Although I try to keep Firefox from becoming bloated by too many extensions, I do have a cadre of them I just can't do without. I do go through them periodically to see if I can weed out and uninstall any of those that I do not use regularly. About 5 of them made that cut tonight, but I also replaced one of the five with a new extension called "Mobilizer" (since I'm now in love with my Moto Q and have completely tricked it out) which with a right click will select, convert to the proper format and send the object to the mobile phone of your choice. I have yet to test drive it, but will review it after I have. In theory, it's brilliant. Let's hope it lives up to expectations.
A few other extensions I find invaluable:
- Download Status Bar - I am a downloading maniac and this extension has streamlined that process. I can watch the progress of my downloads in the lower status bar, with speed of download, name, and pause, resume, etc. without taking up much real estate. I can click on them when done and launch installation, view it or what have you and I can easily clear them one at a time or all at once. Tried and true, this is a MUST if you are an obsessive down loader like myself.
- The next two work hand in hand. I like to maximize my browser viewing area (don't we all?) and so Smart Bookmarks Bar & Favicon Picker have been a boon to saving space, improving the functionality of my links bar and my overall browsing experience. Smart Bookmarks Bar will allow you to make all your bookmarks into favicons. Instead of say, having only 10 or 1 so links in your links bar and then having to use the drop down or wade through your bookmarks, I now have 45 (yes, FORTY FIVE) of my favorites in my links bar, all denoted by favicons, and it takes two seconds to visually locate and open my favorites. If you forget what an icon links to, hovering over gives you a text reminder.
TIP: If your favorite site doesn't have a favicon, or it won't load, here is where Favicon Picker comes in. That extension lets you go to a bookmark's properties and chose a favicon or icon for it. You can use one of your own, or I just "Google" the sight, and if it does have a favicon, I save the favicon that didn't load in my icon folder, renaming it to match the sight. For the most part, you can just drag and drop and the favicon loads, but for the rare instance it doesn't, you're trying to save real estate and easily identify your bookmark, so it's a good "fix".)
- FastVideo Download - from a tiny icon in your lower status bar, quickly and easily download any embedded video, from YouTube or pretty much anywhere, in a flash. Sweet!
