Firefox has quietly become a forgotten browser lately, with Google Chrome taking on the mantle of preferred geek browser. Don’t let the hype fool you. Firefox holds roughly 30% of the browser market, second only to Internet Explorer. And while Google Chrome may grab headlines for its excellent extensions (including the fake ones), Firefox takes a back seat to no one in the browser plug-in department. Below is the top 10 best Firefox add-ons to improve your browsing experience.

1. LastPass Password Manager
LastPass is a free online password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure. LastPass supports IE and Firefox as Plugins (Opera, Safari, Chrome, iPhone, Opera Mini via Bookmarklets), allows you to import from every major password storage vendor and export too, captures passwords that other managers won’t including many AJAX forms, and allows you to make strong passwords easily. Your sensitive data is encrypted _locally_ before upload so even LastPass cannot get access to it. One Time Passwords & Screen Keyboard help protect your master password.
Download LastPass Password Manager

2. Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page…
Download Firebug

3. Alexa Sparky
Sparky is Alexa Internet’s free Firefox status bar plugin. Sparky accompanies you as you surf, providing you with Alexa data about the sites you visit without interrupting your browsing.

Discover website traffic trends — Is this site getting more popular, or less?

Get detailed traffic information including Reach and Rank — How does this site’s traffic compare to other sites on the Web?

Surf more efficiently with Related Links for each page — If I like this site, are there others that I might want to visit?

Gracefully navigate past dead end error pages — Enable Sparky’s optional custom error handling to get relevant alternative links when your browser encounters a network error.

Plus, as you browse with Sparky, you’re helping to make the Web a better place for everybody by contributing to the traffic information that Alexa provides.
Download Alexa Sparky

4. Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus allows you to regain control of the internet and view the web the way you want to. The add-on is supported by over forty filter subscriptions in dozens of languages which automatically configure it for purposes ranging from removing online advertising to blocking all known malware domains. Adblock Plus also allows you to customize your filters with the assistance of a variety of useful features, including a context option for images, a block tab for Flash and Java objects, and a list of blockable items to remove scripts and stylesheets.
Download Adblock Plus

5. Web of Trust – Safe Browsing Tool
Web of Trust is one of Mozilla’s most popular add-ons. Our safe surfing tool uses a traffic-light style rating system to help you stay safe when you search, surf and shop online.
WOT ratings are powered by a global community of millions of trustworthy users who have rated millions of websites based on their experiences. The WOT add-on provides reputation ratings to search results when you use Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Wikipedia and other popular sites, helping you protect your computer and personal information. Your online email account – Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail is also protected.
Join the WOT community and help us boost trust on the Web. WOT is recommended by CNET, PC World, Kim Komando, Tech Republic, PC Welt and many other respected authorities.
Note: This add-on adds “Safe Search” refinement links to search engine results by Google. The refinements are provided by Surf Canyon.
Download Web of Trust – Safe Browsing Tool Plus

6. Greasemonkey
Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites including Facebook, MySpace, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and many more, are already available at http://userscripts.org.
You can write your own scripts, too. Check out http://wiki.greasespot.net/ to get started.
Download Greasemonkey

6. Download Statusbar
Despite its compact size, Download Statusbar packs in more useful features than the standard download window. The fully customizable interface auto-hides when not in use, allowing full control without interruption.
Add Download Statusbar to Firefox

6. Video DownloadHelper
DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.

Just surf the Web as you are used to, when DownloadHelper detects it can do something for you, the icon gets animated and a menu allows you to download files by simply clicking an item

For instance, if you go to a YouTube page, you’ll be able to download the video directly on your file system. It also works with MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm, DreamHost and others.

Since version 3.1, you can setup the extension to automatically convert the downloaded movies to your preferred video format.

When you are on a page containing links to images or movies, you can download some or all of them at once. Moving the mouse over the items in the menu will highlights the links directly in the page to make sure they are the ones you want to pick up.

DownloadHelper also allows you to download files one by one, so that you keep bandwidth to surf for other stuff to download.

To modify your preferences, like changing the download directory, right-click on the icon and choose “Preferences”.

When you first install the extension, your browser is redirected to a welcome page with links to a user manual at http://www.downloadhelper.net/manual.php and a faq at http://www.downloadhelper.net/faq.php

This does not change your homepage setting and the welcome page won’t appear anymore.

Support can be obtained from http://www.downloadhelper.net/support.php
Add Video DownloadHelper to Firefox

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