Best Firefox extensions

Tip 1: Better browsing

When you ask most people what Web browser they use, the answer often will be Internet Explorer. After all, it comes preloaded on Windows PCs, so most people just use it by default. But while IE maintains a stranglehold on the majority of computer systems, Mozilla's open-source solution, Firefox, has made significant inroads into the browser market. Handy extra features are part of the reason for its growing success, as is the continual supply of third-party add-ons.

We've put together a list of our favorite add-ons. In the first tip we take you some of the best extensions for improving your browsing experience -- whether you want to block ads, randomly stumble upon new and interesting sites or save Web pages in a scrapbook, there's bound to be something useful here to make your Web browsing even better.

StumbleUpon
Most people tend to repeatedly visit the same Web sites, whether for news, sport or shopping. StumbleUpon offers a new way of browsing the Web by randomly picking high-rated sites from categories you select. If you like surprises, this extension delivers.

GooglePreview
When you perform a regular Google search, your keyword turns up a list of links that fit your search, along with text snippets from each of the pages. But if you have the GooglePreview extension, Firefox will display a screenshot of each page in the list so you can see it before clicking the link.

Dictionary Tooltip
When surfing the Web, sometimes you'll come across words you don't know the meaning of. Instead of reaching for a dictionary or heading to its online equivalent, use Dictionary Tooltip. With this extension you only need to double-click a word to bring up a window with pronunciations, definitions and thesaurus entries.

ScrapBook for Firefox
If you want a quick way to save Web pages -- or even elements of a page, like a recipe or definition -- ScrapBook is all you need. You can drag images, blocks of text and links to the sidebar to save them in an easy-to-navigate directory.

FlashGot
This handy add-on is the most popular at the Mozilla extension site, and for good reason. In concert with your download manager, you can right-click a link and use FlashGot to download the content from an entire page of links.

Adblock
Do you have a favourite Web site that takes a long time to load because of certain ads or images? With the Adblock extension, you can pick and choose which content elements of the page will load so your favourite site comes up quickly every time.

Download Statusbar
If you ever get annoyed when the Download Manager pops up during a download, Download Statusbar is for you. With this handy add-on, once you initiate a download, a small window opens up on the lower left of your status bar showing the progress of your download -- without interrupting your browsing. Mousing over the window lets you see all the information about the file.

DownThemAll
Perfect for image hunters, this download manager finds everything downloadable on a page and lets you designate which files you'd like to download. You can pause and resume downloads. DownThemAll also features a download accelerator for speedier transfers.

Loki Firefox
Google is great for global information, but what if you want to search locally? With Loki Firefox toolbar, you just enter a term like 'pizza' to find all the pizza places in your area. It also offers several categories so you can narrow your search for what you want -- all near your postcode.

Go to TIP 2 : Additional extras