How to Make a Switch from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox? Part 3

HOW TO INSTALL AN EXTENSION:

~ Firefox's extensions manager lets you search, install and remove any extension with just a few clicks. I have added a video to add one of such extension to illustrate how you can add any extension.

~ You can also search extensions from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/

~ Resource section contains the direct links to all extensions and other parts of this series.

~ I have organized extensions into different categories for easy access.

FAVORITES OR BOOKMARKING:

~ Foxmarks: This is the most popular bookmark synchronization extension. If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you can install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized.

~ Google Bookmarks Menu: This extension creates a menu to access your Google bookmarks from any computer. You need Google Account to use this extension.

EMAIL ACCESS:

~ Gmail Manager: It allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications.

~ Yahoo! Mail Notifier: It builds Yahoo! Mail in your browser, notifying you when you receive new emails.

PHOTOS, MUSIC AND VIDEOS:

~ FoxyTunes: It lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

~ PicLens: If you search for pictures or videos on web a lot. This is the must. It will transform your browser into a visually stunning full screen, 3D experience for finding and viewing online photos and videos. It lets you search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, news feeds, sports feeds, and more.

It works with Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Google Images, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, DeviantArt, Yahoo image search, Live image search, Ask image search and many more.

~ DownloadHelper: It is easy way to download online videos from Youtube, MySpace, Google Videos, DailyMotion, iFilm and others. It can also convert them to your preferred video format.

SECURITY:

~ NoScript: It Stops all scripts on every website you visit, helping avoid advertisements, malicious spyware and computer viruses. You can manually allow any trusted scripts.

If you really have a need for this kind of control, then you need to install this extension. But an average Web surfer does not need to use it.

~ Adblock Plus: It allows you to right click on an ad and block it from all future visits.

~ Flashblock: It blocks ALL Flash content from loading, thus preventing those annoying flash animations. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content.

(These security features are often controversial extensions, as it blocks the ads from the websites, which are prime source for their income.)

FEEDS AND BLOGGING:

~ ScribeFire: Scribefire is full-featured blog editor built right into your web browser.

~ RSS News Reader: This is the most downloaded of the Firefox Extensions and boasts such features as a feed search, integrated Google and Feedster search, and monitors weather and your Gmail account for you. It also includes several languages.

~ Sage - This feed reader has gained a lot of popularity recently. It boasts a feed locator, integration with bookmarks and live bookmarks, and technorati integration.

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING:

~ StumpleUpon – it lets you “channelsurf” the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting web pages that you wouldn’t think to search for.

~ Digg This! – It adds a Digg This! menu to your web browser, making it easy for one click submit.

~ Del.icio.us - Official Del.icio.us extension.

~ Facebook Toolbar - Facebook developers created this toolbar for your Facebook account.

MISCELLENEOUS:

~ Forecastfox: It lets you check your local weather and weather alerts from your web browser (based on your zip code).

~ QuickRestart: It adds an option in File Menu to restart Firefox.

~ Colorful Tabs: It adds color to your browser tabs, helping you to differentiate between each tab.

~ DownThemAll: Download Them All adds advanced download capabilities. It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want.

~ IE Tab: It embeds Internet Explorer within a Firefox tab. You can easily see how web page is displayed in IE with just one click; you can also switch back to Firefox.

There are just too many extensions to describe them all. You can search and find them for your specific need.