Top 5 Web Browser Extensions

Browser extensions, as the name suggests, supplement your web browser with additional functionalities by adding elements to the default user interface besides those provided in the vanilla versions of some commonly used browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The installation files are light (usually of a few KBs but can even extend up to 4MBs depending upon the application) and installation is quick. There are some extensions which can run across almost all the browsers. However, the layout of the feature buttons does vary from browser to browser. Say, an extension can make a browser toolbar like that of Firefox look a bit cluttered but its layout in Google Chrome appears to be neater. Another difference is that in case of Firefox, the browser has to be restarted each time for the add-on to take effect. However, the functionalities cater well to your everyday browsing needs. We handpicked the top 5 web browser extensions for you!

1. Firebug Lite

Category: Web Development

Primary Link: http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite

Supporting Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft IE, Opera

Also look for: Web Development Helper, Web Developer

Firebug Lite is a tool that can be used in conjunction with some web developer tools like Firebug and Web Developer. The tool gives a visual representation to HTML elements, DOM elements and box model shading. It helps you inspect HTML elements and edit CSS properties. In a way, the tool helps a web developer to instantly edit, debug and monitor the web page being viewed. While visiting a web page, the Firebug Lite icon will be gray and deactivated. Click to activate the tool only after the web page has been loaded in the browser. The tool does have some limitations such as that it lacks a Javascript debugger and changed HTML highlighter.

2. Stock Tracker

Category: Finance

Primary Link: http://tinyurl.com/48976rj

Supporting Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome

Also look for: Finance from Bing (Microsoft IE)

Stock Tracker is a must have plug-in for banking and financial analysts as the extension fetches the latest real-time stock quote and display the price, price change, or percent change as a badge. It fetches the stock quotes from Google Finance. It works with stocks, indexes, world markets, mutual funds, and even currencies. If you want to track more than one stock, the badge will switch between stocks at an interval you specify.

To find your ticker symbol, just search for it on Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance. Some other features of the plug-in include: 'closed' icon representation when the market is closed and 'extend hour' icon during after hours and pre-market trading; green or red badge icon depending on the latest price movements, etc.

3. Alexa Traffic Rank

Category: Website Traffic/Analytics/Productivity

Primary Link: http://tinyurl.com/4ndm7gr

Supporting Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft IE

Also look for: -N.A.-

A plug-in from Amazon, Alexa is one of the most interesting extensions for website owners as it provides an in-depth analysis of the website traffic metrics, search analytics, demographics, etc for any website. So if you want to check your website popularity in terms of global rank; top queries from search traffic; monthly, weekly and daily percentage traffic; audience in terms of age, gender, education, location, etc; Alexa extension provides it all on a click of an icon in your browser's toolbar.

4. Yoono

Category: Social Networking

Primary Link: http://tinyurl.com/48976rj

Supporting Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, ­Microsoft IE

Also look for: - N.A-

Yoono helps you simplify social networking by connecting you to almost all the popular social network and instant messaging services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Friendfeed, AIM, Yahoo IM and more, all in one place. The extension gets activated as a side panel on the left side of your browser. After the installation, you need to log in to your desired social networking websites and chat messengers once and then simply launching the browser gets you connected to all in one go. Some features include: update status, reply posts, retweet, view real-time tweets, share links/images, view messages, etc. The only compromise of the extension is the reduced size of your normal browsing window inside the browser. The application is available, otherwise, as iPhone, iPad and desktop application too.

5. AddThis

Category: Information sharing/Blogging

Primary Link: http://tinyurl.com/2azq2yo

Supporting Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, ­ ­Microsoft IE

Also look for: Sharealohic

AddThis extension is an extension which facilitates you to instantly share and bookmark web pages, blogs, news, photos, videos, and any other content to popular destinations like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, WordPress,etc. Hence, in a way, it also maximizes the distribution of your content and traffic brought to your site by integrating with over 300 services all over the world. You can email by using your address book from Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo without opening an additional application or window. Besides, you can customize the AddThis sidebar to select your 11 most frequently posted sites like Twitter and MySpace for instant posts of links, images and videos.