Unleashing Firefox's potential

I remember the days of Internet Explorer, and before that, Netscape Navigator - slow, unstable, uncomfortable and barely more than a clone of the competition.

Thankfully, as the net has evolved, so too has the way we access it and, in my opinion, the highest link in the evolutionary chain is the gem they call Mozilla Firefox.

This free and open source browser came into our lives in September 2002, but first went under the name of Firefox in 2004. It's now estimated that up to 25 per cent of people use Firefox.

Far and away the best features of Firefox are the add-ons which you can graft on to it. Firefox can quickly go from a run-of-the-mill web-browser to a powerful tool.

I was looking at ways to increase productivity and combine social media services in order to get a nice, streamlined web experience, and I found a few add-ons that I thought I'd share.

1. Yoono

Yoono is an all-in-one social media sidebar for Firefox, and a popular download. After initially granting the add-on access to your various services (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn etc), it combines them all into a neat sidebar, accessible at any time and ready at a moment's notice. You're always logged in and able to share, see and respond to posts from within the sidebar. I think it's real time-saver, and probably my favourite add-on so far.

2. Fox Lingo

A hugely powerful multi-language translator, proofreader and search tool, with dozens of supported languages and one-touch translation of whole websites or phrases. It's handy when working with worldwide information sources, contacts or media. A must-have.

3. Live TV/Radio streaming

As the name implies, live TV and radio station streaming on your browser and all it costs is bandwidth. It has thousands of channels and stations. I will note, though, that this add-on comes with a whole toolbar, complete with lots of features you may not want like games, chat etc. You can easily go into the add-ons settings under the Tools menu and choose which of these you want to display. Great sound quality, highly configurable, built-in volume control. It's awesome for keeping up with news or watching a game. It's classed as "experimental", but seems to work really well.

4. RSS ticker

Another really cool add-on, this one installs a self-scrolling list of RSS feed entries along the top or bottom of your browser window. It draws the feeds from Firefox's subscribed feeds, and there are options as to how many of each it displays and how they open. Hovering over an item will halt the flow, and show you the full title and paragraph of the entry. Amazing for keeping up with news websites while working or just browsing the net and it looks really cool too. Top marks.

5. Personas Plus

This fantastic add-on made by Mozilla allows you to choose from thousands of custom skins for your browser, from landscapes to pop stars to just about anything else. Previewing and installation is dead simple. Make your browser your own.

6. Fastestfox

Fastestfox increases your browsing speed and productivity. It has a shortcut menu (accessed by pressing CTRL + Space) which brings up a customisable group of pages, each with a hot key assigned. So using only keys, you can quickly navigate to your favourite pages. It also has an excellent search function which highlights keywords on a webpage and gives you the option to search them using other services like Google or Twitter. It also gives you cutting and pasting options, such as automatically copying highlighted text. Wikipedia is given a "related articles" box. In short, there are a huge number of benefits to this one, I recommend it.

7. Cooliris

Cooliris is a great way to view collections of images or videos on a website. Simply hover over one in a series of images such as a YouTube channel, Facebook album or Google image search result and click the small icon that appears. You are taken to a smooth-scrolling 3D environment which simplifies and enhances media browsing in Firefox. You have to see it to understand. Give it a go.

8. MeasureIt

This tool switches on when you click a small button in Firefox, and allows you to drag a precise box around a square element on your screen (an image or ad) and it will give you the dimensions in pixels. You can then copy these values and paste them into, say, Photoshop. Very handy when you want to know how much space you have to work with (in website building or editing, for example).

9. Adblock Plus

One of the most downloaded add-ons of Firefox's history, this one effectively cuts the number of advertisements you see online.

10. Download Status Bar

This add-on removes the separate window which opens when you download an item. Instead, you get a progress bar at the bottom, similar to that of Google Chrome. Much easier to manage, just one window for it all and you can manage the file (open, rename, delete etc) right from your browser window with a right-click.

So what are your Mozilla Firefox add-on picks? Do you have any favourites I've left out? Which proves the most useful to you? Will you give some of these a go?

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