With just one keystroke, you can zoom out of your browsing experience and see all your open web pages like thumbnails.  You can then reorganize and arrange these windows in different ways.

What is so special about Tab Candy?

You could easily create a group for your mail, calendar and RSS reader.  Then you could make another group of tabs for your work related web pages you have to look at.  Many extensions out there for Firefox try to do this, but Tab Candy is the first execution of this tab reorganization that has really gotten me excited to see more.

Check out this video by Aza Raskin to get a better picture of what Tab Candy will mean to the way you really use the browser.

Mark my words, this will be the must-have feature in the next generation of the browser wars.  I might sound like a fan boy when I say it, but this is why I love Firefox.  They don’t tell you how you have to browse – they give you many different ways to get the job done, and you can use the way that works best for your own needs.

Right now Tab Candy’s future in Firefox 4 has been delayed due to some implementation challenges, so let me be one of the first to tell them, “Please get this feature added to Firefox 4, I really need it!”.

By introducing this feature into the browser, for those minimal theme users, you can ditch the backward and forward browsing buttons in your navigation toolbar arrangement.  Via the options, you can set it to display the current page title in history menu if the current tab hasn’t had history yet, and also disable the history popup when the the Shift, Ctrl, or Alt keys are being pressed.

With the Tab History Menu extension installed, you can cut down on your browser’s navigation clutter or get one more way to browse your history.  It is a great addition to Firefox, no matter what way you use it.

How can you remove your unused search engines?  Click on the Firefox search box, and then go down and select the Manage Search Engines… option. Now, on the Manage Search Engine List you can move up, move down or remove search engines you don’t use anymore.  

Just because you CAN add 200 or more search engines doesn’t mean you should.  This is just one more quick way you can lighten the load on your favorite browser.

Get More Toolbar Space in Firefox

I think I have a pretty optimized Firefox setup. Personally I don’t think anybody needs more than two toolbars in Firefox at all times. How can you cut down on the clutter and keep everything accessible with just a few clicks here and there?

Clean Up Your Right-Click Menu

From the creator of Colorful Tabs, we have yet another handy and helpful Firefox extension.  FfChrome, for Firefox, is an add-on that trims and slims your context menus.  After installing too many add-ons, your right click menu might get a little cluttered.  FfChrome is here to clean things up.

Clear the Clutter from Your Status Bar

Messy status bars make for bad browsing. Ok, maybe that is not true. They do make for a temperamental and somewhat anal Firefox guru though. Mike wants to know if there is a better way to organize the status bar in Firefox.

Hide Your Menu Bar

Now when it comes to using a browser, some people like a lot of open space and others like to have a plethora of tool bars. Personally I find myself in the first camp – most of the time. That is why I was happy to see this new Hide Menubar extension roll my way.

Compact Your Menu Bar Even More in Firefox

One add-on I keep adding on is Tiny Menu, due to the fact that I like to have a minimalist browsing experience.  However, I have found one extension that does an even better job than Tiny Menu at compacting the standard menu bar down to one small popup menu, Compact Menu 2.

(Bonus) More Ways to Shrink Down Your Menu Bar

Is your menu bar taking up too much wasted space? Well you could hide it, shrink it, or just not use it. How can you get that done? Thankfully others have run into this same issue before and there are a slew of Firefox extensions to help you minimize your Firefox menus.

Have another method that works better for you?  Feel free to share in the comments!

It shrinks your bookmarks down to only the favicons.  So what?  Well, the magic happens when you hover over one of the bookmarks.  Bookmark names will be displayed when you mouse over them.  Pretty nifty, right?

You can pick up the Smart Bookmarks Bar on the Firefox Add-ons web site.

This is to save you toolbar space, plain and simple.  To avoid unintended reloads, the button is disabled for a split second when a page has finished loading.

For those of you who might have the Stylish extension installed, you have a few more options when it comes to combining the stop and reload buttons.  Pick up the Stylish add-on then try these user styles out:

• Combine Stop/Reload Buttons
• Combined Stop, Refresh, and Throbber Buttons
• Smartly Show Stop and Reload Buttons
• Check Out More Stylish User Styles!

I like anything that helps me remove the browser clutter, so take your pick out of these suggestions – and if you have anymore, feel free to leave a comment and suggest!

To remove these two, you will need to edit your UserChrome.css file and add these entries to the bottom.

Remove the Go Button:

#go-button-stack, .search-go-button-stack {
display: none !important;
}

Remove the “Search” Button:

/*Remove magnifying glass button from search box*/
.search-go-button-stack { display: none !important; }

Now when your done, restart Firefox and you now have a little more room freed up where those buttons used to be.

This is a classic Firefox 2 tip that makes me wonder if it will still exist with Firefox 3 looming around the corner?

+ Learn More About Hide Bar!