Why I like Firefox...

I was having a conversation last week about several websites and the topic came up about browsers. I started to explain why I enjoyed Firefox and listed off a few add-ons I liked and then came to realize that there were many I missed. So I thought I'd write a post to list out those add-ons I use regularly and some that I thought would be cool to use if I ever got more into it. But that is part of the Firefox experience there are those add-ons that are so natural that they are just there.

So here's list of add-ons in no particular order (whatever I happen to notice or recall first):
(update 04/06/07 adding links...)

• Forecast Fox - turn on the looping radar , large size very cool (by default its static and small)
• Adblock (Plus) - turn off all those annoying banners
  
• Fasterfox - to me its just just a cool icon in the tray, I haven't really noticed much with the broadband hook up, but still would recommend trying it
• Session Manager - the native version of Firefox has supposedly its gotten better in the recently release, but I still use the add on - I like the restore an accidentally closed tab.
  
• Unplug - get the attachment, embedded object, picture, PDF, ...off the page
• All in One Sidebar - with all those add-ons it helps to keep them organized
• Cool-Iris - preview a page in hover call out...latest update to use graphic to hover over very helpful
  
• Smiley Xtra ( ok I like adding smiley every now and then...there are some really fun ones out there )
• Mapthis - highlight any text address ( haven't tried places like albany airport, disney world, eiffle tower, grand canyon, but think that they might...on any website, right click and chose map this and in another window appears a google map of the area
• Dictionary Tool tip - double click word for meaning
• Temporary Inbox - get rid of spam by using temporary addresses
  

For a few that I tried but don't use that often here are my honorable mentions:

• Speak it - read any text in the browser
• View Source Chart - tech gadget for developers
• Measure it - another developer tool to get the pixel size
  
• Tab Mix plus
• Image Zoom & Mouse Zoom - one of these worked well on desktop but not with touch pad of laptop so I don't use it as often

Things that I think are Firefox alone that are nice:

• Tabbed browsing (Yes, IE7 has it now, but it was in Lotus first then Firefox...Opera somewhere in there...and then IE). I like the way you add new tabs by clicking around (almost anywhere depending on how you set it up in your preferences...this does not appear to have same flexibility in IE)
• the search bar add ons to use different sites: google, wikipedia, webster, even shopping, many others to add in
  
• skins, skins, skins....fusion alternative is my current favorite