In checking my Fx extension list (click Tools, then Extensions) I find that I have eighteen currently installed, one of which (an HTML editor) is disabled because I rarely use it; disabled extensions don’t load, and thus don’t use up memory. I’m not going to attempt to discuss them in any order of usefulness, since that’s relative in any case. I’ll just take them from the top.

Webmail Compose makes “mailto:” links load into your Webmail’s compose page, and adds a Compose link to the context (right-click) menu. This prevents your clicking on those “contact us” links and getting Outlook Express. Options, accessed for nearly all extensions by right-clicking the application listing in the Extensions window, include the ability to set the default mail client among Gmail, Opera, Yahoo!, Hotmail, and others, control window behavior, enable/disable the context menu, and select the Webmail services shown there. You’ll come to love Webmail Compose. It just sits there most of the time, but is really convenient when you need it.

Blog This adds right-click access to Blogger’s Blog This popup. Handy sometimes, but if you use Google’s Toolbar for Firefox, it’s a bit redundant. I use ‘em sort of interchangeably.

Copy Plain Text adds a context menu selection that allows you to copy whatever you have highlighted without any HTML or other formatting.

deskCut is the Fx equivalent of Internet Explorer’s “Create Shortcut” right-click menu item, and sends an internet shortcut for the current page to your desktop. Really handy when you want to come back to a site, but don’t want to bookmark it.

Flat Bookmark Editing makes it possible to edit bookmarks in the bookmark manager without opening the properties window and, if you right-click on a folder in Bookmarks, it gives you access to all the bookmarks at once.

SmoothWheel scrolls the document smoothly when scrolling the mouse wheel. There are all sorts of advanced settings for the geekier users. I’ve never messed with them. Works fine as it is.

Last, but far from least, is Tiny URL Creator. For those of you who aren’t familiar with TinyURL, it’s a Web-based service that allows you to enter a long URL (Uniform Resource Locator - the “http://” thing) and get back a short one that’s less likely to be corrupted by e-mailing and similar uses. I use a lot of them in this column. The service is free. TinyURL makes money by tracking anonymous use statistics and providing them to folks for marketing purposes. Once installed, this extension allows you to create TinyURLs from any Web page, or by right-clicking on links. If you deal with links much, this one’s an absolute must.

You can find these, and hundreds of other extensions for the Firefox and Mozilla browsers, as well as the excellent Thunderbird e-mail client (all free) right here.

Check back tomorrow.

[tags]firefox extension,fx extension,webmail compose,blog this,copy plain text,deskcut,flat bookmark editing,smoothwheel,tiny url creator[/tags]