Our 7 Favorite Firefox Extensions

The time when users were restricted to one or two choices of Internet browsers is long over. Today, when users want to get their Web on, both PC and Mac users can choose from Safari, Opera, and Firefox (formerly known as Mozilla Firebird), in addition to browser standbys Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Firefox, as you may already know, benefits from the ability to add plugins (also known as “extensions”) made by its user community to enhance and in some cases increase the software’s capability. The result is a browser that functions less as a window onto the Internet and more as a tool to overlap individual needs with online content. The following extensions are ones that we at LOCL feel provide interesting, useful and sometimes unique functionality. . .

1. Image Zoom. Sometimes online images are just too small to see clearly. Image Zoom utilizes your mouse’s scroll wheel to allow you to increase (or shrink) the size of almost any image displayed within a Web page.
2. ColorZilla. A useful tool for Web developers that allows you to generate HTML code for Web page colors, browse predefined color pallets, and Zoom the page to measure exact distances between displayed elements.
3. Gmail Manager lets you manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. There are also options to display notifications from the taskbar and snippets from the email text.
4. Yahoo! Mail Notifier. Slightly less versatile than Gmail Manager, this provides the same basic functions for those of you with Yahoo! mail accounts.
5. del.icio.us Bookmarks. With this extension, bookmarks you import from Firefox are synced with del.icio.us to allow for access across multiple computers and sharing with your friends. The plugin adds an icon to the Firefox toolbar.
6. ForecastFox lets you to track weather for any location you designate from within the Firefox toolbar. Taskbar pop-ups appear for Severe Weather Alerts, making this extension especially useful to Chicago residents.
7. IE View. A single icon click redraws any Web page to appear as it would in Internet Explorer. Great for Web developers managing their content across browsers as well as for those of us who come across the occasional page that seems married to Internet Explorer. For Windows users only.

Did we miss one of your favorites? Post a comment to tell us about other great tools you use with your Web browser.