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Lifehacker's Favorite Firefox Extensions--Plus a Few of Our Own

Lifehacker is out with its 2009 Edition of its annual Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions post. This year's list is pretty good, and includes contributions from a number of the folks who post on Lifehacker. There are some older extensions on the list, and some new ones. Here are some thoughts on their favorites, and a few extensions we think should be on the list.

As most people who use Firefox know, its hugest advantage over other browsers is the powerful galaxy of extensions available for it. Lifehacker's top 10 list includes a few extensions that I don't use but will have to try out. In particular, I like the idea of AutoCopy, which lets you copy text online by simply selecting it, and fixes long and unweildy URLs. For anyone who writes online, it sounds like a time-saver.

From Lifehacker's list of favorites, I also like the idea of Better Gmail 2. It's a collection of Greasemonkey scripts that extend and improve Gmail, but you don't have to be a Greasemonkey whiz to use it. It lets you toggle features on and off, including showing your inbox count without forcing you to log in to Gmail, showing collapsible versions of Google Calendar and Reader, and more.

Lifehacker's top extension is Foxmarks/Xmarks, which we've always liked. It's beloved by many people who like to keep bookmarks and passwords synchronized on all kinds of mobile devices. Recently, the long-standing Foxmarks name was changed to Xmarks, and support for more browsers, including Internet Explorer and Safari, was added.

Two of my absolute favorite Firefox extensions don't make Lifehacker's hall of fame, though. I provided a visual tour of how to use the iMacros extension here.  As you'll see if you look at the reader comments posted there, people find immediate uses for this extension as soon as they try it. It lets you record scripted tasks and execute them whenever you want, and is about as easy to use as a DVD player. For example, you can create macros for loading various sites you visit every day, for collecting content from familiar sites around the web, and more. The macros play at the click of one button.

I have also come to love Pencil, a fantastic drawing tool extension for Firefox that lets you do everything from building flowcharts, to jotting down notes as you work, to creating prototypes for GUI interfaces. It won an award from Mozilla itself, and most people who try it instantly declare it a keeper. For many more of our favorite Firefox extensions, see our Superguide. 

• firefox
• mozilla
• Pencil
• imacros
• Xmarks

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