Firefox has more ways to extend functionality than any other browser. Here are the best add-ons that you should be using.

It's not a far stretch to say Mozilla owes the success of its Firefox browser to add-ons; Firefox was the first browser to embrace them. Add-ons encompass plug-ins (like Flash, Adobe Reader, and QuickTime) that make existing Web tech work, themes for changing a browser's look, and, of course, those capability-enhancing programs known as extensions that go beyond a developer's dreams. Of course, you could go your entire browsing life without installing an extensionmany people dobut without them, Firefox isn't the Web-surfing powerhouse it can be. Take a look at our choices for the best extensions and try a few out. They're free, after all. You'll see just how useful they are.



1. Adblock Plus

What more can we say about an extension that already has more than 14.3 million users? If you hate advertising, you should install this tool and filter the commercials out of your Web surfing. The 2.0 version has an option to let you view the more non-intrusive ads, thus keeping many of us (ahem) in business. And we thank you.



2. Amazon Add To Wish List

Almost everyone has an Amazon wish list. It's a great way to let people know just what you want for a special occasion. That list is not limited to just items available from Amazon, either; with this extension, anything you can shop for online can be added to your wish list for future shopping. It works with many international versions of Amazon, too.



3. AutoPager

On many websites, you have to slog through page after page to read an entire article. (Yeah, yeah, we know.) If you're sick of clicking "Next," try AutoPager. It works with a wide variety of popular sites, turning multi-page articles into one long page, automatically loading the next page when you get to the end so the scrolling never stops.



4. Boo.ly Shopping

If you love bargains, get Boo.ly Shopping. It assists shoppers by popping up as you search or surf major online retailers. Click the Boo.ly tab or links and you'll see where you can get the items you want for even cheaper.



5. Cleanest Addon Manager

When you're done reading this article, you're going to have a lot of Firefox add-ons installed. This extension makes managing them easier by reducing the size of the page and making it a snap to disable or remove those you no longer want.



6. Evernote Clearly

Clearly is a service of Evernote. It takes articles, blog posts, and other webpages that you might be too busy to read and reduces them to just the text you want, distraction-free. You can change the text type and background for optimal readability. Of course, you can then save that same cleaned-up version of the text directly to Evernote for reading later.



7. Click&Clean

Got nothing to hide, huh? Well, just in case you do, install Click&Clean and you'll find it's a breeze to delete your browser history, download history, cookies, and temp files. It'll make sure that your private data is deleted whenever you close the browser. You can do all of the above and more with one click in the toolbar.



8. Desktop

Why face white space when you open a new tab? Desktop is a "speed-dial" that lets you add widgets, links, and more to a customized layout, providing fast access to your favorite sites and services on the Web. Throw in a customized background to really make it your own.



9. Diigo Toolbar

Diigo is a full-blown online service for social bookmarking, a lot like Delicious used to be. With this toolbar installed, you can get the most out of your surfing, using it to annotate pages, highlight text, and keep your bookmarks stored online.



10. Dormancy

This is an extension clearly labeled "experimental," just in case it should eat your browsing session. But give it a try, as it will "retire" your unused tabs so you can free up precious memory that is going to waste on your computer due to Firefox's bad leaks. Just know, you've been warned.



11. DownThemAll!

When a webpage is filled with downloadable itemsbe they linked files or just imageswhy would you download them individually? This extension lets you DownThemAll. You can stop and resume whenever you want.



12. Echofon for Twitter

Sure, Twitter runs in your Web browser, but Echofon is a Twitter client that runs within Firefox only and adds a lot of extras, like one- click access from the tool bar both to read tweets and compose new ones. All your reading is synced with the Echofon apps on iOS devices, too.



13. Evernote Web Clipper

Evernote is what you need to store things you find online. The service is your personal online database of clips, links, or entire pages of data to reference later. Web Clipper saves them in the background while you keep surfing and syncs with the desktop and mobile versions so you can access the info anywhere, any time.



14. FastestFox

Not to be confused with FasterFox , which makes performance tweaks, this is FastestFox. It enhances your Web browsing experience by giving you a quick pop-up menu (the qLauncher) for fast access to searches, price comparisons, Wikipedia searches, and more that you can customize. You'll be hitting Ctrl+Space to click on items all the time.



15. Fast Dial

Here's another way to fill the blank page when opening a new tab. Fast Dial is a quick link page of "visual bookmarks," also known as "icons," for your favorite sites so you can jump to them quickly with a click.



16. FEBE

The Firefox Environment Backup Extension is all about the backup of the whole browser environmenthence the name. It copies bookmarks, profiles, preferences, cookies, themes, and extensions to a safe place. You can back up or restore just the parts you want.



17. Feedly

The RSS readers on phones and tablets are all about making the experience of feed-reading more pleasant. Feedly does that in Firefox (and other browsers), turning your RSS into magazine-esque readable bites. You'll need a Google Reader account to use it and Twitter to share what you like.



18. FireFTP

Need to access a server somewhere with full-fledged FTP but don't want to exit your browser? You don't have to with FireFTP. It loads the app in a tab and gives you everything you need without having to access a separate program. It works with Firefox on Mac, Windows, and Linux, too.



19. Firestatus

Why access your favorite social network or microblog platform with a bookmark, when you can post and receive full updates with a click in a toolbar? FireStatus works with Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and others.



20. Flashblock

It's no secret that Adobe's Flash is no longer the darling of Web development, but if you hate Flash animations and applications with a passion, try Flashblock to obliterate them. Why not just uninstall Flash? Because sometimes you need access; Flashblock's placeholder images give you the option to click and open the content, if necessary.



21. Ghostery

Wondering who's tracking your every move as you surf? Ghostery keeps you up to date by detecting all the "invisible" parts of a webpage (such as Web bugs) so you can see who's doing what. You can then opt out of tracking by letting Ghostery's GhostRank sit in-between you and them.



22. Gmelius

This one is for Gmail users only, but it makes a huge difference to that Web-based email's interface. Gmelius removes ads, the chat, and other widgets. It links the Gmail logo to your inbox, and offers a number of other small enhancements.



23. Greasemonkey

One of the most versatile add-ons ever, Greasemonkey uses scripts downloaded at userscripts.org to further customize webpages. Sometimes it customizes every page you encounter; other times scripts are specific to a certain website. You can write your own scripts, too. To get them working, Greasemonkey has to be there.



24. HTTPS Everywhere

When you visit a page that has a secure connection, the URL in the browser address bar should start with "HTTPS," (The "S" is not there on insecure connections). This extension will force a site to load with a secure connection, providing encryption from you to the server if it's available, as it is on many services like those from Google and Twitter.



25. IE Tab

In the war of the browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer still hangs on, even if by default. That means many webpages and services are written to IE's strengths, not Firefox's. If you have to visit those pages regularly, download IE Tab so you can still see them in IE's rendering engine, but within a Firefox tab, all without having to load the full program.



26. Image Preview

What Image Preview does is pretty simple; if you move your mouse over an image on a webpage in Firefox, it will pop-up a preview window of the picture (if it links to a larger version of itself in JPG, GIF, PNG, or BMP formats).



27. LastPass Password Manager

LastPass is PCMag's favorite when it comes to encrypting and keeping your password for safe-but-easily-accessible use. Considering the number of sites that require username and password credentials, it's inexcusable not to have this installed to keep you secure. Use it on any platform (mobile or desktop), and you should also install it with IE and Chrome if you use those as well. .



28. Lazarus Form Recovery

There's nothing worse than having filled out a form on a website and then losing all the info in a browser crash or site reload. Lazarus saves it all as you go, so you never have to retype it again.



29. Omnibar

Google Chrome's "omnibox" address bar is both the place to type searches and URLs when you want to visit a site. Firefox separates the address from the searchuntil you install Omnibar and combine their strength in one. It also supports wildcards and auto-complete.



30. Open in Chrome

Most people install multiple browsers on a PC, just in case. If you're still a Firefox aficionado but want to try some of the action in Chrome, this extension will instantly send the tab you're in (or all the tabs you have open) to Google Chrome.



31. Personas Plus

Want to change the look of Firefox? Forget the old themes; these days Firefox is all about "personas" to change the skin of the browser, from color scheme to buttons to background image on the toolbars. Personas Plus is the extension that gives you complete control over the skins, all by clicking the little fox-faced icon in the lower browser status bar. Use it to find your favorites or the latest looks and make a change instantly. Check out Personas Rotator to change them for you automatically.



32. Pocket

Formerly called Read It Later, Pocket is your online pocket to store things to, uh, read later. Set up an account and you can use it across all your devices and services. It's a lot like Evernote Clearly, focusing on saving things and making them easily readable later.



33. Priv3

Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and other social networks like to know what you're up to. They also like to know what you like; why else provide all those "+1" and "Like" buttons? Priv3 lets you stay logged in to the social networks but will prevent your social networks from knowing what other sites you surf.



34. ScribeFire Next

Your blog editor may be Web-based, but ScribeFire does it one better, providing a WYSIWYG interface in a browser tab or window that can post to just about any blog platform in existence. Got multiple blogs? ScribeFire can support all of them, from WordPress to Blogger to Posterous, and more. You can also use it on multiple OSes and on Chrome, Safari, and Opera browsers, as well.



35. Shareaholic

It doesn't matter if your favorite platform for social sharing is Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, or even email; Shareaholic's dropdown menu makes what you're currently looking at simple to share.



36. Site to Phone

Sometimes porting favorite sites from your desktop browser to your mobile browser is a pain. Site to Phone minimizes that so you can send links that will work every time to iOS, Android, WebOS, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone 7 phones. This one works in every browser, with extensions for IE and Chrome, too.



37. Stylish

Stylish is similar to Greasemonkey (#23) in that it changes how sites function and work using user-created scripts, but Stylish focuses on fashion; it modifies the actual theme of the site. You can find user-created styles at userstyles.org.



38. Tab Mix Plus

Take total control of your Firefox tabs with this extension with Tab Mix Plus, which provides short cuts and extras you never imagined. Quickly reopen closed tabs, duplicate tabs, and control a full tab session manager that recovers tabs even after a crash.



39. Tweetlight

Why should you have to cut and paste items you like into Twitter? With Tweetlight, just highlight and hit Ctrl+Shift+E (or use a context menu) to share your selections instantly with followers.



40. Video DownloadHelper

If you think that videos on sites like YouTube can only be viewed online, think again. This extension works with hundreds of similar sites to grab video or audio for your future viewing pleasure anywhere.



41. WOT

Reputations should be earned, even online. The Web of Trust (WOT) is an online community of like-minded users rating websites for trustworthiness. You can use the WOT extension to learn as you surf what sites are safe when it comes to privacy, child safety, and vendor-reliability based on ratings by others. You should add your own ratings as you go to complete the Web of Trust.



42. Xmarks Bookmark Sync

No collection of browser add-ons is complete without Xmarks. Whether you use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or IE, this service makes sure your browsers all have the same synced bookmarks and passwords.



43. Yoono

Stay in touch with everyone and anyone on your social networks with Yoono. Via columns of data, you can see streams from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and your IM services. The combos are almost endless. Yoono comes in desktop and mobile apps, but might be strongest as a browser extension (for Firefox and Chrome) on all operating systems.



44. Zotero

It's all about sources at Zotero. This digital research assistant helps you collect and manage sources you want to cite or track. It stores PDFs, notes, and entire pages (in case you think the data might change). You can sync your data at Zotero.org so it's never lost, and you can integrate the info with office suite software. This plug-in can even run as a standalone Zotero app for Windows or Mac or Linux, plus connectors for other browsers (Chrome and Safari), so you can use it anywhere.