PicLens deserves something...

iceman7

Perhaps it's just me, but I don't understand all the fuss about tagging and bookmarking. At this point, the only thing that would get me excited is an addon where someone turns the Scrapbook addon into a complete bookmarking solution that can easily synchronize all scrapbooked pages across all of my PCs/Macs/Linux boxes. I'm not talking about your usual, "associate a URL with a description and some cheesy tags". I'm talking about full web page snapshots that can be easily synch'd across multiple systems.

Right now, I'm using the second-best thing: Evernote. Yes, Evernote.

With Evernote, I can save large web-page snippets, trivially synchronize them across all of my systems, quickly search through everything, and go to the URL from which the snippets were taken. Oh, and since the synch'd Evernote database is local, you can do searches while offline. Also, the ability to search text inside images is pure gravy.

Who needs tags when you can just search across the web page text & images? ;-)

aj_robins

i like how last fm planted that toolbar

MuglyTheWorm

This is great! Thanks. I'll be checking all of these out. I can't wait to see what my FF RAM usage will be cranking at when I am all done!

gpzbc

WooHoo First!

I have a lot of extensions, but not any of those. The only one I am thinking of using is tagmarks, the others dont interest me that much, yet.

holdemm

Badges On Favicon isn't working for me.

Maybe it's because I'm using FaviconizeTab? I thought it would be nice if I could see my unread mail/feeds count when my tabs are faviconized.

Enishiru

I love me some scribefire for all my blogging needs on the go with my FF portable and at work, where I can't install software but I can install extensions.

RenRen

@Norcross: @VayaConQueso: I think this contest was all about extensions that took an advantage of Firefox 3 new features. Foxmarks does pretty much the same it did with Firefox 2, and does it quite well to the point I can't live without it.

t3mujin

@aj_robins: Scrapbooks and such aren't same thing as bookmarks, why would I need to have a web page snippet of my homebanking or the web panel of my blog? I only need the link. And for gathering pages and articles while surfing doesn't seem the best also, I have about 1000 bookmarks in my del.icio.us, and I know people who have more, and I honestly think I couldn't organize myself with Evernote or similar, it's easier to just have a link and a handful of "concepts" attached (like tags) to easily navigate those links.
For me scrabook tools (Evernote, OneNote, etc) are much more useful in situations where you have a smaller amount of information where you can easily visualize all the notes, just like an "end of the line" tool for gathering and organizing information.

t3mujin

Foxmarks is crucial to me.

I don't see anything in the list that is more useful to me than Foxmarks.

VayaConQueso

Screw that I just noticed pencil. As a wannabe web dev, ^_^

^_^

Phoshi

Nice remark on fleshbot :P

Close'n forget seems like a nice idea, and I laughed at webchunks (Note to IE devs: If you want there to be something special about your browser, don't tell anyone about it), but to be honest there's nothing there that seems... groundbreaking. They're all good ideas, but nothing that'd revolutionise anything. :(

Phoshi

@Norcross 2nd FoxMarks, really useful for anybody who uses more than one computer!

Mr.Sparkle

No love for FoxMarks? That's been one of the most beneficial add-ons for me.

Norcross

@Enishiru: Badges on Favicon doesn't work on Mac (yet). It took me a while to catch that in the first sentence on their website.

twins8791

@Enishiru: Yeah, I can't get Badges on Favicon to work for me, either. That is something that would be perfect. I keep Gmail and Google Reader open all the time anyways, but this extension would allow me to do away with the Gmail Notifier and the GReader Notifier. Pitty. Hopefully they fix it.

xious

I don't browse as much as I would like...
[lifehacker.com]
LOL!

xint

oh, sorry, I guess they did...
[news.cnet.com]

xint

did they ever announce whether FF3 received a Guinness World Record for downloads?

xint

I'll nominate three of my favorites, just because.

Adblock Plus - c'mon, nobody really wants to look at web ads.
delicious bookmarks - helps organize bookmarks
and, uh...
Google Gears - hey, it's got potential.

dylan_k

@scott johnson: Well, pencil looks very interesting, and I may have to switch to last.fm if Pandora dies.

aj_robins

@JohnGonzo: Heh, I don't think of it as the "wisdom of crowds". I think of it as the "hysteria of unwashed villagers".

Still, sharing does have its place. For example, it's useful for sharing research or interesting URLs amongst friends/colleagues/spouse.

aj_robins

It seems that the "None of the aboves" have it! :)

scott johnson

@t3mujin: OK, Evernote is not a 100% complete replacement for bookmarks, and a lot of it is influenced by personal habits. However ...

I do still use bookmarks for frequently-accessed pages. In particular, while I no longer use the pull-down bookmark menu (this is in Firefox, BTW), I do heavily use a bookmark toolbar. I only have frequently-accessed bookmarks there, though.

One of my issues with bookmarks is that you have to constantly manage/tag them, or bookmarks becomes a black hole. For example, a few years back (this was with Mozilla, before Firefox came about), I'd bookmark, and bookmark, and bookmark. After a while, I'd go through the bookmarks, and attempt to organize them into some vague bookmark/folder hierarchy. Unfortunately, at one point, I let too many unsorted bookmarks pile up, and I gave up organizing them. There was an annoying delay in bringing up the bookmarks menu, and scrolling through all of the bookmarks was painful. I don't like this.

Similarly, my del.icio.us account has nearly 1300 bookmarks. I'd put something into del.icio.us, and it would vanish as if into a black hole. Searching didn't always help, generally because neither the URL nor the tags contained the search word. Del.icio.us searching is also slow (IMHO), and so I'm not crazy about it.

Evernote solves most of my problems. Yes, it doesn't quite make sense to copy your current financial information into Evernote (or maybe it does -- if you want to quickly search through it), but you can just copy the web page title and description into Evernote.

I suppose that you can think of bookmarks-in-Evernote as "bookmarking for the disorganized". If you religiously manage your bookmarks and tags, then you probably don't need Evernote for bookmarks. On the other hand, as I'm disorganized, I need it. (Heh, I think I'll write up a blog post on this, and further expand upon what I've written. Meep.)

aj_robins

@aj_robins: I agree about tagging and tag clouds and all this "sharing" crapola... not worth the bother. I don't believe in Wired's "wisdom of crowds" nonsense either.

JohnGonzo

Been using Read-It-Later for quite a while now...wickedly useful to me. ^__^

Installed Bookmark Previews ~1.5 months ago...I love the idea of having thumbnails of all the websites in my bookmarks. ^__^

The Pencil extension is VERY interesting looking...

Asian Angel

the Fire.fm add on is $$$

mw2006

D'oh.. I meant 'it's'

Jrsy

@iceman7: Agreed. PicLens rocks. Too bad it Windows only..

Jrsy

I second the votes for:

Adblock Plus
Foxmarks

They are my essentials.

gpzbc

When I go to install Close 'N Forget, I get a WOT (Web of Trust) warning that the site "site.voila.fr" (the home site of Close 'N Forget) is not trustworthy (vendor reliability and privacy. There are comments that it is a phishing site.

TheSeeker

"Close n Forget". Fuggedaboudit. For me, at least, it did absolutely nothing. Well, it turned orange.

Stormbringer

Unfortunately, Close 'N Forget doesn't close anything. I haven't tested its ability to Forget yet.

YachiraG

I have to say I loved ReadItLater....

But I noticed my computer would lock up completely (control-alt-delete wouldn't do anything).

I reset all my add-in's and the problem reappeared when I enabled ReadItLater, so for now it's disabled...

GreggMarshall

There are a lot of extensions I like, but these ones don't do it for me.

How's about someone fix Snap Links for Firefox 3? It ALMOST works fine as it is!

mDuo13

Tab Mix Plus was awesome in FF 1. But FF 3 implemented much of what TMP had to offer.@Merlinhoot:

gpzbc

Just remember, The more add-ons you add, the longer it takes Firefox to load up after it checks for updates for each one. At least that is my theory for my lag in performance when I start up FF each time. My favorite is Tab Mix Plus which offers features I think should be standard like opening up new tab with homepage instead of a blank page.

Merlinhoot

Bookmark Previews? Did the judging not include implementation. It's a great idea and I rushed to try it but it just wasn't fully realized. I suppose it would be perfect for a fresh/clean FF install, but it was horrid for me. It got the wrong thumbnails way too many times and I wasn't about to visit every single bookmark to assure they came out right.

jupiterthunder

I vote none of the above b/c Adblock Plus is definitely my favorite.

kli6891

Glad I learned about Read It Later here, I was earlier using Instapaper, then Readbag, then Firefox 3's 1-click bookmarks, but I may have to switch to this. I'll know in a few days. :)

Torley

I'd prefer to see IETAB in MACOSX Firefox 3. I just noticed I could not download it.

MCWHAMMER

+1 for Adblock Plus & Foxmarks.

Don't like ReadItLater at all, find it tedious. Taboo is much more streamlined, and very easy to use.

capintro

I tried to install HandyTag and was not able to. This is the error message that I got:
________________________________________________________
Firefox could not install the file at

https: //addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/file/31908/handytag-1.0-fx.xpi

because: Not a valid install package
-207
________________________________________________________

Am I the only one?

gawyn210

I want an add-on that gives you one small button.

When you push the button, the browser comes up and quickly goes to the URL you put in. It doesn't eat up huge amounts of memory. It doesn't pop up one single thing at you. It doesn't make noise. It doesn't twitter, flipper, IM, or dig anything.

It would probably be Opera with a bit more flexibility.

That said, I really do like FF3. I use NoScript, CSlite, Unplug, Adblock, and Torbutton.

leftystrat

1. you key into the awesome bar
2. you make a selection
3. you want to select another ...
4. ... go loop to step1 :(
!
let's fix that with a shift key !

deochNdorus

Why is everyone voting "None of the above" and suggesting their favorite extensions. Do they not read the article in the fact that these are taking advantage of new features in Firefox 3? Foxmarks, Adblock, TMP are all good extensions, but they're old and have not been updated to utilize the new FF3 features.

I still wish I could get Badges on Favicon to work. I've double checked the javascript and everything. It just flat out doesn't work but I so want it to.

xious

I would like ReadItLater more if it was Taboo.

Jezebeau

Could one of our intrepid LH coder-types come up with a JS badget for the LH page? ...for when new articles come up?

Xanderificus

None of the above deserve to be there, They should add:

-Tab Mix Plus [there is a working version on FF3]
-FoxMarks
-Adblock Plus
-RIP [Remove it Permanently]
-Download Statuesbar
-Tiny Menu

These extensions are the reason am using Firefox, Thanks to all authors who makes our life easier <3

tartooob

@Jrsy:

A. Piclens has been around for Mac for ages

B. Its no longer called PicLens, its now called cooliris

AndiC

@MCWHAMMER:

"
I'd prefer to see IETAB in MACOSX Firefox 3. I just noticed I could not download it.
"

Lmao you guys crack me up!

IETAB Requires IE and uses its web browser control, so no its not going to work on MACOSX

AndiC

can anyone help me with the fire.fm extension? it used to work just fine, but now it keeps giving me the "communication failed" line.
also, i absolutely love Read it later and fire.fm (before i got this bug)

blackeyes1989

@Stormbringer: same here; did someone get this to work? maybe it interferes with some other extension? it has never happened to me (only having a lot of gmail extensions and greasemonkey scripts running at once). I guess somebody tested it before posting

rafasan

@gawyn210: Go into the Options Panel and to Privacy, make certain that you have 3rd party cookies enabled.

I had been having the same problems as you with some of the extensions until I did this...hopefully that should solve the problem for you as well. ^__^

If you are worried about cookies, you can always set the option to only keep cookies until you close Firefox (which is what I have done). ^__^

Asian Angel

On Bookmarks...
>There was an annoying delay in bringing up the bookmarks menu, and scrolling through all of the bookmarks was painful.

Try this link, then drag it to your toolbar:

chrome://browser/content/bookmarks/bookmarksPanel.xul

You get a nice page with a scrollbar, similar to the old bookmarks.html file, but also with collapsed/expandable folders and the page's own Search box at the top. I love it. And if you like that you might also like:

chrome://browser/content/history/history-panel.xul

Beldar

TabScope gets my vote - provides vista taskbar like thumbnail views of open tabs. Very useful when you have a bunch open at once.

virgilstar

@Asian Angel: Thank you so much it worked like a charm.

gawyn210

The most useful addons for me are:

1. MR Tech Toolkit, 2. Ablock Plus + Adblock Plus Element Hiding Helper, 3. Peers, PicLens, and 4. FasterFox.

A lot of the above addons are not very useful, at least in my eyes, except maybe Fire.fm and ReadItLater. Tagging is a waste of time to me, and I do not see much use in it.

HellTempest

I think it's funny that some of the runner up add-ons didn't work for the author but they still included them in the list based solely on concept.

I have a firefox addon that cures cancer, it doesn't work, but it's a killer idea, can I get on the list?

Navin R Johnson

Scrapbook wasn't mentioned, I think it's an awesome add-on for research.

johnmjack

@aj_robins:

I use Scrapbook and synchronize it with dropbox and it works quite well. I prefer to have one tool for specific purpose than bloated swiss army knife. Especially that i synchronize keepass database, supermemo database, IM logs, firefox plugins and any other databases/application configuration as well (sort of online profile). This way I save time during system reinstallation knowing that i have every needed data in dropbox.

There is also workaround re. tags in Scrapbook. I just write tags in 'comment' input while capturing page (eg. " ") and then search through using provided searchengine. However you don't see tags list so it's better to have some 'static' in your head.

zathril

@zathril: But aren't you just mirroring identical copies via dropbox (and aren't you doing it manually? -- I don't see a scrapbook addon for dropbox, just one for box.net). The advantage of Evernote is that all of the databases do not have to be identical before editing. I can add or edit items on any PC or Mac, and all of the changes get bidirectionally synchronized. I can add an item on one PC, add an item on another PC, and edit another item on a laptop, and all of the changes get synchronized. With Scrapbook, I'd have to manually force all of the PCs/Macs to be synchronized before I can add/edit anything, and then do another synchronization before I can do anything elsewhere.

Besides, Scrapbook isn't accessible via the iPhone. Evernote is. ;-)

aj_robins

Close'n forget never even showed up as a Firefox add-on on Mozilla's site, only downloadable from the weird link. Red flag. Seems like a giant wiff on Mozilla's part.

Kajo

but other than close&forget (and maybe fire.fm) I can't see any of them that seem remotely useful.

I might play with Pencil though.

soul_grind

I like the idea of close and forget. I've wondered for ages why web browsers don't have a secure mode. (though i hear MS and FF are working on it, Mac has it... and i bet opera has it too.)
It'd be nice to have site configurable security.. so if i open my bank then it sandboxes it, secures it, and deletes all private info on close.

I've been using the Diigo toolbar, and it seems to do a pretty good job covering about 4 of the extensions mentioned above. I can add bookmarks to diigo (which saves a cached version) but also mirror them and the tags to my local firefox and delicious, and it gives tag suggestions.

It also has a "unread" option and an unread dropdown right from the toolbar. (i just uninstalled readitlater, great though it is).

It also has a useful configurable right-click search option, so i can search google, wikipedia, skreemr, last.fm, imdb right from a highlighted word.

(plus of course it does notes, which was the initial purpose. kinda like the new evernote beta. plus posts to blogs and group collaboration. )

soul_grind

I can't find the Close 'N Forget addon. I download it from their site and un-zip it and I get a folder with no .xpi. And the addons.mozilla.com doesn't have it on there.

enzogt14

@xious and @twins8791:
I just realized that the add-on is not compatible with Tab Mix Plus (which I am using). Needless to say, the latter is much more useful. Badges on Favicon is still in sandbox, so I expect they'll fix this issue at some point.

Enishiru

Read It Later is the best for me. Really like the neat looking and graphical integration, the synchro and offline features and the ease of use.
I find the above mentionned Taboo an unfinished business. It is ugly to me, does not synchro, and has no offline capabilities.

klint

@Gina: I'm really glad you liked Badges On Favicon. It's an honour, really :)

@xious @Enishiru: It's weird I'm using FaviconizeTab and it works fine. Can you please send me a mail with your current list of extensions to pautomas (a) gmail (dot) com?

Pau Tomàs

(vimperator + noscript extensions) + noscript + download status bar = FTW

thereofone

My experience wouldn't be the same without Foxmarks, DTA, or Google Redesigned ;)

UnderLoK

Yes, Foxmarks has been around since Firefox 2, but it should have at least gotten mentioned for updated add on. Not sure if it was around for the last release, but something I just started using was the profiles in Foxmarks. I love having all of my bookmarks in one central location and picking which ones get synced with my work computer, home computer, laptop, etc... Great tool!

briguy73

This extension didn't make the cut, but its still well worth a try. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8464

SharmisthaTubulus

I was looking for Close n Forget myself but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work.
There is one option that is similar though, it's a button you can click to visit websites in "Secure Mode" where it basically deletes your trace on websites while in the secure mode. The only catch is that it hasn't been updated for FF3 yet so you'll have to use a hack to use it now. But here it is: [addons.mozilla.org]

jasonhaley

I love the del.icio.us add on. I can't live without it!

scaredmouse

I was praying for something useful to all of us like an add-on to finally repair the "send link" option so you could e-mail a link of a web page to others. It's been broken for quite some time. A fix would be greatly appreciated instead of add-ons still in the "developmental" stage. How about it, Mozilla?

ronreb

For anyone looking for an easy to use totally free PDF creator and editor(Actually edits rather than just combining other documents into one one PDF file).

Check out PDFescape.com (also a firefox extension).

Can be a great webmaster tool as well because it allows pdf.s to be linked to it for editing (webmaster can decide which tools to include), plus there is no software to install to use it.

boyanonymous

Another vote for FoxMarks. Really a lifesaver for anyone who uses more than one computer.

naiaha

ReadItLater is an awesome extension - very useful for people who browse the web and mark content for later reading.
ReadItlater is tightly design with all needed features (Read offline, quick search and more).

nir_dremer