I had my weekly meeting with my team this week and I started sharing some of my favorite Firefox plugins. First off if you don’t know Firefox is one of the best browsers on the planet. If you don’t have it, get it. The way Firefox was built allows for an array of powerful plugins to be run right inside the browser.

First and foremost is Foxmarks. If you have multiple bookmarks on multiple computers this plugin is for you. Foxmarks syncs all of your browser bookmarks into one list that is updated each time I open my browser. I can bookmark something cool at home and when I get to work that book mark will be there waiting for me in my bookmark list. It is invaluable for me as I have 3 computers running 4 operating systems. If you have a Mac. pick up a copy of Bookit, It’s a great program that synchronizes all of your bookmarks across all of the browsers on your system. This has been great when I use Safari, or Internet Explorer (heaven forbid).

Next is an app I use almost everyday, CSSViewer. If you have every wanted to quickly rollover the divs and tables of a site and see the attributes assigned to them, then CSSViewer is for you. CSSViewer highlights each div and gives you a rundown of the styling that is assigned to that div. Pretty cool huh. I also sometimes use it to see how a site was laid out and set up.

Hate those pesky ads? Zap them with Adblock Plus. I know we all can’t resist a a shootout, or slap the fat guy on a flash ad, but are those really productive. One of the big reasons I added Adblock Plus is because of Myspace. If i want to check Myspace at work I have to worry about someone walking up when there is a risky looking ad on the screen. Not anymore, I see virtually no ads. If an ad seeps through I just right click and select block. Ads are so yesterday.

The next one is one that everyone should install, Fasterfox. Fasterfox does exactly what it says it’s supposed to, it makes Firefox faster. I definatally suggest it for every Firefox user.

If you do quite a bit of browser testing like me you know the pains of IE hacks. You almost always have to tweak your site to work correctly in IE, since IE is still the dominant browser. This plugin is called IE Tab. IE Tab lets you preview a page in IE within Firefox. Wait, did I just blow your mind. All you have to do is right click on a page and select open in IE tab. No need to switch back a forth between windows. This is a great time saver. Note: this is windows only. Thanks Microsoft, for no longer supporting a Mac version of IE

Ever wanted to sign up at a forum or sign up for a newsletter. If you use your main email address you will find out quickly that you have been added to several spam lists. Enter Trash Mail. Trash Mail provides you with a dummy email address that forwards to your real email address for a specified time. After that specified time has been reached it will delete the account, thus protecting you from future span lists. Very cool huh.

Last but not least is Web Developer. Web dev. is a smorgasbord of web development tools. You can view and edit the CSS of a page right within the browser. You can disable forms, bug test, test in different resolutions, or just simply view source. Web dev. adds a new toolbar to your browser with simple menu and tool set. I find it invaluable for any web developer.