Being a hardcore Opera user for a long time now I never really bothered with other browsers that much. Sure, we've all tried different browsers at some point, but after that we always go back to our favorite. A little more than a month back Firefox released a new version - 3.6.3 - and after hearing some good things about the new version, like support for extensions like Chrome, I decided to give it a try. As it turns out, I'm actually quite impressed with it.
I wanted to see if it was possible to integrate all the good functionality of Chrome and Opera into Firefox. I did notice that Firefox gets a little sluggish if you install many extensions, and after a weeks use, the start up time is noticeably slower. So let's check out some of the must-have extensions for Firefox.
Speed Dial
If you're a migrating Opera user then the first thing you'll notice is the lack of a Speed Dial feature in Firefox. This is something that I really can't do without ever since Opera integrated it. However, it has its limitations and you can't have more than 25 speed dial buttons. While this is good enough, there's no harm in adding more, especially if you have a large widescreen monitor.
The Speed Dial extension gives you just that, plus a lot more. You can control exactly how many rows and columns you want, the size of each window, use thumbnails for each site instead of actually showing the site and much more. It doesn't end there; you can even create groups, which are like tabs that contain more windows. So you can have one tab for 'News' and store all shortcuts for news sites, another for 'Technology', etc.
Personas
This is a very nice tool for managing all your themes as well as finding new ones. A little fox icon appears in the bottom left corner of the browser through which you can choose various themes from different categories. Unlike Chrome, the themes are applied instantly without having to save them first.
Yoono
This is probably the best extension I've come across so far, and if you're a regular on Facebook, Twitter and other IM's, then you'll love this. For Yoono is a one stop solution for all your socializing needs as it integrates all the popular chat clients like GTalk, MySpace, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and even LinkedIn, Flickr, FriendFeed. It also supports multiple accounts for each service. While you get a pop up in the bottom of the screen for any update you receive. This too is completely customizable; from the position of the Yoono bar to the color.
Download Statusbar
Instead of the annoying separate download window that pops up in Firefox, this extension gives you a slick little notification just above the information bar below, with a lot more details, like the site from where you downloaded the file, ETA, speed, etc.
Cooliris
First introduced as a Google Chrome extension, Cooliris lets you browse your photo and video collection in a radically different way. Not only that, it has also tied up with many sites, like YouTube, Flickr, etc., so you can view photos from the web as well in a side scrolling carousel.
Tab Mix Plus
Lastly, we have this extension that adds more functionality to tabs and adds some basic features like duplicate, change tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager.
That's all for now, if you come across something that we've missed, feel free to comment below.
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