Hopefully, you are using Firefox or at least one of the other good web browsers out there (read: anything but Internet Explorer). One of the best features of Firefox is its extendability through the use of Add-ons. Here are some that I consider essential for what I do almost every day.
Adblock Plus
Why aren’t you using this already? Seriously, Adblock Plus has to be the best thing that was ever put on the Internet. I can (almost) fearlessly browse the web and not be afraid of what inappropriate ads might show up on what should be an otherwise good website. If something does slip through the cracks, I simply right-click and select Adblock Image. For those sites which I feel safe and would like to support, I can selectively allow ads to appear.
Evernote
For this, you have to actually be using the Evernote service, but if you have ever wished you could save and organize anything from the web, our desktop or even iPhone in one place for later use, you will appreciate this. It organizes notes, webpage clippings, photos, screenshots and more for you. This addon makes clipping things from the web just that much easier.
Weave Sync
Imagine yourself browsing web at home and then going to your office computer, pulling up Firefox and all of your bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords and tabs from your home computer are right there waiting for you. That is the goal of Mozilla’s Weave Sync addon. It also syncs your passwords between devices. For password syncing I previously used Xmarks, which is still a great addon – especially if you use different browsers. But with Weave, that functionality is included, plus more. Weave uses its own server to sync with by default, or you can follow their instructions for setting up your own.
ProCon Latte
In addition to other web-filtering solutions, ProCon Latte is a nice little addon that “can filter any kind of material (pornography, gambling, hacking, cracking, etc…), it can also block all traffic, making sure that only desired websites (set in the Whitelist) can be accessed, and includes a profanity filter, all *like* a parental control filter.”
WARNING: It is not foolproof and can easily bypassed – so make sure you have other precautions in place.
Google Redesigned
I use Google’s services on a daily basis. I almost always have a tab with my Gmail account open. Our church & school use Google apps for our domain. Staring at a bright white screen just isn’t good on the eyes and the Google Redesigned add-on elegantly alleviates that problem by using CSS to change the look of Google’s services on the fly.
AutoCopy
Most of my computer work is done on Linux (Ubuntu, specifically), but there are occasions that I use OS X or even Windows. One of my favorite features of Linux is that I can highlight a selection of text and it is copied to the clipboard – no Control+C or Right-Click > Copy or (event worse) Edit Menu > Copy. It is just done! Then a simple middle-click will paste my selection. Unfortunately other operating systems do not implement this feature. AutoCopy takes care of this on those machines (at least for the web).
Better Gmail 2
Sometimes things in Gmail don’t work quite as you may want. Better Gmail 2 compiles some of the best Greasemonkey scripts out there for you so you can have great features like hierarchical labels, file attachment icons, hiding spam count, showing the unread message count on the favicon, and more.
Greasemonkey
You may be wondering what those Greasemonkey scripts I mentioned above are all about. This add-on may be a little harder to understand, because on its own it does absolutely nothing. It needs scripts to make it work, but it functions in a similar way to Better Gmail 2 and Google Redesigned by using scripts to modify your web experience on-the-fly. In fact, before Google Redesigned became its own add-on it was a couple of different Greasemonkey scripts. So, where do you get these wonderful scripts? The largest source is over at Userscripts.org where there are thousands of these scripts to enhance your web experience.
Zotero
When doing any type of research, including sermon preparation, it is best to cite, document, and organize your sources. Zotero does this effortlessly. It extracts bibliographic information from websites which can then be cited in your word processor like MS Word, or OpenOffice.org. The interface is very intuitive and allows you to search through and organize your saved items. Some of its functionality is duplicate with Evernote, but there are definite differences in purpose between the two.
My list is by no means definitive, so leave a comment about which extensions you use that weren’t included or which ones you may think should be dropped from the list.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting. Some of these I use and some I didn’t know about, this is very helpful information.
Thank you, Brian. I am happy that it was informative and could be of help to you.