This add-on for Firefox really is your proverbial utility knife when it comes to controlling, editing or optimizing your browser tabs for better performance.

Not for the faint of heart, this add-on really lets you control every little aspect you would ever need to change in your tabs.  It really takes the best aspects out of some of the more popular tab-related extensions out there, and bundles them all into one handy add-on for the Firefox browser.

Here are just a few of the features it provides:

• Open Bookmarks/History/URL/Search in new tabs: left-click/enter in new foreground tabs, middle-click in new background tabs, ctrl-click/alt-enter in current tab
• Open new tabs next to current tab, Open duplicate tabs next to original tab
• Reuse current/last/all blank tabs, Auto-close redundant blank tabs
• Focus adjacent unread/last selected/last opened/left tab after closing current tab
• Highlight current/unread tabs
• Ctrl-Tab to navigate tabs in most recently used order, Ctrl-Left/Right Arrow in sequential order
• Undo Close Tab button
• openAllInTab/loadAllInBackground/loadAllInForeground statusbar buttons
• Tab clicking options, including left/middle/right/double/ctrl/alt/shift-click on tab/tab bar/new tab button
• Duplicate/Protect/Lock/Faviconize/Hide/Pin Tab

You can pick up the Tab Utilities add-on from the Firefox Add-ons web site.  If you are looking for the best add-on, when it comes to controlling how the tabs work in Firefox, it is hard to say there is any extension with more features out there.

Along with the unread message count, you also get a red Gmail icon when there is no unread messages:

…and a chat bubble when somebody is trying to chat with you via Gmail:

Here are a few more things new in this version 3 of Gmail FavIcon Alerts:

Now, you can keep tabs on the exact number of unread messages you have! With the power of the <canvas> tag, the unread message count is now dynamically created for your number of unread messages. The font scales well up to 999 unread messages, but higher numbers are still rendered for those with massive unread counts.

If you have Greasemonkey installed, to get this userscript – just head on over to Userscripts.org and hit “Install”.  Gmail FavIcon Alerts 3 is well worth using, if you spend a lot of time in your Gmail inbox.

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.

For those of you unfamiliar with the extension, it adds an interface for replacing bookmark icons.  Just right-click on any bookmark, select “Properties”, then “Browse”. (Folder icons aren’t supported yet).

Here are some of the other features of Favicon Picker 3:

• It works with popular image formats including jpg, gif, png, bmp, ico and animated gifs!
• Any image size can be used, as well as the standard 1kb 16×16 pixels
• You can grab images from a URL.  Click “Browse” and paste in an address like http://www.cnn.com/favicon.ico or if a page has an image you like, right click on it and select “Copy image location”, and paste that in.

Get to customizing your own bookmark favicons with Favicon Picker 3 today!

• Locate the searchplugins folder in your Firefox install folder. (typically C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\ on Windows).
• Open the google.xml file with a text editor.
• Locate a section that starts with <Image width=”16″ height=”16″>. You will see it is followed by a long series of characters (the encoded Google icon).
• Replace it with this equally unreadable code: the new encoded Google icon. Ensure the closing </Image> stays there.
• Save the file and restart Firefox.

If your picky about this sort of thing, or you just really love the new look this is a quick and easy hack to do.  Also check out Mozilla Links for more information on this awesome tip.

+ Learn More About and Download Favicon Picker 2!

Now my only question would be, what do you do when you visit a lot of Web sites that are the same? What do you do when you visit Web sites that have no favicon? This is a neat idea, but for long term use – it might need some tweaking.

+ Learn More About and Download the FaviconizeTab Extension!