extensions

As performance reasserts its prominence and features become less of the driving force behind browsers, I find myself looking at the list of inactive extensions in Firefox with jaundiced eyes. It's been months since I've added a new extension, but the ones I still have I use regularly, and several are actually new to me for this year.

Part of the problem with add-ons is that they're such a personal, subjective thing. What do you need? Why do you need it? One of my favorites is a minor, tiny thing, but it saves me so much time … Read more

Here's a fun extension from the experimental section of Mozilla's Firefox add-ons site. It's called Puzzle, and once installed lets you turn any image from a page you're on into a sectional puzzle with pieces that can be moved around. Upon completion you have the option to ramp up the difficulty, which goes all the way up to a 15x15 grid. It's also able to resize larger images into smaller, laptop-friendly versions.

To toggle it on you simply right click on an image and select which difficulty you want. It then opens up the image (… Read more

The journey is over for Pirates of the Amazon, a new Firefox extension that let users illegally download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s for free by cross referencing Amazon.com's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.

On Thursday, a day after Webware reported on the plug-in, lawyers for Amazon.com took action. They served the Internet service provider of the two students who released the extension with a take-down notice--and the students complied and removed the tool, according to The New York Times.

However, on their Web site, the students now say the plug-in was … Read more

If you're up on your pirate lore, or perhaps have your Pirates of the Caribbean plot flow-chart handy, you'll know that sea-faring criminals are no friends of Johnny Depp-devouring monsters. As it goes on the high CGI seas, so follow the stormy waters of the Firefox add-on world. Yesterday's Pirates of the Amazon plug-in, which adds torrent links to songs and movies in the Amazon.com store, is met today by The Kraken, a plug-in that adds Amazon.com links to torrent Web sites.

The Kraken is extremely simple and there's no configuration required. When you … Read more

A new Firefox extension called Pirates of the Amazon lets users download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s free of charge by cross referencing Amazon's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.

If the content can be found on the Pirate Bay's search index it shows up as a "Download 4 Free" link on the top of the Amazon product page. This links directly to the hosted .torrent tracker file, letting the user avoid having to make a purchase from Amazon in place of acquiring it illegally via BitTorrent.

The extension developer's site, … Read more

Google has published its plan to build into Chrome what is arguably its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates.

And guess what? Google's dependence on advertising notwithstanding, one of the extension examples the company points to is the ability to block advertisements.

The Chrome extensions document, spotlighted Saturday by Google programmer Aaron Boodman, doesn't include a timeline, but it does shed light on why the project is a priority for Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome.

"Chromium can't be everything to all people," according … Read more

Sage is a basic RSS feed and news aggregator for Firefox. Its no-nonsense approach and ease of use will appeal to all user levels.

The extension is meshed with Firefox's sidebar. It's very easy to navigate, with buttons for checking and searching feeds, and two view panels. The top panel displays each feed that you're subscribed to, and the bottom panel displays the specific feed headlines. The Options menu gives you display options, and lets you manage your feeds. Copying and pasting feed URLs to add them to our list of feeds is as easy as it … Read more

Sage is a basic RSS feed and news aggregator for Firefox. Its no-nonsense approach and ease of use will appeal to all user levels.

The extension is meshed with Firefox's sidebar. It's very easy to navigate, with buttons for checking and searching feeds, and two view panels. The top panel displays each feed that you're subscribed to, and the bottom panel displays the specific feed headlines. The Options menu gives you display options, and lets you manage your feeds. We were able to easily copy and paste feed URLs and add them to our list of feeds. … Read more

Don't be deceived by this Firefox extension's unassuming user interface, it's actually a very capable video player.

NetVideoHunter operates via a tiny icon and counter that appear in your status bar. When you click on the icon, a window appears for viewing videos. A step-by-step guide walks you through the process--a definite plus for novices. Watching a YouTube video, for example, adds it to the counter. From there, click on NetVideoHunter's tiny icon to reveal a video link. We had two choices: to play or download the video. Play starts the video, while download saves the … Read more