1. FoxTab
2. Awesome Screenshot (Firefox 4) or ScreenGrab (Firefox 3)
3. Multiple Tab Handler
4. InstantFox
5. Apture Highlights
1. FoxTab
For those of you who have dabbled in all the browsers and liked what you found on the Safari/Google homepage with the windows, this is a great replication of that functionality right here in Firefox. The addon can be used as a page transition tool, or as I more like to use it, as a multi window view of my favourite most visited sites.
2. Awesome Screenshot (Firefox 4) or ScreenGrab (Firefox 3)
As part and parcel of researching different topics, taking screen captures is a must. This addon not only lets you take screen shots of the entire page (both visible and below the page fold) to save to disc, but also lets you annotate the screen shots before exporting. Great for user documentation creation.
Screen Grab was my tool of choice in Firefox 3 due to its no clutter interface, although its doesn’t provide annotation. At present its not supported in Firefox 4
3. Multiple Tab Handler
This is one of those addons that comes in very useful when constantly find yourself going of on research threads with multiple tabs open, only to realise you’ve run out of time to read all the articles that you’ve queued up. Simple, just right click on the tabs and ‘Copy URI’s of All Tabs’ and paste then in to your favorite notes application for reference at a later date (Evernote my tool of choice), output can be as simple text, page title and URL, or HTML. Example below of the Page Title and URL
BBC News – Blues pianist Pinetop Perkins dies aged 97
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12814133
life directive – Google Search
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=life%20directive&fp=1&cad=b
Firefox 4 slips out ahead of tomorrow’s official release — Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/21/firefox-4-slips-out-ahead-of-tomorrows-official-release/
4. InstantFox
For those of you who used Goggle Chrome and loved the search straight from the tool bar, this Addon brings the same functionality to Firefox. Just type ‘g Searchwords’ in the address bar and you’ll get your results in the Browser window. Other prefix’s are available for other site searches. Gret for when you thought you knew the URL of that site you wanted to visit but want to turn it to a search instead.
5. Apture Highlights
Great Addon for when you want to understand more about a phrase or word when your on a website. The beauty being you don’t have to open a new tab and search for the term you want more info on. All you have to do is select the term, right click and select more info, and the information your after pops up in a bubble on top of the browser session. Great for cutting down on Tab Clutter!