Website Information Simplified – webbilia.com

Firefox web browser add-ons provide a wide variety of features that can replace costly third party utilities or extend capabilities that you would simply have a difficult time finding anywhere else. Webmasters, administrators, marketers, developers and site or blog owners are offered tools that include code validation, search ranking stats, file transfers, color matching, blog entry and more. While we will only be reviewing some of our favorites here you can go to the Firefox Add-ons page to find the extensive list of ad-ons.

While ad-ons are great we recommend you proceed with caution when installing. These are separate applications from independent developers that can have bugs of their own as noted in our Firefox Not Responding post. As such you should install them one at a time and note updates that may occur and cause a problem.

FireFTP – Working on websites and checking the results of script or graphics edits in your browser is made even easier by having FireFTP open in a new tab in Firefox. This excellent utility is the product of vehement open source enthusiast Mime Cuvalo. As described on the FireFTP add-on page,

Along with transferring your files quickly and efficiently, FireFTP also includes more advanced features such as: directory comparison, syncing directories while navigating, SSL encryption, search/filtering, integrity checks, remote editing, drag & drop, file hashing, and much more!

SEOQuake – This script aids search engine optimization [SEO] campaigns by providing convenient feedback about a site search rankings right along with search results. This includes Google page rank, number of pages indexed for the search term or phrase and inbound links. It is also customizable allowing you to develop your own parameters. You can check it out at the SEOQuake add-on page.

Codetch – The claim on the Codetch add-on page that you “Get the feel of Dreamweaver in a Firefox extension” might be a bit over the top but this add-on does offer a variety of similar features and validation tools. Written in XUL [XML User Interface Language] and JavaScript, it provides the convenience of working on a site right in the browser on any platform and easily viewing your changes. For those who do most of their work in a hyper text editor such as Ultra Edit, this may be what you’re looking for.

ColorZilla – Getting color right when creating a theme for a site can be a tedious task. The ColorZilla add-on simplifies the task with the Eyedropper and ColorPicker features that greatly expedite getting color right. The zoom feature allows you to be sure you’re getting the spot you intended to retrieve. Having the tool right in the browser makes it even better. This one is a no-brainer for web developers.

DOM Inspector – Open the DOM Inspector window from the browser to view the Document Object Model for the current page. The description on the DOM Inspector add-on page explains

“DOM Inspector is a tool that can be used to inspect and edit the live DOM of any web document or XUL application. The DOM hierarchy can be navigated using a two-paned window that allows for a variety of different views on the document and all nodes within.”

This is a must for web developers.

DT Whois – This simple add-on allows you to retrieve Whois information for the current site with the click of a mouse. Simple single purpose feature that saves time for those who need this information on the fly. Download at the DT Whois add-on page.

IE Tab – Despite compliance efforts by browser developers differences are widespread. The IE Tab add-on allows you to quickly see how a page will be rendered in Internet Explorer. One click and you can see how the page currently open in Firefox will look in IE. Click again and your back to your Firefox view.

Web Developer – This add-on has a menu and toolbar for gaining information about a web page including CSS, forms and images. There isn’t much information at the Web Developer add-on page but more can be found at developer Chris Pederick’s site. Works with Flock or Seamonkey as well, on any platform these applications support.

Sage – This feed aggregator, like the other add-ons, works seamlessly with Firefox. Select Sage from the Tools menu and it appears in the sidebar. Manage or render feeds from there. Integrates nicely with Firefox’s bookmarks, Technorati or Live Bookmarks. Lean more at the Sage add-on page.

Yoono – Cleverly crafted utility the almost defies description so we’ll take a snippet from the Yoono add-on page:

Create a rich scrapbook of your favorite stuff with the new “Buzz It!” feature, one-click grab and share videos, photos and texts from any web page. Yoono keeps your scrapbook and original Firefox bookmarks synchronized across your computers.

That doesn’t provide much but you can get a better feel from the Yoono demo video. Bloggers will love it!

The list of add-ons for Firefox is extensive. Those discussed above represent some of our favorites. We left out a few that seem to have bugs at the moment so left them off. That brings us to reiterate our word of warning from above. As with any development, bugs arise with updates be they from Firefox updates or the individual add-ons. As such we recommend you add and test them one at a time instead of installing a rash of tools at once. Also note updates as they are installed to save time finding what may be inhibiting you browser. If you have any favorites of your own or warnings about others please add a comment! [wb_15]