How add-ons can enhance Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome

Both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome come with a large number of features out of the box, but you can make them even better by adding extensions and personalising them to suit your needs. Extensions are add-ons that are developed to enhance browser functionality. They can be complex (like an entire application) as well as simple (like a toolbar or a button). Extensions can be used for things like notifications from sites you visit often, bonus information about a page, to do things with fewer clicks and even view images and tabs in a new way. Read on to see some of our tip picks.

For both Firebox & Chrome 

IE Tab
Since some Web pages work only with Internet Explorer, the IE Tab extension allows you to run IE from within a tab in Chrome or Firefox so you can display them without leaving the browser. You can configure the extension to automatically switch to IE for URLs you specify. It's also very handy for sites like Outlook Webmail, which requires IE for full functionality.

Cooliris 
Cooliris is a fast and cool way to browse photos and videos. Rather than clicking through pages and pages of images and waiting for each page to render, you scroll through a 3D wall to search for images and videos. This plugin works on a number of sites like Google, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook. You can also search and window-shop stores of online retailers.

ForecastFox
The Forecastfox Weather extension adds an icon for current conditions and the temperature on your toolbar for weather at a glance. It pops out with an extended overview with just a click if you need more info. You can see the seven-day forecast, without even opening a tab.

Shareaholic
Though both the Chrome and Firefox extension library offer numerous options for integrating Web content with social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter , we found Shareaholic one of the best extensions for the purpose. It supports almost all the popular social networking site (Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn) and also integrates with Gmail and Yahoo . You can share, save or e-mail the page you're visiting to Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Google Reader and over 80 more. Videos, blogs and images can also be shared the same way.

Xmarks Bookmark Sync
Xmarks is a popular bookmarking tool. It gives you a backup of your bookmarks and lets you sync them across browsers and across computers. Xmarks also lets you control which bookmarks are synced to which computers, so that you can keep private bookmarks at home while syncing everything else to a work computer.

LightShot
LightShot makes taking screenshots of any selected area in a browser tab easy. You just hit the LightShot icon on the toolbar or status bar (or press ALT+T), select the area you want to make a screenshot and click ‘Save’ or ‘Upload to server’. If you upload, you instantly get link to the screenshot which can then be shared. It is also possible to resize and move the selection area right in the browser tab without opening any additional applications. The screenshots can also be edited (add text, draw lines and other such functions).

AutoPager 
AutoPager is a browser extension that loads the next page of a website automatically. By default, it works with a large number of websites like Google, New York Times, Digg and many more. Custom autopaging can be added to unsupported websites using the site wizard. It is very useful when going through search results; auto loading of the next page really helps speed things up.

Flash Video Downloader
Flash Video Downloader helps you to download flash video (.flv) from YouTube, Google Video and other sites with similar embedded video files in one click. You can download videos in the mp4 (iPod), AVI and other media formats. The extension also allows download of Flash Games from sites like gamespot.com, gamesvine.com, zoopgames.com and flashgames247.com.

Exclusively for Firefox

AutoProxy
AutoProxy is an add-on which helps you use your proxy (http/socks) automatically & efficiently. With this, you no longer need to manually switch your proxy status between on & off. If you prefer to visit a website via proxy, just add the domain to AutoProxy's preference. After that, whilesurfing, the specified websites will be transferred through a proxy while others connect directly. You can also subscribe to rule lists maintained by people who have similar requirements as you. This saves you the work of creating all proxy rules by yourself.

FoxTab 
FoxTab is a free 3D tab management add-on. With its six layouts, FoxTab enables grouping, filtering, closing and switching between tabs quickly and easily. It has the following features: Top Sites (a.k.a. Speed Dial) for quickly accessing your favorite web sites, Tab Flipper — to easily flip between opened tabs using the mouse or keyboard gestures and Recently Closed Tabs — for reopening a tab that was recently closed.

FastestFox
FastestFox is like a Swiss Army Knife for a virtual researcher. It allows you to save on-page video to your hard drive, even if there isn't a download link. If you highlight on-page text, FastestFox will offer a Wikipedia definition as well as links to multiple search engines for the selection. Clicking on the Wikipedia link will open all related Wikipedia articles into a handy left-column list.

Adblock Plus
Adblock is used to eliminate undesired elements and other annoying content like ads in pages. Adblock Plus is easily customisable and offers an entire subscription based automatic solution for the block list. Sometimes, Adblock Plus may omit necessary content and this is its only downside, but you can easily disable it temporarily if required.

Download Statusbar 
With this extension, downloads can be conveniently managed in the Firefox statusbar rather than displaying a separate dialog that pops up everytime. You can instant notifications and can easily pause and resume downloads by double clicking on the icons.

Exclusively for Google Chrome 

Gmail Checker
This extension embeds a little notification icon for your Gmail account in your toolstrip (the little bar at the bottom of the Chrome window). When you receive email, you will be alerted and a simple click will open a new Gmail window.

Google Talk From Your Browser
This little script allows you to add a GTalk icon to your launcher which, when run, opens up a window that simply requires your login and password to get you chatting.

Google Chrome Backup Extension 
The Google Chrome BackUp add-on creates, backups, restores and manages Chrome profiles. All history, bookmarks and related stuff are maintained easily with this add-on. So in case there is a system crash or accidental deletion, you can easily restore or get back all the lost settings.

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