As a blogger, the most clicked icon on my desktop is my Web browser application specifically, the Mozilla Firefox. I used it more often than I used my document and spreadsheet application. I thought it would be nice to add more power unto it. To add more capabilities than what it just supposed to do, and it would give me a lot of convenience and more quality browsing time.Web browser, especially the Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) have a lot of available code and snippets (thousands actually). Too many that we could get confused of what to install in our browser, what are the most helpful and can be practically used. Here are some few tips that could give your browser extra power. Click on the link (the name of the add-on) to go directly to the site where can download listed add-ons for free.
1. Adblock Plus – If you have enough of those annoying ads you should try Adblock Plus. Adblock plus is an add-on for Firefox that block, not just pop-ups, but regular banners, towers, rich media stuffs, and Google’s omnipresent ads. Though, Adblock plus doesn’t block everything, but it swipes enough that you will immediately notice the difference. Adblock Plus is FREE. For IE user, you could try the AdMuncher free for 30 days trial and then pay $30 for it.
2. Foxmarks – Foxmarks is a bookmark synchronizer. If you frequently use different computers, then you undoubtedly had to deal with different browser on each PC, each of those PC then have its own different set of bookmarks. To help you synchronizing all those bookmarks you could use the Foxmarks. Just install Foxmarks as add-on on all Firefox browsers on each system, then viola! You got all your bookmarks synchronized. As added bonus, you can freely access all your synchronized bookmarks on the Foxmark website.
3. FlashGet – FlashGet is an add-on that let you keep tracks to all your downloads, regardless of the application you are using. FlashGet is quite popular download manager that can help you organize and queue up FTP, BitTorrent, uTorrent and other types of downloads. FlashGet works in the background and let you pause and resume downloads. It works on any browser. And the best thing, its FREE.
4. Screengrab – You want to have a copy of a Web page and the Print Screen will not work because a page has too much content that it fills two display screens. What you need to do is to install a Screengrab. Screengrab is a Firefox add-on that lets you save a full page, a visible portion of the page, or just a small part of the page that you would want to copy. You may save it as digital file or print it out immediately. If you are using IE browser Screenshot can do the same thing for you.
5. FireFTP – Normally, an FTP application require installing another complete application, but not necessarily if you have FireFTP add-on. FireFTP is a Firefox add-on that turns your Firefox browser into an impromptu and speedy two-way FTP. Once it is installed in your browser, FireFTP appears in the Tools menu. Clicking it would open a new FTP tab, offering a simple two-pane system that lets you easily copy files between you desktop and your remote site.
6. Orbit Rich Media Downloader – You want to copy your favorite band Music Video from Youtube to your hard drive, normally, you go to a various Web services that let you copy-paste the URL of the video to receive a copy. But often than not, they are relatively slow and most of them wont work on less popular video-sharing sites. Orbit Rich Media Downloader adds a context-sensitive set of new menu item to your right mouse button in your Web browser. Every time you see a video on DailyMotion or hear a song new song on MySpace, just right click it and save it on your PC.
7. ErrorZilla – The standard “server not found” page error is useless if you are looking for a site that do not exist or cease to exist. ErrorZilla adds a series of buttons to the lower portion of usual “Firefox can’t server” error message, providing instant access to the Wayback machine like Google cache, Whois lookup and more.
8. Saving Protect Media Files – Have you have ever experience of wanting badly to save a picture of your ultimate idol but cannot because the site is protected and disable the right-click to prevent you from easy downloading? If you are Firefox user here’s some cool trick to let you save a protected media. Go to the site you want, right-click anywhere on the screen but not on image, and select View Page Info, then click the Media tab to see a list of all images on the page. You may scroll the list and a preview will appear at the bottom of the window. Click the Save As when you find one you want.
9. Firebug - Firebug is another Firefox free add-on that lets you integrates Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
10. Adsense Notifier – If you want to keep track your Adsense earnings daily, in real-time, the Firefox Adsense Notifier is a perfect plug-in for you. The total ad impressions, CPM, and your total daily earnings can be seen on the bottom right corner of your browser as they accumulate.
When we buy something we also choose the option that could give us the extras, it might a freebies or an extra services. But not all extras are good, there are some extras that could really get us in hassle and can cause trouble. In taking the extras, we should be careful and always try to stick to an old adage that says “Anything that is too much is bad.”
In a dictionary Extra is a prefix that means beyond or outside something. It is also an adjective that means more than usual (added to, or over and above, the usual, original, or necessary amount), it could also be an adverb the means exceptional. Extra could mean a lot of things, but here in ExtraBytes extra would mean rising above mediocrity. To stand-out and be noticed. To go beyond what people are just expecting from you and rise above the ordinary.
Let’s talk about the good extras, the bad extras and anything in between. Take your extra bytes today.
