Top 10 Firefox Extensions to Avoid
A few weeks ago we posted the top 10 Firefox extensions to improve your productivity. Today Computer World did a reverse post that lists ten Firefox extensions you should not use. I find the post interesting because it gives some extremely convincing arguments against many of the extensions that people commonly have on their top 10 Firefox extensions lists.
Popularity shouldn’t be the acid test to determine if you should install an extension. The important question is whether it enhances your browsing experience without any nasty side effects. The good news is that the extension community is actually pretty adept at self-policing. Most extensions that are truly “broken” (for instance, they crash your browser or suck up all your CPU power) either get fixed quickly or simply vanish.
But some extensions are “bad” in unapparent ways, or just don’t provide enough benefits to be worth running. So, in no particular order, let’s look at 10 to avoid.
Top 10 Firefox Extensions to Avoid – [Computer World]
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Comments
RajDash says on April 10th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I may be biased since I write at Performancing, but putting ScribeFire (formerly Performancing for Firefox) on the list means the author just doesn’t get it. I’ve used a lot of different blogging tools, but there is absolutely no browser based blog editor as productive as ScribeFire, as far as my style of researching, writing and posting is concerned.
BrettKelly says on April 11th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Not a bad list – I agree with many of their choices. But Greasemonkey? Come on!
Mark says on April 11th, 2007 at 6:03 am
I’ve got to agree with RajDash. I am in no way affiliated with Scribefire/Performancing, but after installing and using their extension for the last few weeks I can safely say it performs pretty much flawlessly.
I would recommend it to any blogger to be honest.
jonathan peterson says on April 11th, 2007 at 8:21 am
So they want me to get rid of performancing that I use all the time and is a huge time-saver over my wordpress edit screen – in in another article on their site of “must have” extensions:
http://www.computerworld.com/a.....ber=4#nuke
They have an extension that puts the WEATHER in my STATUS bar, the horrific stumbleupon?
Sure there are some decent extensions in their list as well, but COME ON.
Matt says on April 11th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Adblock Plus? Come on, that is a completely biased opinion, I’ve been using Adblock Plus for many moons now and I hate browsing the web without it.
thomas says on May 21st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Sorry, but I just can’t take those Computer World guys seriously. The ten “extensions to avoid” include no less than six of those I consider more or less essential, and I never had any problem with them. Best of all: They warn about NoScript because it’s allegedly paranoid to worry about JavaScript, AND about Greasmonkey because JavaScript is so dangerous…
Tim says on May 24th, 2007 at 9:36 am
When it comes to talking about ScribeFire, these guys are either out of their minds or have never written a blog. They ask, “Don’t most blogs already have a browser-based editor that works just fine?”
Well, yes, and if all you’re going to do is write without reference to anything else, then that’s okay. But when one blogs, one usually is writing about something one has found on the web. Often you want to quote from it. And in order to write about it or quote from it, it’s best to be looking at it while you do, which you can easily do with one click of the ScribeFire button. Otherwise, you have to flip back and forth between your reference page and your blog editor page.
Honestly, I too have a hard time taking this review seriously. It would be just as bad as if they reviewed a piece of photo-editing software without having a concept as to why photos would need to be edited.
Stodgy says on May 25th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
This is rubbish. Surfing without adblock plus is insane. Performancing is great. This is just a list of personal dislikes of the author.
Leo says on July 9th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Oh, common, Really, if viewer don’t like the ads then they don’t like the ads, even if a site depends on those ads, somepeople don’t like all of the clutter, and not everyone is out to but something today – there is a reason that people surf with adblock.
I concur with thomas, Noscript is a very good extension, and it does a good job keeping all of those Flash ads from slowing down the web. It helps with lots of other stuff, and has saved my browser a few times from ruin.