In 2010, over 20 million sites were added to the web, and that number can only have increased in 2011 (although those figures aren’t in yet!). With so many websites being added every day, it’s vital that your sites be as competitive as possible. Luckily for today’s webmasters, Firefox has a host of useful extensions that make the job of creating and maintaining competitive websites much easier.
Here are just six of the essential Firefox extensions today’s webmasters are using:
1. IE Tab – It’s essential that your pages all be completely compatible with the top web platforms, especially Firefox and Internet Explorer. This extension lets you embed IE into Firefox. It’s a great tool that allows you to test your site for compatibility in no time flat.
2. Search Status – If you’re trying to build page rank by linking to other high-ranking sites or building back links, being able to see the page rank of any page you’re on at any given time is incredibly helpful. Search Status shows Google PageRank and Alexa popularity rating of the site on the browser status bar so you can get this information in seconds without cluttering up your Firefox windows.
3. ColorZilla – Want to replicate the colors of another website to get a similar effect in your design? ColorZilla will let you pick any color from any portion of the page, and it will give you the hex code for that color. That way, you can exactly replicate the colors you see on another’s page.
4. Web Developer Toolbar – This special toolbar made just for web developers gives you an easy to use dashboard with more than fifty options and tools available. The tools help you design, redesign, and debug your web pages, as well as analyze your pages easily. This is a great extension that is always updated to stay compatible with the latest versions of Firefox.
5. Lightshot – This is a particularly nice option for bloggers and for those who write online product and service reviews. It’s a screen shot tool with a few extras that make it particularly helpful. It’s great when you’re in a bit of a hurry, as well, because you can click and drag a custom area for a screen shot, so you don’t have to worry about cropping after the fact.
6. Save Complete – If you want to change a page’s HTML or CSS to debug it, Web Developer will only let you preview your changes in Firefox. To save a complete webpage with the CSS, images, and all the other aspects to your computer, you can use Save Complete. Then, you can open the page in any browser to make sure you have it completely debugged.
Because of these add ons, more webmasters are able to do the entire website building and maintenance process on their own for smaller websites, but if you’re aiming to create a huge site, you might need a little extra help. Hiring the services of a freelance webmaster could be a good option for you, or you may simply choose to hire a designer, while you do the back-end work of building the website on your own.
Also Read: Facebook New Features – An Overview(Opens in a new browser tab)
These are just a handful of the great Firefox extensions that are out there for today’s webmasters. These extensions are some of the most-used and most well-regarded, however, and they’re a great place to start if you’re looking to begin developing websites or if you’ve just started using Firefox for your web development needs.
