While the Web seems to have gone toolbar crazy, Firefox extensions continue to be the number 1 reason I find for adding anything to my online browsing experience. Instead of cluttering my screen, extensions actually help make browsing a more productive experience no matter what I'm doing. In addition to features like tabbed browsing that expand the standard browsing experience, here's a hit list of Firefox extensions worth taking for a test drive.

How does Firesheep Work?
"I'm worried about people accessing my passwords with Firesheep when I sign in to places like Facebook from the local coffee shop. How does Firesheep work? Is there a way I can protect myself or should I just avoid free public WiFi?" While you are correct to be cautious when using free public WiFi, you don't necessarily need to stop because of Firesheep and other network sniffing tools. There are a number of ways you can protect your data to achieve sufficient levels of security. I'll walk you through how Firesheep works so that you can take measures to prevent anyone accessing your information....

Add Google Secure Search to Firefox
Google secure search provides you with the ability to search with an encrypted HTTPS version of the Google search. This means your connection to Google is secure and no one between you and the Google servers can intercept your search query. Google secure search also turns off the browser referrer, so if you search for something like "Add Google Secure Search to Firefox" and you end up at JakeLudington.com, my Web analytics software has no way to know that your visit to the site was a result of that search query. It also prevents your ISP, the owner of the WiFi hotspot where you surf, and anyone else from knowing the search query you typed. The security ends at the point where you click on the Google result and go to the website. There are currently two ways to use the encrypted Google search in Firefox....

Browse Faster with Bookmark Keywords
Bookmarks are one of the worst implemented features in the history of the browser. You need special software to tell you when Bookmarks expire. Most of them are immediately forgotten, making a Google search more useful. They're like a breadcrumb trail you can't easily follow, because it becomes cluttered with too many crumbs. There's no easy way to recall your favorite links without digging through a mess that even when categorized in folders is still a mess. That is until Firefox came along with Bookmark keywords....

Password Exporter - Firefox Extension
If you store passwords for frequently visited Websites in Firefox, chances are you need to move those passwords or back them up. Password Exporter, a Firefox extension, makes it easy to export passwords from Firefox as either an XML or CSV file. You can then import passwords from the file to Firefox on another computer (or simply keep a backup of your password list. Encryption of the stored passwords is optional, so you can keep your passwords secure if necessary. One really handy feature is the ability to backup all those sites you told Firefox to never remember your password for, so you don't get that nagging dialog box when you visit on another computer. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00] Find more Firefox tips and extensions

Backup Thunderbird Email
"I'm looking for an easy way to back up my email. I read your article on backing up Outlook, but I use Thunderbird. How do I backup my Thunderbird email?" Most comprehensive backup applications support backing up the Thunderbird mail client. Email is a good place to start, but you also need to look for a more comprehensive backup strategy. Backing up your email is a good place to start; I certainly don't know where I'd be if my email suddenly vanished. Here's an easy way to make sure you don't lose any of your Thunderbird email messages.

Google Browser Sync
I have mixed feelings about the new Google Browser Sync. The premise is keeping all your Firefox settings synchronized across every computer you use, including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords. This is good in theory. I know there are plenty of times when I find something on one computer and then have to remember which computer in order to find the resource again. My concern comes from the implementation. In order to keep passwords, bookmarks and everything else in sync, the information is uploaded and stored on a Google server using the same Google account used for GMail, Google Talk and all the various other Google applications. Storing passwords and browser history on Google's servers might be completely innocuous - a convenient repository of information. On the other hand all that information is definitively identifying in detail about where you go and what you do online. Google explicitly says in the terms of use, "Google may access, preserve, and disclose information regarding your use of the services if required to do so by law or under other conditions set forth in the Google Privacy Policy." This gets scary if you ever end up getting divorced and your future-ex subpoenas your Internet history as some sort of proving ground for a relationship turned sour, or more importantly if the government decides they want to investigate a large block of Google users for patterns of behavior. Keeping things in perspective, Google lets you choose what is or isn't synchronized using advanced configuration. Google offers encryption for all this data, but fails in letting us know whether they hold a master key to decrypt it on their end. From my view, I'm inclined to use something like this to store my tab groupings to easily open them on any computer, bookmarks for the convenience of accessing them, encrypt both, and pass on trusting Google to store passwords, history, and cookies on their server. Bottom line, if you opt to use Google Browser Sync, I recommend caution. [Firefox for Windows and Mac $0.00]

Video Downloader
After recently recommending a solution for downloading YouTube videos, Video Downloader 2.0 offers a better method via Firefox plugin. The principal is the same - Video Downloader 2.0 reveals the location of download videos for over thirty different Internet sites, including YouTube, MySpace, iFilm, Google , Current TV, Blip.tv and a bunch of sites I've never visited. Instead of needing to copy the link somewhere, using the Video Downloader Firefox plugin, simply visit a page with a video, activate Video Downloader and reveal the download link to virtually any video. Chris did one better and found someone to create an Internet Explorer bookmarklet so you get the same functionality in browsers like Maxthon.

Feed Your Reader
RSS is the information delivery tool keeping me on top of all the information I read daily. Without it, I'd be lost. While Firefox handles RSS auto-discovery, letting me know I can subscribe to something, with relative ease, it doesn't elegantly add feeds to my RSS reader of choice (currently FeedDemon). Feed Your Reader steps in and elegantly adds one-click subscription functionality to Firefox, eliminating the messy copy-and-paste steps required to get from Web page to RSS reader. If you need to stay on top of information for your job, hobby or just want to keep abreast of the latest news, Feed Your Reader makes subscribing painless.

Forecast Fox
With one million and one ways to get weather information from the Internet to your computer, it's hard to decide which method is the best. Forecast Fox is a Firefox extension designed to integrate weather delivery into Firefox so the details are always a glance away. Weather data is powered by AccuWeather.com, which includes radar images and severe weather warnings. Weather data is good both for U.S. cities and international listings, providing more information than many other free tools. Customizable forecast ranges, toolbar position and depth of tooltip data are fully customizable. A profile system stores data about more than one city, making Forecast Fox convenient for business travelers or people who simply need to know the weather situation on vacation.

SessionSaver
Ever had an experience where you were looking at a Web page, the browser crashes and all 20 pages you had open are suddenly gone? I hate it when that happens. SessionSaver prevents lost windows and information by saving all open Firefox windows, tabs, typed text and everything when the browser closes. Reopen Firefox and you pick up exactly where you left off. Manage multiple sessions to save groups of open tabs. TextSaver feature keeps track of text typed in Web pages. RemoteSync feature synchronizes your browser sessions between multiple computers. Keep in mind this is a potential security risk if you use a public computer, because other people could also open your sessions, but for personal use SessionSaver might be the single best reason to dump IE and switch to Firefox.

Tab X
If you're used to the window closing behavior in IE, where clicking the Red X in the corner closes the current browser window, getting used to closing tabs might be tricky. One way to make closing your tabs easier is to add a close button to each of the tabs using Tab X. This Firefox extension puts an X in the right corner of each tab, making it simple to clear out tabs when you no longer need them. You can still close the current tab using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+W, but you get the added advantage of closing a tab out of sequence with the click of your mouse.

IE Tab
One of the key reasons I don't use Firefox as my primary browser is page compatibility. I visit a ton of sites that don't play nice with Firefox. If you want the added features of Firefox without the inconvenience of needing to constantly run in dual browser mode, IE Tab saves the day. When you need to access an IE only site, this Firefox extension launches a new tab embedding IE inside Firefox. You never leave your current browser while getting all the advantages of having both browsers running side-by-side. There are a couple of quirky things I encountered on pages that open everything in a new window, but in general, this is the best of both worlds for getting Firefox tabbed browsing and the flexibility of accessing IE only pages.

Download Statusbar
If you frequently download anything from music to movies to software to just about anything, you want to know the status of downloads. Firefox includes some basic download management, but knowing exactly what's going on can be a trick. Download Statusbar is a Firefox extension designed to keep track of download progress. Like most extensions, Download Statusbar autohides when not in use, handles single click pause and resume, pauses or resumes all downloads simultaneously and copies the source URL to the clipboard among other handy features. If you download a ton of files and use Firefox, you need Download Statusbar.

Fasterfox
In general, Firefox loads pages faster than Internet Explorer. Why settle for marginally faster when you can tweak speed settings and dramatically enhance page load times. Fasterfox makes great use of Firefox prefectching capability by loading links in the background using idle computing cycles. It also tweaks a number of network performance settings on your PC to help improve throughput. And blocking of those annoying Flash pop-ups on pages makes sure you aren't waiting for an ad to get to the meat on a page.

Magpie
I download a ton of audio and video. Samplings from podcasters, video blogs, free MP3s from band Web sites and other random Flash movies and entertainment are all part of my daily searches. I'm in full gathering mode when I'm searching for new media stars. There are plenty of download grabbing tools capable of finding files when I'm in searching based on keywords, but when I find a band Website or cool short films on a site, I don't want to bother with dozens of right-click save target as operations. Using Magpie in Firefox, I can automatically save all the files of types I specify, like MOV, WMV, MP4, MP3 and WMA by using a keyboard shortcut. Magpie saves me time. It also has a neat trick of downloading all the files in a numbered sequence.

Bookmark Synchronizer
While I make a point of subscribing to most sites via RSS so I don't need to revisit them, I do still bookmark many sites so I can quickly refer to them when I need the service or information provided. Keeping track of those bookmarks across the several computers in my house is a nightmare. If you have more than one computer, Bookmark Synchronizer is the perfect solution for keeping bookmarks in check. You do need a place to FTP files (your ISP provided Web space works nicely for this).

WebMailCompose
If you click on a Mailto link, like the feedback link in the sidebar of this site, the browser attempts to open a desktop mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook Express. If your primary email account is something like Gmail or Yahoo Mail this doesn't work so well because you can't actually send mail. WebMailCompose addresses this by overriding the mailto behavior in Firefox. The default solution is to open Gmail, but you can also use Hotmail, Yahoo and several niche clients.

Book Burro
I'm doing a ton of reading lately, both fiction and non-fiction. It's a great escape from the hours I spend online. While there are plenty of comparison shopping sites I prefer the immediacy of comparison happening as I'm looking for information on an author or book. Book Burro extends Firefox by providing price comparisons from most of the popular online book sites while I'm looking up the book on any site. Book Burro remains hidden in the background when not in use, dropping down an unobtrusive list of prices from stores when I'm shopping through titles.