Firefox, backed by its huge plethora of add-ons, is the second most popular internet browser. Customizability offered by Firefox makes it stand apart from the crowd. While there are a lot of add-ons like Greasemonkey, AdBlock+, etc which are very popular, there also exists a large pool of add-ons which are not so popular but nevertheless useful. The article lists some of such add-ons and explains their utility.
- URL Tooltip [Category: Utility]
URL Tooltip is a Firefox add-on that performs a simple function. Firefox displays the URL of a hyperlink in its status bar. While browsing in full screen mode, the status bar is hidden and, consequently, the users are unable to know where a particular link takes you to. URL Tooltip fixes this problem by displaying the URL of a link on mouse-over. Also the status bar can be hidden to increase the viewable area of the screen it you use status bar only to view links.
- Aardvark [Category: Utility/Printing]
Aardvark is a multipurpose add-on. It enables the user modify/delete/isolate certain elements of a web-page. After starting the add-on, a red box highlights the element below the mouse pointer. Press r button to make that element removed, disappear or isolate. The reason it is multi-purpose because it can be used to remove useless parts of a web-page like ads, images, etc. before printing a webpage. It can also help minimize distraction while reading any article by isolating the text element from the rest of the page. For more advanced users, this add-on can be useful for studying the structure of a web-page.
[Note: All the changes made to a page can be reversed by refreshing or reloading the page(press F5).]
- Gamer’s Control [Category: Utility]
Gamer’s Control is an add-on for all the game addicts. Almost all games use the four W, A, S & D buttons’ set to control some part of the gameplay or other. This add-on modifies the basic controls of Firefox and makes it gamer friendly by assigning W & S keys to up and down scrolling of a webpage. Similarly, A & D keys are used to navigate previous and next tabs respectively. Moreover, the keys surrounding keys like R, Q, T, X , etc. are assigned operations like open new tabs, reload web-page, close tabs etc. The left hand can be used to perform tasks while the right hand stays on mouse; quite useful.
- Less Spam, Please [Category: Security]
Less Spam, Please add-on automates the task of inserting a disposable e-mail address in the registration forms. Disposable email addresses are temporary email addresses used while creating accounts at websites. There’s always a risk that the sites may spam your regular email ID. Using disposable e-mail addresses help you avoid spam. This add-on currently it supports three widely popular disposable email services, namely, Yopmail, Humaility and Mailinator. Those who frequently register accounts at unknown websites would find this add-on a great help.
- ScribeFire [Category: Blogging]
ScribeFire is a blogging tool that runs inside Firefox and enables the user to compose blog entries and post them to a blog. It supports all major blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, etc. Press F8 and a full-fledged blog editor opens up (either in a new tab or in split-screen, depending on the settings). Text can directly be copy-pasted from other web-pages into the editor while retaining its formatting. It doesn’t offer any new features but it’s quick, handy and saves some time.
