A Look at My Firefox Setup: It’s Productive, It’s Quick, and It Rocks

No matter how hard I try, I can’t quit Firefox.

I use Google Chrome along with Launchy to quickly access any part of my Google life, if I just need to do one quick thing. Chrome loads so doggone fast, it makes sense. But, Firefox is infinitely more customizable, and you can make it work EXACTLY the way you want it to. I’ve learned a lot about Firefox in the last few months, and I think I’ve hit upon a build of Firefox that is pretty fast, easy to use, and easy to set up. So let’s dive in to my “power user” setup of Mozilla Firefox, and let’s see if we can’t find something in here that you might want to use.

First: The add-ons.

Add-ons are the meat of what makes Firefox so great. To find add-ons that you might want, just click on “Tools”, then “Add-ons”. You’ll see what’s already been installed, and there’s a tab there to search for add-ons. Installing is as easy as clicking “Add to Firefox”. Here are the ones that I think make my Firefox the cream of the crop, and links to where you can get them.

Adblock Plus

The above is a screenshot of ESPN.com, largely known for having a bunch of advertisements that slow the site down to a crawl sometimes. But wait, there’s no ads in that picture! That’s because of the wonderful Adblock Plus. Imagine a Google search with no “Sponsored Listings” in your way. Picture a Facebook without stupid, useless ads cluttering up the side of the page! It speeds up the internet infinitely, and it’s insanely easy to install and forget about. I don’t even notice it anymore, unless I go onto other people’s computers.

Download StatusBar

So you want to download something. By default, Firefox pops up a box that says “Downloads”. Then you have to watch the bar fill up, and then you have to close the box. Stupid, right? The Download StatusBar gets rid of that stupid pop-up and inserts a little progress bar at the bottom of your screen. It doesn’t interrupt your web browsing, and the screenshot to the left shows all the information you need to see just by hovering the mouse cursor over the status bar. Clean and simple.

On a side note: go to “Tools”, then click “Options”. Look at where your files are being downloaded, and change that to the Desktop. It will save you lots of time clicking over to the folder where you have the file. Then, you can just minimize Firefox and work with the file right away. Plus, you’ll delete any useless, temporary files (like installer and setup files) right away to clear your desktop.

FacePAD

I don’t have a screenshot of this, because it’s pretty easy to explain. FacePAD is an add-on that allows you to download full Facebook albums with one click. I needed this add-on when I decided to back up all my photos to Google Picasa. While it’s great for sharing, I didn’t feel like Facebook was the best, most organized place to keep all my photos. So, I had to download the photos and then upload them to Picasa. If you are ever in the market for downloading Facebook albums, FacePAD is the way to go.

GButts

Yeah, yeah.

I love me some Google. I use many Google services, because I like simple, easy-to-use programs with clean user interfaces. That’s why I like Google stuff. But I used to have to go to the Google homepage, then click on whatever I needed at the top. Last week, I discovered GButts, an unfortunately-named Firefox add-on.

GButts lets you have quick access to any Google services you use. In the settings and options for GButts, you can specify what Google services you want to include.

Now, if I want to check my email, look at my appointments for tomorrow, analyze my wonderful traffic statistics, look up something on a map, or search for a video, I can just click the little Google icon and open the drop-down box that will help me find what I need.

Some of you may not need this one if you don’t really use Google services. But then I would have to shake my head at you and wonder why you’re not. Just kidding. I love you all, regardless of your software loyalty.

Google Bookmarks Button Reloaded

Google Bookmarks is a recently-discovered (by me, anyway) service that allows you to store your bookmarks online. I really liked this idea, as I am prone to a number of computer maladies and have had to rebuild my bookmarks list several times. I tried using Delicious for this, but it just didn’t feel right. And I was uninterested in the social aspect of Delicious. Google Bookmarks is a simple way to go. Plus, I take my bookmarks with me anywhere, so I can browse the same web pages on any computer I want.

But I liked the feel of the Bookmarks menu in Firefox. Enter this little gadget: the Google Bookmarks Button Reloaded adds a little star icon to your toolbar, and you can bring up a drop-down box to use your bookmarks just like a regular bookmarks menu. Simple idea, right? Plus, if you want to bookmark a new webpage, you just click the star and it will bring up a box for you to choose what folder to put it in, and it will sync that with the rest of your online bookmarks. Easy as pie.

Google Preview

Quick, Tom! Have more Google stuff! Geez!

Google Preview is a nice little add-on that brings up screenshots of websites in the Google search results. This is great when you want to verify that a site is actually something you want to visit and not an annoying sales letter-type site. Take a peek at what you’re getting before you get there.

Personal Menu

If you noticed at the top of this page, I have no menu bar at the top anymore. Why bother?

What I liked about Chrome was that it saved lots of screen real estate for the actual web page. With toolbars and other useless gadgets, Firefox can quickly take up half your screen, leaving you little space to actually navigate web sites.

Enter Personal Menu, a nice add-on that pulls that top bar off of your screen and deposits it into a little button for you. Now, on the rare occasion I need to use any of those menu items, I just click on the button and navigate to it.

It’s also highly customizable. You notice I have no Bookmarks section (which I have in my Google Bookmarks button already), and no “Help” menu either. I never used it. I just wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

Then, the hidden secret of the internet: Bookmarklets

To me, bookmarklets are possibly the coolest thing ever. While add-ons are great for Firefox, load up too many and you start to lose on performance. Bookmarklets are links that you drag to your Bookmarks Toolbar (right-click the toolbar and make sure there’s a checkmark next to “Bookmarks Toolbar”). You get one-click access to a TON of stuff, and you don’t bog down your computer one bit. I’ve linked to the pages where the bookmarklet links are. Go to the page I’ve linked to, and drag the link on THAT page up to your Bookmarks Toolbar. Here are the ones I use, from left to right:

StumbleUpon: I love using StumbleUpon. It’s a great way to find useful stuff on the internet, as well as waste a TON of time if you’re not careful. But the StumbleUpon Toolbar takes up so much gosh-darn space. With this bookmarklet, I go to my StumbleUpon account page. There’s a “Stumble” button there that opens up the Web Toolbar within the web pages – all the functionality of StumbleUpon without the bloat. If you’re a StumbleUpon user, give this one a try.

Clip To Evernote: I use Evernote to store all kinds of information and resources. If I find a page I like, I just click on this bookmarklet and it puts the whole page into a note for me, if I so desire.

Gmail This! : If you are an avid Gmail user and you like to share links, this is a great, easy way to do it. Clicking on this bookmarklet opens up a new “Compose Email” window, and it copies and pastes the title of the webpage into the subject line and the URL link is pasted into the body of the email. I love using this with Posterous. In fact, most of my “Around The Web” posts as of late have been done using this method. It makes it quick and easy.

Google Tasks: Simple task lists are what I need, and Google’s got it covered. But, unfortunately, you have to go through Gmail to get to it all the time. Instead, just drag this link to your Bookmarks Toolbar. It’ll open up your task list right away when you click on it. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s all I need.

My two “GSignatures”: Gmail is my hub for all email correspondence, both personal and business. I’ve been manually typing in signatures for a long time now, but I just discovered these instructions on creating Gmail signature bookmarklets the other day. I created a personal one with a link to this site and my phone number, and I created a business one with a link to my business web site and my business phone number. Now, when I type an email, all I have to do is click the button for whichever signature I need, and it automatically inserts it for me.

New Document: Shocker – I use Google Docs. I have been using Open Office, but for simplicity’s sake, I’ve been converting over to Google Docs. If I need to type up a quick document for something, all I need to do is click the bookmarklet for that, and it automatically opens a new Google Doc for me to write in. This link also has bookmarklets for new spreadsheets and new presentations, if you need them.

Subscribe: As I stumble my way through the internet, I occasionally come across a new blog that I want to subscribe to. Previously, I had to remember the name, go to Google Reader, and then search for the blog. Now, I can just click the “Subscribe” button, and I instantly can add it to my Reader without any hassle. To get it, go to your Google Reader, click “Settings”, and then the “Goodies” tab. You’ll find it there.

Tweet: I renamed this one (and actually, I’ve renamed a lot of them – right-click on a bookmarklet and click on “Properties” to do so yourself), because the original name was TBUZZ. TBUZZ is a great tool, and might finally be the Twitter bookmarklet I’ve been looking for. A big part of Twitter is sharing links, and I like to do so quite a bit. Now, when I’m on a page I want to share, I click my “Tweet” button, and it shortens the URL and pastes it into a tweet for me to add my comments to. Then I click “Update” and it does the rest. An additional bonus to this one is that you can quickly see what other people are saying about the same link. Sharp stuff!

Share on Facebook: Finally, there are some links I want to share with my close, personal friends. You know, all 300 of them. If I want to bring a link to people’s attention on Facebook (which I will do with this article for sure), I use this bookmarklet from Facebook. It will open a window, all set to go for your comments, and you can just post it like that.

Now: your turn!

Whew! That was a lot of stuff! It looks overwhelming, but give some of it a try. Once this is set up, your internet moves faster, cleaner, and almost anything is just a click or two away. It saves me TONS of time, and some of this stuff might really help you out. But I know I’m not the only one who uses Firefox add-ons and stuff – what is your favorite add-on or bookmarklet for Firefox? Share it with us in the comments!