maybe someone can enlighten me. It is. You don’t have to run your mouse aaaaaaalll the way to the top and find that damn button. Mouse gestures (along with tabbed browsing) was what I used to love about Opera, before I made the jump to Firefox. I think mouse gestures are for the kind of people who would rather play NetHack in ASCII over telnet than play Vietcong over Hamachi. That’s me, but I switched to Firefox and bought a mouse with forward and backward buttons on the side, so I’ve been so thoroughly un-doctrinated from mouse gestures that I can’t wrap my head around them anymore. I’ve tried to use them in Firefox and it just doesn’t feel right. Mileage obviously varies. > [@Timchik](#): > > This bugged the hell out of me too. You don’t need an add-on for this. Type about:config in the address field, find browser.tabs.closeButtons, double-click it, change the value to 3, and all is well. Thanks! I had no idea such a thing existed. Plus, the extension somebody recommended upthread didn’t actually put the X button in its rightful place, it just took it out altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/35 "2007-09-15T21:13:15Z")
**Department of Homeland Insecurity Idiocy Level display** , its never left scared in all the time I’ve been using it 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/36 "2007-09-15T21:23:21Z")
DictionarySearch requires no typing. Just highlight the word, right click and it pulls up a new tab with the definition in it. You can change the dictionary it uses of course. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/37 "2007-09-15T21:26:04Z")
The “Abe Vigoda Status” extension seems to no longer exist. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/38 "2007-09-15T22:14:07Z")
**TinyUrl Creator** - get short urls with one mouse click. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2007, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/39 "2007-09-16T02:49:00Z")
[QUOTE=Timchik] This bugged the hell out of me too. You don’t need an add-on for this. Type about:config in the address field, find browser.tabs.closeButtons, double-click it, change the value to 3, and all is well. [/QUOTE] And so it is! Thank you thank you thank you!! We’re about to do the Firefox mandatory upgrade at work, and I was dreading it, and simply on account of this. Now, everything’s hunky-dory. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151/40 "2007-09-16T14:55:03Z")
I’ve always liked [El Jay Icon Maker](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/724?id=724&application=firefox), which will take any image you find online and resize it into LJ-icon size. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-your-favorite-firefox-add-ons/419151.md?page=3)