24 Firefox Addons That Make Your Browsing Life Easier

If you are passionate to Firefox, you would have probably known that there are ton of Firefox add-ons available on the net. Firefox is the popular web browser, installing the add-ons will definitely enhance the functionality. However many of us are seem to be overwhelmed with these accessible overloading extensions. I have selected some of them which I believe is useful.

Installing many add-ons into a single browser will quickly overkill your Firefox. So, set up multiple Firefox profiles & install them separately as you may wish.

Browser Enhancement

1 FoxTab

FoxTab brings innovative 3D functionality to your Firefox. FoxTab is a 3D tabbed browsing extension. As with the 6 attractive layouts to choose from, flipping between opened tabs becomes more easy and fun.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8879

2 Firefox Showcase

This plugin bring your Firefox tabs into thumbnails. I always have the problem of managing the tabs when I have many tabs opened, especially when I want to catch up the StumbleUpon shares from friend. Firefox Showcase manage your Firefox tabs and windows in a simply way. You can also filter the thumbnails, and use it as the way you use your files in your system.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1810

3 Download Statusbar

The Firefox download window has a lot of functionality. However, this is annoying when you need to click the download for many times & the window keep on popping. Download Statusbar allows you to view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing. Its interface is customizable, auto-hides when not in use; you will have the full control without any interruption.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26

4 Hide Menubar

This little addon hide your Toolbar automatically giving bigger browser window. You can press the ALT key to show it temporarily. It is really useful when you use your little netbook to browse the internet.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4762

5 Glasser

Glasser adds the Windows Vista glass frame to Firefox toolbars. However this extension requires Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7, or their server counterparts with Areo Glass as the active Visual Style.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7336

Better Search Experience

6 GooglePreview

GooglePreview inserts preview thumbnails and popularity ranks of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages. The thumbnails are generated from various dedicated servers. Give your search result a preview before clicking onto it. Although currently GooglePreview insert sponsored links into the some of the search results, it is kind enough to give you option to disable it.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/189

7 Google Assistant – Surf Canyon

Google Assistant automatically digs out the relevant information & link from your search results result. It improves the search result relevancy by up to 40% on Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engine. Simply enter your query at the search textbox, hit enter, and the addon will automatically re-ranks the result set in order to bring forward what you need while suppressing what you don’t want. These recommended results go as deep as page 100, enable you to trace relevant links that might otherwise have been impossible to find.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6549

8 CyberSearch

CyberSearch adds advance Google Search capabilities to your browser and get the instant search results that appear as you type. See your search results right from the Firefox address bar. The search includes Google Web, Local, Videos, Blogs, News, Books, Images, and Patents.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7931

9 WebMynd – A better way to search

Search all your favourite sources from a single place, remember what you find so you can get back to it later and easily share what you find with friends. The personalizes Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter results will be shown on the right side of your search result.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6416

10 Glue – Recommendations for Books/Movies/Music

As you browse popular sites Glue learns what you like. Glue uses this information to suggest books, movies and music that you may enjoy. The more you use Glue, the better the suggestions are. It helps you discover great movies, books and music.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3481

Mail Management

11 Gmail Manager

Gmail Manager enable you to utilize multiple Gmail accounts in a single browser window. Receive Gmail notifier for multiple accounts, along with viewing account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1320

12 WebMail Notifier

WebMail Notifier supports Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Daum, Naver, Empas, Nate and more web mail services. It simply checks your webmail accounts and notifies the number of unread emails.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4490

13 WiseStamp – Email signature

Empower your webmail signatures in Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL. WiseStamp is a signature creator not limited to mail, but including IM & social profiles such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg & Linkedin.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8206

Contents Reading

14 Read It Later

I have too many bookmarks in my browser; some of them perhaps are just for one-time interest. Read It Later allows you to save pages of interest to read later. It eliminates cluttering of bookmarks with sites that are merely of a one-time interest. Save pages to a reading list to read when you have time. You can also read the page offline, alternative you can save your list at readitlaterlist.com & access it from anywhere you like.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7661

15 RSS Ticker

Use RSS Ticker to load your Live Bookmarks, scrolls the entries across the browser screen. The ticker can be placed at the top or bottom of the screen. If you prefer not to browse the entries RSS but want to stay informed, then why don’t just give this addon a try.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2325

16 Brief

Brief is a powerful and simple RSS feed reader. It makes your RSS reading easier. Feeds are presented on a seamless, interactive page which let’s you bookmark and tag items with a single click.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4578

Webpage Capture

17 Screengrab

Capture what you can see in the window, the entire page, just a selection, or a particular frame. Basically Screengrab saves webpages as images either to a file, or to the clipboard.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

18 FireShot

FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages entirely or just the visible part. This plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify web captures and insert text annotations and graphical annotations.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648

Photos, Video & Music Entertaining

19 Cooliris

Browser your photos from Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and more in a faster & interesting way. With Cooliris 3D Wall, you can effortlessly scroll though thousands of images and videos in seconds without having to click from page to page. Also, the Channels feature even lets you surf the latest news, TV episodes, and more.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579

20 DownloadHelper

DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites for you. For instance, if you go to a YouTube page, you’ll be able to download the video directly on your file system to watch later. It also works with MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm, DreamHost and others.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

21 Fire.fm

Fire.fm gives you access to the extensive music library on Last.fm. Last.fm gives free radio to the US, UK, and Germany, plus subscriber-based service to the rest of the world. Listen to your favorite music and discover new artists in the process.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7684

Performance & Security

22 FastestFox – Browse Faster

FastestFox will speed up common tasks & perform parallelized downloads, convenient shortcuts and more.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9825

23 FoxyProxy

FoxyProxy is a Firefox addon which automatically switches an internet connection across one or more proxy servers based on URL patterns. It is an advanced proxy management tool. It automates the manual process of editing Firefox’s Connection Settings dialog. For those who are using proxy, why not give this addon try.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2464

24 WOT

WOT, Web of Trust, warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam. You can use this plugin as as your front-line layer of protection when browsing or searching in unfamiliar website. It uses the information from collected from multiple trusted sources, like phishing and spam blacklists, and the up-to-date ratings provided by WOT users.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456