firefox extensions

Since early 2004, back then still in version 0.x, I've been using Firefox. Despite initially lacking mouse gestures and being a bit slower, it quickly replaced Opera as the browser of my choice, mostly because of better support of non-standard web pages. Today I discovered two great additional features that show why Firefox is fantastic. Both of them are extensions.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I explain quickly. Firefox can be customized by the user with add-ons. These are little jiffies that help tune Firefox according to a user's predilections. They sit on top of the browser and won't mess with the system.

Mouse Gestures came out a long time ago. They allow you to navigate (back, forward, new tab, close tab, up, etc) by gesturing with your mouse while holding the right button down. I've got so used to them that I get upset at other programs, especially file managers like Windows Explorer or Finder, for not supporting them.

The next great thing is Adblock Plus, which prevents most advertisements from loading. You'll be amazed how much faster you'll browse and how much cleaner your screen will look. While I'm ready to accept ads if I get content for free in return, I'm less inclined to suffer them when I already pay for the content. This is the case with my Economist subscription. What's worse, their roll-over ads sometimes refuse to be closed and block content. Now they're gone.

Today I installed two more add-ons. The first, Chipmarks, allows you to save and organize your bookmarks on a central server and access them wherever you are, essential when working on different computers all the time. I was so sick of permanently synchronizing bookmarks. I trust Chipmarks more than similar services like del.icio.us or Google Notebook because it's an open source project developed at a university.

Lastly, there is Greasemonkey, an extension that I'm totally excited about, though I've only scratched its surface. It opens a new dimension of customizing your browsing experience by running scripts on webpages that will change the way the content is presented. Sounds cryptic and complicated? Yes, but it's not. The (extremely sluggish) scripting repository contains more than two million scripts. The two that I've downloaded take me directly to the print version of Economist and New Yorker articles I chose, saving me a click each time. Laziness might just be the mother of all inventions.