Adblock Plus Adblock-Plus adblock.gif 1865 Adblock Plus removes all of those ads that you see on websites (including some tracking devices that you may not see). You will be amazed at how much better webpages look when you remove the advertisements. Using this addon will let you focus on the content of the web and not all of the distractions. Better Gmail 2 Better-Gmail-2 better-gmail-2.gif 6076 If you began using Gmail back in the days when you need to be invited into the exclusive club, you might have thought - what could be better? Well, this addon provides a lot of little extras that Google missed such as specific attachment icons (think PDF logo not a paper clip), highlighting rows as you move the mouse over them, placing labels in a hierarchy, hiding chat and invite (why do they even have that any more?), showing your unread count in the favicon and making it easier to create filters. Custom Download Manager Custom-Download-Manager custom-download-manager.gif 6945 Simply put, this program allows you to modify Firefox's default behavior with the download window without needing to have knowledge of the program's soruce code. Customize Google Customize-Google customize-google.gif 743 Google is great and is the search engine of search for millions, but it can still get cluttered with ads and SPAM. This addon can not only clear those up, but do things such as streaming your search results to a continuous list (no more clicking NEXT), search for pages in multiple languages by default, and make your connections to Google sites secure. Download Statusbar Download-Statusbar download-statusbar.gif 26 By placing a progress bar in the status bar, this addon allows you to have visible progress of your downloading files while surfing other pages. You can also set it to keep the files there in the bar after they complete and access them from there. Fasterfox Lite Fasterfox-Lite fasterfox-lite.gif 9148 By making some small adjustments to Firefox and the way it connects to the internet, this addon can squeeze some extra speed out of your browser making it that much faster than Internet Explorer. Feedly Feedly feedly.gif 8538 By combining your subscribed feeds from Google Reader and Twitter, this add-on is essentially a feed aggregator, but it work inside of Firefox instead of being another site to visit. It is customizable and is kind of like creating your own custom news site of only the news you want. Firefox Showcase Firefox-Showcase firefox-showcase.gif 1810 By adding a single button onto your tabs toolbar, this addon shows you a thumbnail image of all of you open tabs so you quickly switch between them, or monitor them all at once. You even have the basic functions of Back, Forward, Reload and Stop for each tab. Linkification Linkification linkification.gif 190 This addon takes any URL or email address on a webpage and turns it into a clickable link so you don't have to copy and paste them anymore. Makes things much faster. NoScript NoScript noscript.gif 722 NoScript begins by blocking all Javascript on webpages. These little scripts are the ones that are responsible for placing viruses, opening up pop-up windows and many other sneaky things. But, some websites rely on Javascript in order to oeprate correctly (like Flickr and YouTube), so from an icon in the statusbar you can allow and forbid scripts on particular sites. When you first install, you will need to train the program and allow scripts from reputable sites. PDF Downloader PDF-Downloader pdf-downloader.gif 636 With this addon you can control what happens when you click PDF links on the web. You have options allowing you to open them in a Firefox tab, in a PDF reader, or just donwload them. There are also options to convert any webpage into a PDF file... and more. Update Notifier Update-Notifier update-notifier.gif 2098 As you start to install more and more addons you may find it difficult to keep them all up-to-date. This addon does that for you automatically - checking for and downloading updates automatically. It can be set to suppress the update messages and reminders and just install them the next time the browser restarts. Web Developer Web-Developer web-developer.gif 60 Anyone developing web sites or wanting to learn more about how webpages are put together should install this. There are a multitude of tools that will help you to see the different elements and how they work together, i.e. the images, divs, CSS. Zotero Zotero zotero.gif 3504 Zotero is a complete bibilography database, designed with web documents in mind that runs inside of Firefox. It can automatically "scrape" information from a web document you are viewing with the click of a single button. The DB itself supports adding notes, tagging and attachments (so you can put in a PDF). It will also format items for you to export into lists in APA, MLA, Chicago and a dozen or so other formats. If you combine it with the plug-ins for MS Word or OpenOffice you can insert in-text citations and have it keep your references list up to date as you write. There are several other programs in the market that do this, but none for free and none integrated into a browser. This is a must for college students.