When it comes to InterNet(Hackz), the first thing which comes to our mind is the browser which we use to access the internet. In my case it’s Firefox but I’m sure there are people who prefer to use various other available browsers.

Those days are gone when a simple browser was more than enough for our daily tasks and as web has evolved, our demand from a web browser has also increased and in order to fetch maximum from a browser, developers create plug-ins and we are going to cover the best add-ons for the major browsers i.e. FireFox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

Let’s start the journey of these wonderful add-ons with my favorite browser and i.e. FireFox (if you like some other browser, please keep that secret with you only as I’ll not switch to that browser – So leave the comments away from another infamous browser war 🙂

1. GreaseMonkey: Without a doubt it has to be the most powerful plugin for FireFox as this plugin allows you to change the functionality, looks of the pages according to one’s needs. UserScripts.org is a huge repository of various scripts which makes browsing pretty simple.

2. WebMail Notifier: Why use Outlook Express, Outlook or Mail App (for OS X), when web based e-mail services have improved so much? Well, in order to ensure that you don’t miss out on any important e-mail, this add-on comes pretty handy. It instantly notifies you of incoming email and supports lots of web based email services.

3. Showcase : If you often feel lost in the amount of tabs you open up while surfing the web, then this add-on will help you find the tabs in a quick and easy way. This add-on showcases all the open tabs as thumbnails in a new tab or in a separate window.

4. Google Gears: Google gears is an excellent add-on and it’s more aimed towards developers so that they can provide you the ability to be offline with their web based applications. Zoho Writer & Google reader are few web apps which you’ll love to work on with the help of Google Gears.

5. StumbleUpon: Stumbleupon is an excellent add-on and takes you away in those times when surfing the web wasn’t as huge as it is today and you came across some really cool stuff. This add-on helps you in discovering some really cool stuff on the internet. Caution: Stumbling can be addictive and you shouldn’t use it while you are working as your boss won’t like your productivity reports.

6. Google Toolbar: If you love and live by Google search (like me) then you surely can’t miss this add-on. This toolbar gives access to all sorts of search provided by Google and lets you access the gadgets, Google bookmarks and notifies you about latest incoming Gmail.

7. Tab Mix Plus: If you are looking for more control over the FireFox tabs then this add-on will be your savior. The add-on lets you add mouse gestures, lets you position tab bar according to your preference and a whole lot of features which you’d like to do with the tabs.

8. IE – Tab: If you are a windows user and don’t want the hassle of opening up Internet Explorer again and again for those websites which strictly needs Internet Explorer. With push of a button you’ll be able to use Internet Explorer’s rendering engine in Firefox’s window only.

9. Download Status bar: If you prefer to download lot of files over the internet then I’m sure that you’ll hate that download window, which opens up every time when you are downloading a file. Download status bar add-on makes a small bar at the bottom of the window (just above the normal status bar) and shows you all the files you’ve downloaded and gives you easy access to the downloaded files.

10. Answers: This amazing add-on gives you all the knowledge of the world and that too at a click away. You just need to hold the Alt key and click on any word and you’ll get the quick access to it’s meaning, WikiPedia information. Comes pretty handy for non-English speaking users.

11. FireFTP: Forget the days when you had to download FTP software to ensure that you could upload the files to a FTP server. This add-on makes FireFox a fully featured FTP application and works flawlessly.

12. AdBlock Plus: If you are bugged with the ads present on various websites (although I prefer them for lot of reasons), then you can use this add-on to block them. It takes the ads away from the webpage and doesn’t break the webpage’s look either.

13. Sxipper: Sxipper completes FireFox! This add-on fills the forms in a snap, so as a heavy web user you’d fall in love with it. You can skip downloading any auto-fill applications.

14. FasterFox: You can easily tweak various network related settings of FireFox and it’s feature of Dynamic speed helps in caching of all the webpages and thus increases the surfing speed.

15. FEBE: Installing and uninstalling of extensions can sometimes break the FireFox and this add-on helps you in recovering the whole profile as this helps you in creating the back of the FireFox’s profile and thus can save your lot of time.

There are lots many add-ons for FireFox and you can fall in love with most of them, however these are such extensions, which take the simple & cool browser to a whole new level and shouldn’t be missed by anyone.

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