02/09: Are You A Firefox Toolbar Junkie?

With so many Firefox add ons available today, it is easy to go overboard with the number of toolbars running on your browser. I've reached the point where I can no longer happily exist with the full compliment of Firefox toolbars running all of the time and have to selectively turn them off when not in use. As the shot below shows, (click the thumbnail for a full size image) they would take up around half of the screen area were I to leave them constantly visible.

You will probably see some toolbars you recognize and maybe some that you don't, so just what are these add ons that I am so loathe to part with altogether?

The del.icio.us toolbar is rarely in use because as you can see, the icon already resides at the very top of my browser and makes bookmarking a simple click away, but it can be useful for quick access to things I've recently bookmarked myself.

Immediately below the address bar in the live bookmarks area you will see a collection of social bookmarking tabs that run the width of the browser and allow access to many more via the >> symbol and a drop down menu at the far right hand side of the field. Despite the prevalence of easy social bookmarking plugins that exist on a lot of sites, these are still very useful for quick social bookmarking duties.

Following the Del.icio.us toolbar comes Submit 'Em Now which I have to admit has fallen by the wayside in recent times and will probably be disabled before long. It's a useful add on for submitting to various blog directories but I find using RSS Submit is far easier and quicker.

Next you will see the essential Stumbleupon toolbar that I'm sure is familiar to most readers, and beneath that the Pay Per Post add on, which again, is surely well known by those involved in writing sponsored posts for PPP.

The next two toolbars are advertising related. Instant Buzz and Free Traffic Bar both show ads as you go about your business on the web, earning you ad credits of your own which are then shown on the desktops of other users who have the toolbars installed. Both are pretty unobtrusive, and, if you can write a good line of ad copy, do produce some traffic that you otherwise wouldn't probably have had. Useful, without being as fantastic as some will claim, but they can bring traffic to affiliate sites and the like, without any real effort on your part. FTB also includes some useful search features too.

Next up is the Compete toolbar which provides plenty of useful statistical information about the sites you visit including things like traffic history, available deals and coupon codes and what they call a trust certificate.

In prime position is the toolbar I couldn't live without. If you're still not using Roboform to secure your passwords and login information you really should give it a whirl. You will never have to forget another password and can therefore use very random password strings for all your sites, and only ever have to recall one master password. Roboform does all the rest and not only saves your memory, but greatly reduces the risk of someone else discovering your passwords.

Moving to the foot of the screen you will see the Commission Junction extension, a great little extra that enables you to check your account balance without the need to keep logging in to the site. Great for seeing how quickly the coffers are filling up.

We then see the ScribeFire icon, a useful external blog editor along the lines of Post2Blog and Qumana and to the right of that, the Veoh video plugin which gives access to streaming video and downloads from the Veoh network.

Next in line is the very useful Search Status add on (one feature I love is the ability to highlight nofollow links) and the Screen Grab and IE Tabs icons - the first a useful tool for screen captures and the latter enabling you to open an IE tab within Firefox for those times when it chokes on something (which it does do from time to time).

After a couple of statistical fields from Compete, in the far right hand corner is the Sparky Alexa toolbar which is unobtrusive and will eventually help to redress the previous IE bias in the calculation of Alexa rankings if enough Firefox users will use it.

There are other add ons in use, not immediately apparent from the screenshot - these include Simpy social bookmarking, another screen capture tool, Pearl Crescent Page Saver, and the Post2Blog Firefox add on.

So there you have it and I hope you will find one or two useful additions to your own browsers. Have I missed any good ones? Got any more recommendations?

I should point out that the Adblocker plugin which seems to grow in popularity will never find a home in my browser. As an advertiser myself it just seems hypocritical to install it. I'll never understand the fanatical anti-ad feelings of some people in any case, but, rest assured, when I visit your site, I will see it as you intend it to be seen.

TCH

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