Firefox is definitely Digital Pacific’s web browser of choice, and we gladly recommend it to any of our customers. Like Internet Explorer, Firefox retrieves website files and then renders them together to present the website that you view on the screen before you. Mozilla Firefox works in true open source fashion by allowing users to customise its look, feel and functionality with the addition of numerous add-ons. These add-ons give the web browser the ability to do everything from social bookmarking your favourite blog posts to helping you edit a website’s code.
Here are five of our favourite Firfox Add-ons
1. Firebug
Firebug allows you to view, browse and edit a preview version of a website’s code as you look at it in your browser. Better yet, you get to do it without having to open up any other programs! Just click on the tiny little Firebug icon in the bottom-right corner of Firefox and a window will open up directly in your current browser with access to the code. This little add-on also allows you to try out different options on a live website without affecting the live code.
2. ColorfulTabs
ColorfulTabs does just what the name says; it makes each of your open website tabs a different colour. This can not only make your web browser prettier, but it can also help you with tab organisation and quick tab identification. ColorfulTabs is one of the simplest Firefox add-ons, but it is definitely one of the most popular.
3. Fire Gestures
Fire Gestures provides the ability to take its five different mouse gestures and link them to various commands. With this awesome add-on, you can make opening different browser tabs, or click the forward and back buttons, a breeze. The add-on’s homepage provides an entire list of mapping options to apply to each gesture including enlarging and reducing an image’s size, accessing Firefox options and translating a page’s language.
4. YSlow
Yslow is especially great for web developers, but anyone interested in web design can benefit by using this Firefox add-on. YSlow analyses a website’s performance, and the criteria with which it uses to determine this level can be customised. Besides that, it will provide a list of suggestions that can be used to make it better. This add-on works in conjunction with Firebug, so of course, that add-on should be installed as well in order for YSlow to function.
5. Delicious Bookmarks
Delicious Bookmarks is a Firefox add-on that helps you to quickly and easily bookmark your favourite websites and blogs. With the integration into the toolbar, you can even access and search your bookmarks, view and search your tags and share via the Internet. For those concerned about consistency between the web version and the toolbar version, you will be happy to know there is a synchronise feature to keep the both the same.
Last time I checked, there were a couple thousand Firefox add-ons to choose from in their add-on repository, and these are just five! So, even if there wasn’t anything in this entry that you would enjoy integrating with Firefox, it would still be worthwhile searching the add-on site for a desired feature.
As always, we want to know which add-ons you would recommend, and why. Leave us a comment below to add to this list.
If you would like to learn more about Internet Explorer and Firefox – the two most popular web browsers – please read more in Browser Compatibility.
