I have recently taken the plunge and updated to Firefox v3. This is the latest and greatest release of Firefox and a dramatic improvement over previous versions. After using it for a few weeks, I have to say that I enjoy it, but notice all that much of a difference. Not sure if this sacrilege, but I really liked Firefox v2 and this just seems to be more of the same which is not a bad thing.
As part of the installing the new Firefox, I also reviewed all of the plugins available and decided to implement many more. My current favorites include:
| Plugin | Description |
| Adblock | An excellent tool which removes ads from websites. It is simple and transparent. |
| Chatzilla | A lightweight IRC client. Why is this needed? You never know when you need it and it is just nice to have it. |
| Cooliris | This provides quick page previews. It is helpful, but not one that I cannot live without. |
| Download Status Bar | This is a great plugin that simplifies how Firefox handles downloads. It puts the download in the footer bar instead of spawning a new window. |
| Firefox Showcase | This is a tool that allows you to view thumbnail images of all open tabs. Cool, but not a neccessity in my mind. |
| Fisheye Tabs | This add-on makes tabs dynamically expand when you mouse over. It is very helpful when you have many tabs open and allows you to avoid scrolling. Highly recommended. |
| FXIF | A simple tool for viewing EXIF data on any picture. Simple and reasonably useful. |
| IE Tab | This is by far the coolest and most useful plugin. I effectively integrates Firefox and IE browsers and allows you to open a page inside Firefoxwith IE. This is particularly useful for those sites that require IE or don’t work well with Firefox. It is highly recommended. |
| Image Zoom | This allows you to easil zoom in and out of large images. |
| Scribefire | This add-on is new to my collection and I am testin it out. It allows you to post to blogs remotely via the plugin. You literally open the plugin and start tying away. It works quite well and I plan on keeping it. |
I definitely recommend that you check these out. The most compelling ones are IE Tab and Download Status Bar.
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