jeffchin.com

Excuse the nerd post, but I’m just now realizing why (for me) using Firefox can be a much more powerful tool than the industry standard Internet Explorer: Extensions.

Yes, IE7 has the ability to have extensions, but the general consensus is that there is not much development support from the community, and the fact that some of the extensions for IE7 cost up to $20-$30 each is also lame. For those who don’t know, extensions are add-ons that can add functionality to your browser or particular websites. Bear with me as I run through some extensions I have installed that change the way I browse the internet everyday. Keep on reading if I haven’t bored you already…

1. Better Gcal - improves my Google calendar by adding a to-do list, forces a secure connection via https, adds a current time line a la MS Outlook, and the best part, allows me to remove the top and side navigation for a full screen calendar.
2. Better Gmail - adds many things to my main webmail application such as attachment icons, macros, or the ability to skin gmail with a different look.
3. Del.icio.us Bookmarks - the fastest and easiest way to bookmark and update my del.icio.us sidebar widget on this site.
4. Download Status Bar -Forces the downloads into the status bar of my browser rather than an annoying popup window.
5. DownloadThemAll! - Great for downloading songs from allofmp3.com. This allows you to download any object on a website by selecting check boxes in multiple chunks . Great for batch downloads.
6. FaviconizeTab - Reduces tabs that are always loaded in my browser down to just the icon so that it takes up less real estate. I use this to shrink down my Pandora tab all the time.
7. FoxyTunes - Places controls in my status bar so that I can control iTunes (or any other media player) without leaving my browser. Make it pretty with the FineSpun skin.
8. FullerScreen - Allows for a true fullscreen browser. Great when I’m using BO at work.
9. IE Tab - For those pesky sites that don’t work well with Firefox; re-loads the site in an IE tab in Firefox.
10. Right Click Link - Allows me to highlight and right click a non-hyper linked URL to have it open in a new tab. No more copying and pasting.
11. URL Fixer - When you type in an address like www.jeffchin.cmo, it swaps it out the typo with .com (or the appropriate extension) automatically.

So, now that I’ve lost about 99% of my readers with this post, I promise to write something more interesting the next time around. I’ll be hitting Local 16 this Saturday for Andrew & Kelly’s graduation party, so maybe something fun will come out of that.