Scott's Blog

There are many choices of browsers, some popular ones are Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. My favorite browser in terms of usability and speed in Mozilla Firefox. This post contains my favorite add-ons aka extensions that I use on my browser.

Xmarks – this allows synchronization of many things including your passwords, bookmarks, history, and any open tabs on other computers you have set up. This this add-on, you can visit a page on your home computer, leave, and open it on your Android phone or work computer in seconds. I have been with this add-on since it was known as Foxmarks which was in 2008. It has worked seamlessly with all my browsers and has recovered my bookmarks when I have made stupid mistakes .

Lastpass – this is by far the best password manager I have used. It was even recommended by the show Tekzilla on Revision3. Every time you enter your information on a new site, it will ask if you would like to save it in your Lastpass “vault”. When I open my browser, I only need to enter my master password and it will then autofill on any website that I have entered information for in the past. A big feature that I have found useful during college applications is Form Fill. Simply make a profile with all of your personal information such as name address and phone numbers and it will fill in the form automatically.

Firegestures – this add-on is more about functionality then features. You can set shortcuts using your mouse and keys. For example, if I hold down the right click button and scroll up with the mouse scroll wheel it will open a new tab. If I hold down the right click button and move my mouse to the left, it will go back to the last page I visited.

Cybersearch – this add-on puts Google search in your address bar for easy searching. If I were to type amazon into my address bar, it will give me a drop down list of the first 10 things that would have shown if I searched it with Google. It can also search with Bing (for all Microsoft lovers)

Adblock Plus – this add-on should be on all Firefox users’ browsers. It easily blocks almost every pop up and flashing banners that can get very annoying during your browsing. In my years of browsing with this add-on installed I have only encountered a handful of ads getting through. Best of all it prevents the ads on the bottom on Youtube videos!