Well, here is something with a difference. While this thread has nothing whatsoever to do with designing, Biorust.com is a website, after all, and we all want our browsing experience (not just confined to Biorust, but I mean the entire package) to be as smooth, and uneventful, as possible. With this foremost in my mind, I have compiled a list of items that will allow you to get the best out of the Web. I hope you find this useful. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Please feel free to add your own discoveries, be it an useful tip, or an exemplary download accelerator.
I shall start with the browser and build upwards on its useful modifications, finally ending with stand-alone packages.
For the sake of simplicity, I will mention only one browser. Doubtless there are a number of them around, and each will have its fans. However, this thread will deal only with the one best suited for the casual user, in my opinion, and exclude the others. Feel free to discuss the merits and demerits of other browsers below, but flaming shall be dealt with strictly and swiftly, and the default choice of mine is still recommended.
Well, here goes...
We all know and love Firefox, and we all know that it has one awesome feature: modding.
Firefox can be infinitely modified using extensions. You can find really useful extensions that do all sorts of things. I thought I'd make a list of the best extensions from my experience. These may not be the most popular, but they are the most useful, certainly!
I suggest you get each of them and also Firefox, if you are not currently using it. Firefox is the best all-round browser, with only Opera coming close to beating it.
Getting Started with Firefox
Essentials:
Adblock Plus:
Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose "Adblock" from the context menu - the banner won't be downloaded again. Or open Adblock Plus sidebar to see all elements of the page and block the banners. You can use filters with wildcards or even regular expressions to block complete banner factories.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
Google Safe Browsing:
Warns you of scam pages and fraudulent sites.
Google Safe Browsing for Firefox
StumbleUpon:
Bored? Click the 'Stumble!' button. You will be instantly taken to a random high-quality webpage reviewed by other users.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138
Answers:
Alt-click on any word to instantly look it up on Answers.com.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/735
Fasterfox:
Tweaks Firefox to make it run and browse faster.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269
BackgroundImage Saver:
Some sites resort to placing pictures hidden under a transparent gif so that you can't just right-click and save them. Ripping these usually mean going into source code. But with this extension, right-click and choose 'Save Background Image As.." and Voila!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1853
DownThemAll:
This is a wonderful extension that can replace Firefox's own useless download manager. It supports acceleration, resuming and one very nifty feature: downloading all the links and images on a page!! Imagine how useful this is on 4Chan and other imageboards!!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201
Colourful Tabs:
While this is not really 'essential', it does make Firefox look very slick indeed!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1368
Auto Copy:
Instantly copies any selected text on a webpage! This is probably the best plugin in the world!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/383
Other Stuff:
Noia eXtreme Theme:
This is undoubtedly one of the best themes for Firefox around, and is well-complemented by the Colorful Tabs extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/72
Free Download Manager:
Don't look anywhere else! This is absolutely the best download accelerator around! Nothing comes close to beating it, be it in terms of usablility, speed, or stability. Not DAP. Not IDA. I personally tested all three out, and FDM was the only one which could survive a disconnection and still resume the download. Both the others produced corrupted files. Best of all, FDM is free! What more do you need?
Free Download Manager - absolutely free download accelerator and manager |