To see the add-on bar in Firefox 4, all you need to do is right-click on the navigation toolbar, and select Add-on Bar to be seen from the selection of toolbars you can hide or unhide from your default view:

Once selected, you will see a new toolbar across the bottom of your window that will be home to some of your add-ons that wish to live there.  For example, this is what AdBlock Plus looks like in the new add-on bar.

Now, I know this is not a perfect fix – however it does give you a place to keep some of your add-ons that you like to keep handy at all times.

Is there an add-on to give us the old status bar back?

Yes, there is.  Thanks to Ben from the comments, I found the add-on named Status 4 Evar.  This extension will bring the status bar widgets and progress indicators back to Firefox 4. 

Personally, I think I will try to live without the status bar or add-on bar for a while and see if I can get used to it. How about you? Do you like that add-on bar? Want the status bar back? Maybe you enjoy not having anything down there at all?

Come on, is it time yet?

If you find yourself asking this question time and time again, it might be about time you picked up the Simpler Timer add-on for Firefox.  This clock and timer, once installed, lives inside your status bar (or toolbar) for easy access.

The built in timer mode has three different functions:

1. Count up from zero.
2. Count down from any time (less than 24 hours). You can set as many
timers as you want.
3. Select a specific time of the day to receive a notification. You can also
specify the day (daily, weekdays, weekends or a specific day).
You can set as many notifications as you want.

The Simple Timer add-on also features a clock mode, that will amazingly enough tell you the time. 

You can pick up this amazing little Firefox add-on from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Browsing space is important; especially for smaller netbook PCs out there.  So, why have the menu bar, bookmark bar and navigation bar shown if you don’t need them?  The Hide GUI bars extension for Firefox will let you hide all three, or bring them back with one single keyboard combination.

Once the Hide GUI bars add-on is installed, customizing it to fit your needs is pretty self explanatory.  In the options you can choose which toolbars get hidden:

• Menu Bar
• Navigation Bar
• Tab Bar
• Bookmarks Bar
• Status Bar

Next, you just choose the keyboard combination you wish to use to hide or show all the Firefox toolbars.

How to Hide Toolbars Manually in Firefox

Can you do this without the use of the Hide GUI bars add-on? Yes, but it is a little more complicated.  One of the new features in Firefox 3.6 is the ability to hide the menu bar.  The navigation bar and bookmarks bar were already hide-able before this most recent release. To hide them, just right-click one of the toolbars, and uncheck the one you wish to hide:

You can pick up the Hide GUI bars add-on for Firefox on the Firefox add-ons web site.

However, if you have hidden your clocks and need a way to tell what time it is from Firefox, Statusbar Date is the perfect add-on for the job.

This extension uses format specifiers to allow you to display the date/time in your status bar however you want. You can even mix in regular text with your desired format.  Some of the other features are:

• Displays the current date/time in the status bar.
• Left clicking on Statusbar Date toggles it to contract, only showing the icon in the status bar. Clicking on it again will cause it to expand once again.
• Right clicking on Statusbar Date opens the Options dialog.
• Middle clicking on Statusbar Date toggles parts of the format that are enclosed by ( ) to contract/expand.

You can download the Statusbar Date plugin from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Ever needed to see your Firefox status bar when browsing in full screen mode (you can get into full screen mode by hitting the F11 key on your keyboard).  If you answered, “Yes, tell me more!” do I ever have that add-on of your dreams.

Simply called Full Screen Status Bar, this add-on for Firefox shows the status bar in full screen mode.  It is a very simple tweak that should make many full screen web browser users very happy.

Pick it up for yourself, and give it a shot at the Mozilla add-ons web site.

Flagfox – displays a country flag depicting the location of the current web site’s server

PingPong – start up a game of pong, anytime you feel the urge

FoxyMeter – how far have you surfed?

GA? – Is Google Analytics Installed – checks to see if Google Analytics is installed on any given page

Cookie Monster – gives you easy access to how cookies are used in your browser

Linkification – converts text links into genuine, clickable links (get more here)

infoRSS – displays RSS, Atom, parsed HTML and NNTP feed in a scrolling area in the status bar

Server Spy – indicates what brand of HTTP server (e.g. Apache, IIS, etc.) runs on the visited sites

Status-bar Scientific Calculator – a calculator that is very scientific!

Html Validator – adds HTML validation inside Firefox

Browse Images – browses all linked images of a page one after another or at once

QuickZoom – adds two icons to the Firefox/Thunderbird status bar which enable quick access to the “Enlarge Text Size” (Ctrl++) and “Reduce Text Size” (Ctrl+-) menu commands

MoneyQuake – displays your real-time earning statistics

whos.amung.us Users Online Counter – shows how many people are currently on your web site in accordance with the whos.amung.us widget

Converter – contextual unit and time zone conversion on any web page

QuickPageZoom – another quick page zoom add-on for the status bar

PhishTank SiteChecker – gives Firefox users a way to bring the community judgment of PhishTank

Forecastfox -  get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar

NoScript – allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS and clickjacking attacks

Download Statusbar – view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing

FoxyTunes – lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser

Greasemonkey – allows you to customize the way a web page displays using small bits of JavaScript

Stylish – customize the look of the application and of web sites with Stylish, a user styles manager

Gmail Manager – allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications

Turn it Off? – The last would be to turn the status bar off.  To do so, go to View (in the menu bar) and then click on Status Bar.  Doing so will turn it off.  Repeat the same steps to turn it back on.   So now, after doing 50 tips to tweak your status bar – which did I miss?

Want to add a few more features and functionality to your Firefox status bar?  Here are a some common tweaks you may want to make, and how you can get them added to your own browser.

Extended Statusbar – check out speed, percentage, time and loaded size and more

Organize Status Bar – clear the clutter out of your status bar

Cookie Button – C is for cookie, and this add-on makes it easy enough to access cookie permissions.  (ok, so it doesn’t make a good song)

Calculator-Bar – adds a calculator to your status bar (big surprise there, right?)

Unshorten – see the real location of a short URL (such as tinyurl.com/something) in your browser

PopupMaster – places the popup blocker icon in the status bar, regardless of site settings

Router Status – give you the status of your router in the toolbar or status bar

ShowIP – shows your IP address and some more cool tools

Daily Dilbert – instant access to the Dilbert comic strip of the day

Dcurrency – currency exchange rates in the status bar

Live IP Address – Your current IP address in your status bar

TabCounter – gives you the number of tabs you currently have open

Viral Threat Level – adds an image to the status bar that indicates the current viral threat level of the internet

YMail Notifier – notifies you when you get new mail to your Yahoo! e-mail account

SportsFox – latest sport scores for your favorite teams

Prefswitch – quickly activate/deactivate settings like CSS, JavaScript and more

Dictionary Switcher – toggles between the installed dictionaries and displays the currently selected dictionary in the status bar

US Department of Homeland Insecurity Idiocy Level – yes, that is a long name for an add-on

Status-bar Calculator – another status bar calculator (in case you need two)

Open Tab Count – counts the number of open tabs you have, just in case you forgot

Word Count Plus – counts number of words in selected text

Dictionary – comes in handy when you quickly want to find the meaning of a word

TwitterFox – notifies you of your friends’ statuses of Twitter

IsAdmin – shows whether the application is running with administrator privileges, by means of an icon in the status bar

Firesizer – allows you to resize the window to specific dimensions

Have a favorite I might have missed?  Let me know via the comments and maybe we can get this list up even higher.

BONUS! – Go check out 25 More Tweaks for Your Firefox Status Bar!

Let me just tell you – your not alone. Firefox fans usually call this deadly addition S.O.L. otherwise known as statusbar over load. There is a cure. The solution to your problem, is to install one more Firefox extension named StatusBars.

I promise you, there will be no side effects and you will be able to continue to use Firefox without the shame of your peers. This extension gives you the ability to switch between multiple status bars with different content. You can then customize your statusbars icon, name and arrange the icons the way you want.

You can set up your statusbars so you have one for the site you are on (greasemonkey, adblock, rip, etc), one for general information (forcastfox, gmail notifier, stock ticker, etc) and one for webdesign (tidy, web developer, firebug, etc).

You too can once again have a status bar in Firefox that is neat, tidy and organized.  Don’t kick the habit – feed the need!

For some reason I don’t like to have a lot on my taskbar. I think it would be really neat if someone would develop a Firefox plugin to read data from the mlb gameday servers and popup a summary window similar to what the Cingular minuteminder plugin does. The ideal plugin would effectively minimize the gameday window into a summary bar similar to the minuteminder and foxytunes plugins, and it would open the gameday window in a popup on mouseover just like minuteminder.

I don’t think there are any extensions out there smart enough to know, “Ok it is Friday, time to show this extension” but I do have one for you that will help you organize your status bar woes. Check out the rightfully named Organize Status Bar extension.

It should help you at least gain some control over your messy status bar in your favorite browser.

Bonus! Here is another solution! StatusBars

Then again, if you don’t want to bother with an extension you could always just type 1+1 into that Google search box on the search bar. After doing that, you should get the answer you are looking for as well.

You see – two tips in one post, I am all about giving you the goods.

+ Download and Install the Calculator Bar Extension for Firefox!