I've seen a few of these sort of posts around lately, and because I can't think of anything original to blog about disagree with them all, I am going to list my own top 5 extensions you absolutely must have. Because I said so.
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I know, I know. It "robs innocent webmasters of their income" or whatever but I never, ever click ads. I don't read them, I don't like them, I disagree with them. I don't mind a text link or something but big banners full of "ZOMG CLICK HERE!!1!1" flashing images = big no. I won't block a text ad, but I will and do block images and Flash ads. If you want me to click things, make them unobtrusive instead of blinding me with flashings from all directions.
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I am far too lazy to copy and paste URLs that aren't clickable into my address bar, so this handy extension does it for me. There is a better one but as yet I've not tried it and I'm happy with the one I've got, so I don't know if I'll use it.
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Because I simply must know whether your site is valid or not. No, really... The most useful thing about this extension is that when you view the source of a page you're working on, it highlights the errors in the source and tells you what's wrong. It'll even tidy the whole thing up for you with one click if you want it to (yes, that's where the extension's library gets its name from - HTML Tidy - because it tidies things up for you. Get it? :P ).
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This one is probably not as essential if you don't need to do screenshots or anything like that, but basically it will take a screenshot of the entire page, not just the bit that's currently on your screen. I like it since I can screenshot a full page of content (useful for people like me whose printer doesn't work and who want to save the current page they're on - yes, you can do "save page as" or print it to a file, but I think this method is quicker and easier, so that's why I use it).
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Tamper Data stopped working for me when I upgraded to Firefox 2, but it's a great extension meant for detecting vulnerabilities in scripts. It's got SQL injection and XSS stuff built in and ready to go to test your scripts to the limit. Of course, if you don't write or use scripts or anything then this extension is a bit useless to you.
Of course, there are the other extensions everyone recommends, like the Web Developer Toolbar, NoScript, IE Tab, etc., etc., which are very useful and which I have, but like I said, everyone recommends those so I thought I'd mention some of the lesser-known ones.
Regarding the last entry, yes, I had written an entry about how my house seemed to have accumulated some bedbugs. That entry decided to disappear off the face of the earth and I have no idea why. Anyway, upon closer inspection it appeared the bugs weren't bedbugs, but carpet beetles and pest control won't deal with those without charging us some hugely expensive fee so I've just gone mad with insecticide and we'll see how that turns out. Urgh.
Rachael
13/10/2007 at 21:29
I use 1, 3, and 4. *recommends as well*
#3 and #4 are uber. *nod*
Jamie
14/10/2007 at 0:58
Thanks for recommending 3 & 5. I had never used or heard of them before :)
Rilla
14/10/2007 at 7:08
I like the description of TamperData but I don't get how it works... :(
Amelie
14/10/2007 at 9:06
Yeah, Tamper Data is a bit difficult to get your head round at first, but basically you open the window from the FF Tools menu, then click "start tamper". Submit a form (blank or otherwise, doesn't matter) and a dialog box will come up in the Tamper Data window asking you if you want to tamper with the request. Click "tamper" and from there you can mess with what's sent in the form. Right-click the form fields in the tamper screen (what comes up after you click the tamper button) to get all sorts of common SQL injection and XSS attacks. When you've finished messing with stuff, click "stop tamper" otherwise you'll be asked if you want to tamper with things every time you click a link (a bit annoying).
(Oh and before anyone decides to try this extension out on my site, you should be aware that I and others have already been through it rigorously with said plugin so your input is not really needed, kthx) :P
Vixx
14/10/2007 at 20:22
Doesn't matter how many of these things I see, I always pick up a great new extension! Thanks, Amelie.
We have carpet beetles and I don't know a single other person (in the UK, anyways and will admit it) who doesn't. I see one perhaps once or twice a month. They can fly in through windows and don't need to mate or something, so it's hard as fuck to truly get rid of 'em!
V xx
Hannah
14/10/2007 at 20:41
I just installed URL Link! I love it.
Kim
16/10/2007 at 12:58
Just Installed HTML Validator... Very useful! Thanks :)
Louise
17/10/2007 at 1:28
The only one of those I use is HTML Validator, and as a web developer it's helped me a lot.
Tracy
18/10/2007 at 19:05
Screengrab seems cool. #3 I have already (more than once, ehem) Thanks for posting them, I already installed most of them :D
Rilla
22/10/2007 at 22:56
Lol you guessed I would like to tamper with your forms here. :P But aww doesn't work with FF 2.
Lils
25/10/2007 at 11:07
Thanks for reccomending 3, I'll take a look at it. :)