The biggest pain, other than cosmetics, is having to re-teach yourself the way you browse.  You have to get used to having that ability at your fingertips to do searches inside a website and get used to the usefulness that an add-on like this brings.

What are some of the newest features?

• Customizable keyboard shortcut to call up Apture Search
• Performance improvements, contextual search results now even faster
• Secure: Automatically disabled on HTTPS (secure) websites to not interfere with your private information
• What’s that word? Dictionary definitions now included in search results

and that is only scratching the surface of what the amazing Apture Highlights add-on can do.

You can pick up the Apture Highlights add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Drag Button adds several handy new buttons to your Firefox browser layout.  With it, you can quickly:

• Drag a Window
• Close Firefox
• Maximize Firefox
• Restore Firefox
• Restore Down Firefox
• or Minimize Firefox

all by adding those specific buttons to your toolbar layout.  To do so, all you need to do (once the Drag Button add-on has been installed) is right-click the Firefox menu bar and select, "Customize". Then all you need to do is drag the buttons you want to use onto the Firefox interface.

You can pick up the Drag Button add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Google recently released an excellent web-based front end to the link shortening service they provide, but no Firefox add-on to compliment it.  Have no fear, because goo.gl lite is here.  This simple extension lets you shorten long URLs, using the goo.gl domain with just one click – and instantly copies the resulting URL to your clipboard for you. 

Once you have goo.gl installed, all you need to do is customize your menu toolbar, and drag it onto your Firefox interface.  Once there, click the button and the link for the webpage you are currently viewing is shortened.  As an extra bonus, you even get a temporary popup at the top of the page saying that the link has been shortened too – which is a nice cosmetic feature.

Every link you shorten with this extension also shows up when you visit the goo.gl website.

If you want to use the new goo.gl link shortening service, but also want an easy way to shrink links via a button in Firefox – then this is the perfect combination and solution to your problem.  You can download the goo.gl lite add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Ever needed to search through, correct or delete the entries that are saved to the form history inside of Firefox?  With Firefox alone, this can not be done. If you download the add-on Form History Control – then you will be optimizing your saved form history in no time at all.

If you don’t clear your browser’s recent history religiously, you might have noticed that you have several entries to choose from when you start to type inside of a text form.

The Form History Control add-on for Firefox gives you the ability to do all kinds of neat things with this information.  You can sort the list of form history.  You can filter (by selecting one of the filters) to slim down the list of forms you are checking into.  You can edit past phrases that have been saved, to correct them for spelling or grammar too.  The best tool included with Form History Control might be the cleanup option.  This will automate the removal of form history.

The history of specific form fields can easily be managed by right clicking in the form you wish to manage.  You can then select to delete the complete history for that specific form, delete the current value you have selected or go in and manage the entries for this one form.

You can pick up the Form History Control add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Quickly create PDFs anywhere from any source on the Web.  The add-on PDF Download will let you save just about any type of content from any webpage as a PDF file.  The extension also promises to remove the pain you can experience when you encounter PDF files online too.

Almost every single time I run into a PDF online, I run into problems.  This add-on has solved that issue completely.

Some of the features include:

• View PDF online. Convert PDF to an image and display it in the browser for quick viewing.
• Convert Web pages to PDF. Convert any (unsecured) Web pages to great looking PDF files, and then save, share, print or archive them.
• View PDF as HTML. View the contents of PDF files faster and eliminate browser problems by instantly converting any Web-based PDF to a browser-friendly HTML Web page.
• Control PDF files in Firefox. Stop crashes and get the upper hand on Web-based PDF files by automating and controlling how your Firefox or Flock browsers deal with them.
• Works in your language. Through the help of our users, PDF Download is now available in 19 languages and counting.

This might be one of the better PDF-related Firefox add-ons out there today.  You can pick it up and try it out at the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Need to duplicate a tab in Firefox, so you can have the same content loaded up in two Firefox windows?  Not sure, you could just copy and paste the URL into both browsers – but who has the time?  I have an easier solution to fix this problem.

The answer is the Duplicate This Tab add-on for Firefox.  With this extension installed, You can detach a tab from one Firefox window, load it up in a new one and keep the tab loaded up in the old Firefox window. 

Now for those of you who say, "Firefox already does that!" let me set you straight.  Currently, when you left-click on a tab and drag it down and then let go of the left mouse button, it does detach and create a new Firefox window. 

What makes this add-on special is it keeps that same web page loaded in the older Firefox browsing window too, rather than just moving it to the new Firefox window.  This add-on gives you the following options:

• Duplicate Tab
• Duplicate Tab to New Window
• Detach Tab
• or Merge Windows

You can pick up the Duplicate This Tab add-on from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

For years now, I have been highlighting the best Firefox add-ons out there for you all to check out and use, if needed.  However, not often do I go that extra mile to help you replace an add-on that I don’t think is that handy to have.  Amazingly enough, ImTranslator is an add-on that have enjoyed a lot of popularity (3,875,310 downloads to be exact) however I think there is a better solution out there, that doesn’t even need an add-on for Firefox to be used.

One of the reasons I do not like ImTranslator is it looks junky.  It is riddled with advertisements, such I understand is great for when it comes to making money – however, I don’t think they serve a purpose inside of a Firefox add-on. Now, let us move on to what I think you should use instead.

What Replaces ImTranslator?

Just bookmark the Google Translate web site.  I have been using Google Translate for many years to help translate text and it has never let me down.  While the translations are not perfect (no translation tool ever is) it does the closest job, from what I have seen.  To use it, all you have to do is copy and paste the text you wish to translate, select what language it is in, what language you want to translate to, and then hit the button labeled, “Translate”.

By using Google Translate instead of ImTranslator, you not only save clutter from your Firefox add-on installs, but you also gain access to one of the best free translation tools out there today. Using the tools they provide, you can also get a bookmarklet that does a one-click translation of any web site into the language you wish to read.

So, let me know what you think.  Is Google Translate a suitable replacement for ImTranslator or do you think ImTranslator is still a better translating solution?

From head to toe, this add-on for Firefox will give you a lot of new toys, options and more to play with on your Facebook account, to make the Facebook experience even better for you.

Better Facebook Activity Tracking

After Installing, just navigate to Facebook’s web site to get started. Right off the bat, you’ll notice that your most recent notifications are now pinned to the right side of the Facebook window, as seen here:

If anybody un-friends you, you will also get notification from the front page of Facebook under the “Friend Tracker” section.

My Group Activity will alert you to new posts, members, and more in groups you are a member of.  This is much more handy than visiting each, one by one.

Better Facebook News Feed

On your news feed, you have a few more options to play with too.  Here is a little more about those from the developer:

Click ‘Mark All Read’ once you have read every story on this page. The stories will then be hidden the next time you view the page. But don’t worry – if any new comments are added they will show back up! This will let you keep track of conversations that you otherwise might have missed.

You can always go back and see all the hidden stories by clicking ‘Show All’, then hide them again by clicking ‘Hide Read’.

Better Facebook Options and More

By clicking the “Options” button on the front page, you can quickly configure and edit how you want to see updates come up.  For example, you can show, minimize or hide new friend notifications.

You can pick up the Better Facebook! add-on for Firefox from the Firefox add-ons web site.

More Facebook/Firefox Fun > Best 5 Add-ons for Facebook Fans

It is known as one of the most popular, lightweight and reliable external download managers out there.  The real benefit with the FlashGot add-on is being able to download multiple files from multiple links at the same time, all at once.

Here are some of the other features worth diving into:

FlashGot Link – downloads through the default download manager the link under the mouse pointer.

FlashGot Selection – catches links in highlighted text/images, attempting also pure text to anchors conversion, performing some “smart” replacement like turning “hxxp://” into “http://”.

FlashGot All – grabs all the links found in the current page and dispatches them to the default download manager.

FlashGot Tabs – performs a “FlashGot All” on every tab open in the current window.

FlashGot Media – it’s enabled only when a streaming video or audio clip is playing in the current browser tab: this command intercepts downloadable addresses of the content pieces played so far in the page and sends them to the download manager.

Here you have five different ways to download files, that you do not have without the add-on in question.  You can download the FlashGot add-on from the Firefox Add-ons web site, and learn more about it on it’s official web site – flashgot.net.

How do you use it?  That much is simple:

1. Click the "Add Proofreader" link on your link bar to add a Proofread button above each text box.
2. Click to find spelling mistakes, misused words, and grammar errors
3. Click to continue editing.

Right now the bookmarklet does have a few limitations, such as it is limited to 7,000 characters worth of text, and it only works in text area form elements, however this is a great way to bring a great tool with you, no matter what web site you are on.

You can pick up the After the Deadline bookmarklet on AftertheDeadline.com.