.. meta:: :description lang=en: My favorite Firefox extensions :description lang=fr: Mes extensions préférées pour Firefox ################################ My favorite Firefox extensions ################################ .. note:: This page is about extensions for Mozilla Firefox, the best web browser! For more details, maybe you should first read one of these: * for instance the `official Firefox extensions repository `_, * or on Wikipedia: `Extension (Mozilla) `_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My list of extensions --------------------- Please find below my list of favorite extensions for Mozilla Firefox, the best web browser!. .. note:: What is an extension? An extension is an additional piece of program a for your browser. I am focusing on the wonderful `Firefox `_ here. These extensions are somewhat similar to `Sublime Text plugins `_, so if you are interested: `I wrote a page about Sublime Text `_ too! For a better user experience ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - `Activate Reader View `_ (0.1.0) to easily activate the "reader view" on any website, - In addition to enabling spell checking with the (built-in) dictionary, this `LanguageTool `_ extension checks grammar with `LanguageTool.org `_. It integrates into any text box, it can be disabled for a particular website. By default, the plugin sends typed text online, which is not optimal for security and privacy (and doesn't work offline), but you can `install it yourself on your computer (with a little tweaking) `_. I find it incredible, I just discovered it (February 2021), - `Dark Reader `_ (4.5.0) to turn on a "dark mode" for (almost) any website, very nice when working during the night! - `JSONView `_ (2.0.0) to display nicely JSON files, - `Markdown Viewer Webext `_ (1.3.0) to display nicely Markdown files, - `Tab Session Manager `_ (3.1.1) to save and restore sessions (list of open tabs and windows), - `Tab Notifier `_ (3.1) to notify whenever a tab changes its title (*e.g.*, next video on YouTube). - `Textarea Cache `_ is tiny but very handy: it keeps the contents of the last textarea, those text editing areas in your browser. Very handy when you write an answer or a message but close the tab without paying attention… * `Tab reloader `_ to automatically reload a tab every 5 seconds or more. Useful for pages like `agreg.org `_ when waiting for the results of an exam (or other things)! For improved privacy and security ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - `Facebook container `_ (1.3.1), see `here on GitHub `_, to contain any tab when you log on Facebook: the other tabs don't know you are logged in, and you minimize the risk of seeing some of your private data stolen! - `Ghostery `_ (8.1.2) to block all trackers and analytic beacons! - `NoScript `_ (10.1.8) is even more powerful, and it allows a very fine control on what scripts do you allow to run, for every page. Rich configuration, very powerful tool! - `uBlock Origin `_ (1.16.4), see `here on GitHub `_, is **the best ad-blocker**. Nothing more to say. Warning: it is not the same as uBlock! - The tiny `Tracking Token Stripper `_ (2.1) allows to remove any Google Analytics (UTM) tracking tokens from URL query strings. Very simple but perfectly efficient! For customizing user experience ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - `Greasemonkey `_ (4.3), see `official website `_. - `Stylish `_ (3.0.5), and `this website to find userstyles `_. .. note:: My user scripts and user style sheets are available in `this folder on my website `_. For some specific websites ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - `Emoji Cheatsheet for GitHub, Basecamp etc. `_ (2.0.1) allows to easily pick "the right emoji" to reply on website such as `GitHub `_. - `GitHub File Icon `_ (0.5.0) shows icons associated with file types. Very small but very useful when browsing large code repository online! - `GitHub with MathJax `_ (0.2.3) (no yet published on `Firefox addons `_. Simple but efficient: uses `MathJax `_ to display nicely any LaTeX math equation in Markdown (and other) files seen on `GitHub `_. - `Quick Commands `_ provides a fast way to search and change between open Tabs or open tabs from History and Bookmarks. It's similar to the "command" mode from `VSCode `_ and `Jupyter notebooks `_. - `YouTube Control Center `_ (0.6.3), see `on the editor's website `_, allows a powerful control on `YouTube.com `_. In particular, I use it myself to hide (and even, do not load) the comments area, which I have always found stupid and useless (and it's more ecological and respectful of privacy!). - `YouTube Speed Control `_ is very small but allows you to change the video of your videos. It's essential for me, to listen to (and watch some of) all the channels of the channels in my subscription list. I look at my videos in French and English x1.75 by default, and lots of them are so slow that when I'm awake, I can go to x3 speed! For ecological purposes ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - `Carbonalyser `_ analyses which websites you browse the most, and which ones are the most polluting by analyzing the quantity of data sent and received. For me on February 2021, it was 34% `YouTube `_, 12% `Netflix `_ and 11% `9Gag `_. - `YouTube Audio `_ allows you not to receive the video stream, and therefore significantly reduces power consumption and therefore the ecological impact of your consumption of YouTube videos, if you don't watch them but just listen to them... .. seealso:: `What I watch on YouTube! `_ ; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous list ------------- There are a few lists of some useful extensions, kinda sorted by category. .. warning:: Completely out-of-date! This list was written in *October 2015*, so now it might be a little bit out-of-date… I checked it in *May 2016*, and it was alright. In 2017, from Firefox version 57, `the format of extensions changed `_, and most of the extensions I was using no longer exist. I keep the original list just for fun. Extensions *everyone* should have ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `AdBlock Plus `_ to completely remove advertising, pop-ups and other vicious things, * `InlineDisposition `_ and `Open In Browser `_ to *always* be able to open a document in the browser, instead of downloading it, * `NoSquint `_ allows to set the *zoom* and *text zoom* settings differently for each websites (just try it, it's awesome), * `Speed Tweaks (Speedy Fox) `_ to tweak some parameters of Firefox and improve its speed (just one click to do, it works wonderfully out-of-the-box), * `Tab Group `_ restores the old feature of tab grouping, which I consider mandatory (it was removed after Firefox v45+), * `Tab Mix Plus `_ adds many useful features if you like to use tabs. .. note:: « What about `Google Chrome `_? » I have never used another browser than Firefox, sorry… However, it should be easy for you to look for in the `Google Chrome extensions store `_ to find extensions similar to the one presented here. Styling extensions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `FabTabs `_ colors each tabs with a color representing its page (a Facebook tab will look blue for instance). Simple but awesome! * `FlagFox `_ adds a small flag of the country of the website (domain name but also hosting server), * `GNotifier `_ and `Tab Notifier `_ to integrate the browser notifications into the notification system of your desktop (and to display notifications for some pages that should do it but don't. For example it monitors any change of the page title for example, it works on Facebook, YouTube etc), * `Location Bar Enhancer `_ adds feature rich breadcrumb user interface in the location bar (weird at first, magical after), * `New Tab Tools `_ greatly improves the *"new tab"* page, * `Tab Wheel Scroll `_ to change tabs with the wheel (I don't use it but it is a nice feature). Extensions for *geeks* ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `Classic Theme Restorer `_ allows to disable some of the new Firefox theme features. This add-on restores squared tabs, the application button with application menu (known from Firefox for Windows), the add-on bar, bookmarks/history menu/sidebar buttons and other buttons, * `Customizable Shortcuts `_ allows to customize every single Firefox shortcut (I just use it to disable ``Ctrl+q`` and ``Ctrl+Q``… I don't want Firefox to quit without asking me with just a small shortcut!), * `Download Status Bar `_ adds nice feature for a better control of the downloading feature in Firefox, * `Stylish `_ lets you easily manage user styles: `user styles `_ are themes for web sites. I am a huge fan of the sweet `github-dark `_ custom style for `GitHub `_. See also `my style for live.com and outlook.com `_ (Outlook Microsoft webmail). * `Textarea cache `_ will save automatically the content in textarea or *"WYSIWYG"* editor when you are typing. Then you can recover the saved texts in the cache window, even if the tab or the window was closed unexpectedly. Read and view more types of files ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `Epub Reader `_ to read `EPUB `_ files in Firefox (e-books), * `FireFTP `_ brings some awesome `FTP `_ and `SFTP `_ features to Firefox, * `FireSSH `_ brings `SSH `_ to Firefox, * `JavaScript View `_ to nicely display `JavaScript `_ files in Firefox, * `JSONView `_ to nicely display `JSON `_ files in Firefox, * `Markdown Viewer `_ to nicely display `Markdown `_ files in Firefox, * `Wikiwand: Wikipedia Modernized `_ improves the ergonomy for `Wikipedia `_. Extensions for secrets agents (or paranoid people) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `BetterPrivacy `_ removes useless cookies and Flash cache when closing, * `Decentrales `_ allows to locally emulate the Content Delivery Networks. It is a great idea to improve both performance and anonymousness, * `Disconnect `_ removes trackers and advertising, * `Element Hiding Helper for AdBlock Plus `_ to be able to remove *any type* of web element (image, banner etc) like if it was an advertising handled by AdBlock, * `Facebook Disconnect `_ to completely disable Facebook's default tracking behavior on other websites, * `FlashBlock `_ disables by default Flash objects on every page (*note:* AdBlock or Ghostery offer the same feature). No more auto-played videos… * `Ghostery `_ is THE user-friendly tool to disable tracking cookies, tracking beacons and other mini spying softwares that are nowadays on every website (and I have nothing to about it: *this* website `alse uses Google Analytics `_…), * `HTTPS Everywhere `_ protects your communications by enabling HTTPS encryption automatically on sites that are known to support it, even when you type URLs or follow links that omit the ``https:`` prefix. * `NoScript Security Suite `_ is THE less-user-friendly tool to significantly improve security in Firefox: by default, *all unknown* ``javascript`` programs will be disabled (and many other improvements like XSS checks etc), * `SSLeuth `_ ranks an established SSL/TLS connection and gives a brief summary of the cipher suite, certificate and other SSL/TLS parameters, * `Toggle Proxy `_ if you use different proxies. Extensions for web-developers ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `Link Checker `_ to… quickly check links! * `Octotree `_ is sweet if you use `GitHub`_ a lot. * `Quick Locale Switcher `_ to… quickly change the ``locale`` settings (the language you ask the pages to be displayed), * `Reload Plus `_ to regain control of your cache (``Ctrl+F5`` reload the page, erasing the local cached version). Other extensions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * `All-in-One Sidebar `_ if you like having history, downloads, favorites all in the sidebar (useful on a large screen for example), * `Copy as Plain Text `_ if you work a lot with Markdown or other markup languages, * `Markdown Here `_ if you want to write fancy emails with Markdown, * `Mind the Time `_ allows to precisely monitor the time you spend on the web, each day, week and month, website by website. * `about:addons-memory `_ is simple but useful if your Firefox uses too much RAM: it adds a ``_ page displaying the memory use of *each* addons. If one is using *way* too much RAM, maybe it's time to uninstall it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Similar pages ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .. seealso:: `Applications for Android™ `_ List of the *best apps* for a **Android™ smartphone**. `Plugins for Sublime Text 3 `_ List of the *best plugins* for the awesome text editor **Sublime Text (3)**. .. (c) Lilian Besson, 2011-2021, https://bitbucket.org/lbesson/web-sphinx/