Crenk

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Twitter seems to be all the rage. I used to be a naysayer, but have found great uses for it, both for internal business and personal marketing and networking. Despite the scaling issues that plagued the program a month ago, Twitter seems stable thus far and gaining support in terms of users.

Here is a list of the top Twitter add-ons for Firefox:

TwitterFox: The most popular for a very large margin. The add-on places a Twitter icon at the top of your browser which can alert you when your friends update their stream. There is also a field for you to type your latest updates, preventing you from having to visit the site itself. Very handy for the busy Firefox user!

Twitterbar: An interesting add-on. Rather then take up valuable browser real estate, this add-on places a gray Twitter icon in your search and become active when you click on it. You are then able to post your message directly to your Twitter account. If you leave your cursor over the icon your letter count appears giving you an idea of how much more you can type. Does not give you status updates for your friends.

TwitKit 1.0: TwitKit places a side bar onto your browser which can be opened can closed at your request. This add-on offers tabs which breaks down your account by various categories to few specific information. You can type your updates and submit through the window, as well as view all recent updates by your friends. An aspect of this add-on is that you can customize it, though it’s a little restrictive.

Twitzer: Tired of the 140 character limitation? No worries, Twitzer offers you an opportunity to type what you want and post it. The add-on will take your text, summarize it, offer a link for your friends to click on so they can read the full text version. If you want to share more with less, then try out Twitzer!

I am an avid user of Firefox’s add-on Fireshot, especially since most of my work is design related. In my search for a Skitch like counterpart for the PC, Fireshot was the answer.

Fireshot is simply an add-on, not an entire program, which makes it’s ease of use appreciated. Once added to the Firefox browser, a Fireshot symbol is placed next to your search bar. Unlike other screen capture software, Fireshot allows you a multitude of options the first two being whether to capture just the viewable portion or the entire page.

Once captured Fireshot offers a bevy of tools to make edits to the screenshot. This advantage sets it apart above and beyond the competition. The capture can be edited to include highlighting, circling, adding text to point out information, and other such annotations. Numerous file formats are available when saving the captures (PNG, GIF, JPEG, BMP)

This add-on is most useful for testers and designers, but even more useful for those writing instructional copy. Photo inserts can now be marked up and labeled to further increase the effectiveness of the material.

Fireshot can be downloaded here!

Following on from the Firefox 3 RC1 post the other day, I thought I would write another article about Firefox Add-ons. Here is a list put together showing 7 Firefox add-ons to browse the web anonymously.

Anonymization Toolbar – This special tool will enable you to stay more anonymous while browsing the internet through Firefox. There are one click options that allow you to delete your browsing history, cache and cookies.

FoxTor – This program will help hide your computer behind different proxies, changing your IP address as you surf different websites on the internet.

FoxyProxy - Gives you complete control over the proxy configuration. Can be used to browse anonymously.

ProxySel - Add-on that allows you to choose a proxy from a drop down list and also to import proxies from proxy lists

BrowseAtWork - Add-on ideal for viewing webpages blocked by many corporate or school filters.

SwitchProxy - This add-on allows you to easily switch between proxy configurations and keep your surfing more anonymous.

Torbutton - Add-on for enabling and disabling Firefox’s use of Tor for safer surfing.