January 2009

Like many of you, FF is my favorite browser and if you are reading this, then chances are that you too are using and love FF(because my 90% of traffic comes from Firefox users). Speaking honestly, FF would not be that much popular without its vast library of useful add-ons. These add-ons add some extra functionality and beauty to your browsing routine. Below are some add-ons related to music and videos, which I have used and found useful.

 

Fire.fm

Although last.fm is an online music broadcasting service, yet to listen its tracks, one has to download last.fm scrobbler. That last.fm desktop client is quite good but one has to switch from browser to scrobbler in order to control last.fm radio station. That’s where Fire.fm add-on comes handy as it gets integrated with your browser so you don’t have to switch windows while browsing.

 

FoxyTunes

If you want to control your desktop based media player while browsing in Firefox, this is what you should get. You probably would know this add-on already, but to those who haven’t used or heard about this great extension, I have to tell that this is a must get if you want to listen to music while browsing.

 

Now Playing X

This extension does what “Show what I am listening to” feature does in MSN Messenger. In addition to this you can add sites of your choice like Dailymotion, YouTube, last.fm and it will update your status on different IM clients with what you will be listening. Currently it supports AIM, Gtalk, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and MSN/Live Messenger.

 

All Music Toolbar

It is an official toolbar extension from allmusic.com (part of all media guide). It searches allmusic database for artist, album, song etc. right from your browser. You can type in the keyword in search box, or search selected text in the page via context menu option. If you are a regular user of allmusic, this extension could help you save that extra time to find out your favorite album.

 

Stop Autoplay

Music is enjoying…but not always. Imagine that you opened a video on YouTube, but forgot to minimize the volume until you realized that the video with the fullest volume is playing on its own. To stop that annoying auto play feature, which can be found on several websites including YouTube, Metacafe, last.fm, this little add-on is here.

 

Better Youtube

This extension is actually a compilation of 3 grease monkey scripts for YouTube. The first one is an alternative player, which stops auto-play (similar to the above one). Secondly, there is a script which generates download link for all YouTube videos (so you don’t have to hunt for different youtube video grabbing sites), and the third option puts YouTube in theatrical mode i.e. with minimal options and bigger player screen.

 

GoogleTube

What could be better than integrating worlds biggest search engine with worlds biggest video site? Googletube does exactly as such, shows videos from YouTube related to what you search on Google. You can watch, download and get information of a video…right from the Google search results page, so you don’t have to switch pages. Cool isn’t it?

 

IMDb Preview

For all the IMDb (The Internet Movie Database) fans out there, this extension might be the most useful. Just hover into your favorite movie or actor name in IMDb, and it will show you a summary of that in a pop-up, so you dont have to go to the next page.

 

Share Video

Video sharing has become much easier with this little add-on. If you like to share what you watch or rather specifically, if you are a video blogger, then this add-on can save your time with its quick post option. Just open a video page from your favorite video site, share it with your friends, post it on blogs, and share on different social media websites like facebook, bebo, myspace, tagged etc.

 

Related How-To Videos Sidebar

This add-on adds a video sidebar from the infamous website WonderHowTo. What it does is, it will fetch videos related to the page you are browsing. For example, if you open Gmail, it will start giving you tips about ‘opening multiple Gmail ids at the same time’. That is just one example, install this toolbar and know every “how-to” by watching.

 

 

This is the share of add-ons from my side, but if you know some other good ones, let me know in the comments.

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