When I’m running my web business on a daily basis I mostly use the Firefox web browser for all my web browsing needs. I know there are now many different choices out there for web browsers, but one of the main reasons I’ve stuck with Firefox is the Plugins or Add-ons they have available which enhance the browser further and add extra features which help me with extra tasks in my business.
These Add-ons can all be installed free, but you’ll need to be running Firefox already to make the installation of these plugins as easy as possible. You can download Firefox for free here . Firefox works with Windows, Mac OSX and Linux systems.
1. SEOQuake (download here)
If you’re doing any kind of Search Engine Optimization or research for your niche, the SEOQuake plugin will add some really useful functionality to your browser. When you search the search engines you will see additional information in the search results such as Google Page Rank, pages indexed, domain age, and other useful data which you can use to analyse the competition for a particular keyword. You will also see useful information on every page you visit on the web which can help you optimize your own pages for the search engines.
2. Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer (S3Fox) (download here)
If you’re using the Amazon S3 file hosting service for any of your videos or other files (great for fast delivery of larger files), the S3Fox plugin will help you manage your files more effectively. It has a simple drag-and-drop interface so once you’ve input your access details for your S3 Account, you can drag files straight into the window on your browser to upload them, or use the built in file explorer.
The S3Fox plugin also allows you to set the access permissions to your files, and also will automatically stop people viewing the entire contents of a folder on your S3 account, which many other S3 file managers do not do, leaving your files exposed.
3. Google Global (download here)
Optimizing your sites and seeing how you’re ranking on Google sites around the world can be very important. Especially if, like me, you’re in the UK, it’s super handy to know where your sites are ranking on higher traffic Google sites like the US .com version of the search engine.
Google Global adds a simple drop down to your search results pages, so when you right click you can choose to view results for Google UK, US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and you can also add in additional Google networks for different parts of the world.
4. Speed Dial (download here)
If you’ve got a set of pages you visit on a daily basis, it’s often helpful to have easy access to these pages to save you time. With Speed Dial, you can set different bookmarks to be available on your Speed Dial home page, and you can also have these thumbnail screenshots dynamically update through javascript.
This means you can get an instant overview of your business, such as instantly seeing any new emails in your inbox, or any new support emails that need responses in your helpdesk. This can be a big timesaver in your business.
5. Firebug (download here)
If you’re planning on doing any kind of tweaking to your blog or website, or you want to check out the code that is used on another website to achieve a particular style or effect, the Firebug plugin is what you need.
The plugin allows you to inspect the different elements of a page and view the coding and stylesheet information on the fly. This is particularly useful for designers, but also great if you want to make little tweaks to your site but don’t know which code to edit.
6. Screengrab! (download here)
I found this plugin when I was looking for an alternative to Snagit (it wasn’t available for Mac when I first made the switch). Screengrab allows you to take screenshots of anything inside your web browser, and also allows you to grab a screenshot of the complete page, including the area which is not visible.
This can be very useful for grabbing screenshots when you’re creating tutorials, or product content, or if you want to save something for your own swipe file.
I hope you find some of these plugins useful. They all help me with tasks I have to complete in my business, and many of them I use on a daily basis. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the plugins above, or any other plugins you are using in your online business.