foolfillment: the blog

I use the firefox browser, I use it because it’s good and I can make it do what I want it to. Since being at home (parent’s rather than uni) though I’ve had to relearn what it can do.

My PC is sitting pretty much redundant in my room and I use my parent’s machine for email and internet and that sort of thing so I’ve been shocked by how much of the usability of Firefox (on my machine) is added on later.

So, here’s a list of extensions that I use, and had to find again.

Sage

Integrated newsreader that just sits in your sidebar, you’ll either know what this is good for, or you’ve been wondering what all those little orange buttons are that have appeared on the BBC website.

Adblock

stops most adverts before they’ve even started, I used to use Flashblock but found it too irritating that it blocked legitimate Flash too unless you whitelisted it, Adblock is a much better option.

Open link in…

exactly what it says, the best bit about Firefox is tabbed browsing and this makes it even easier, open a link in a new tab or window, either foreground or background, or just within the existing tab - if only my whole operating system ran like this.

Context Search

select any text on a page and right click to be able to search for it using any of your installed search engines, in a new background tab - excellent for postcodes

CustomizeGoogle

This is a new one to me, brings all the useful Google stuff, like Suggest, and dispenses with the rest, like adverts. Shame it can’t spell customise though.

Paste and Go

Why waste time hitting enter or ‘GO’ when you can copy text, then paste and enter it in one motion, easy and incredible how much time it saves.

Single Window

Stops domineering sites from insisting you open up a new window; You’re the user, why shouldn’t you decide where to view their content?

ieView

A right-click option to open up links in Internet Explorer (which the extension opens for you) when the site insists you use IE, good for banks and some online shops that try to restrict your behaviour.

Magpie

This is a great tool, although I don’t use it that often, lets you browse through site content that’s archived by number (let’s you skip from article 00-3-8-256 to article 00-3-8-257 etc) and a whole lot more, good for Newspapers’ websites and folders of images.

So there you have it a short run-down of what I use to make my life online easier, what do you use?

This entry was posted at 5:46 pm on the 1st of June, 2005 and is filed under internet stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.