Honest Ape

I, like most of the hard-core nerds on the interwebz, have upgraded to the beta of Firefox 3. This was initially supposed to be something I could play around with, while still using Firefox 2 for daily use. But I didn’t count on how amazing FFX 3 would be. It’s faster. MUCH faster. The new address bar is amazing. And I can’t go back to FFX 2. I can’t. This presents me with a few problems. Okay, one problem. One big problem. Extension support. There are far too many extensions that haven’t been updated to work with the newer version of Firefox.

Thankfully, a little extension called Nightly Tester Tools comes in to save the day in most cases. It forces extensions that aren’t yet compatible to work in newer versions of Firefox, including the latest nightly updates. Unfortunately, there are many extensions that won’t work, even with NTT installed. Extensions that I love and really, really hate doing without.

So, here are five extensions that I would really like the developers (or any other coding whiz) to update. I miss them, and really want them back.

Favicon Picker 2
Issue: Doesn’t work
This allows you to take any bookmark in your bookmarks bar and replace the icon with one of your own choosing. This is especially great when you have a bookmarklet or site that has no favicon to represent it. So, instead you get an ugly white rectangle. Blah. I hate being without it. Hate it.

Colorzilla
Issue: Crashes browser upon opening
A great tool for web developers, Colorzilla puts a little color picker in your statusbar. Simple, but effective, and extremely useful. Unfortunately, if you use NTT to install it, don’t expect Firefox to open. But, if you want an extension that crashes every time you open it, this one is for you.

Del.icio.us Bookmarks
Issue: Partial, but very limited, functionality
This extension puts all of your Del.icio.us bookmarks at your fingertips. It can sort them by bundles or tag, and can completely replace any need for Firefox bookmarks.

Tab Mix Plus
Issue: Doesn’t work and screws up other functionality
Tab Mix Plus really allows you to max out your tab use, with all kinds of new functionality. But the one I miss the most is the little function that lets you switch to a tab just by hovering your mouse over it. I hate doing without it. HATE IT. Grrr.

Image Toolbar
Issue: Doesn’t work
I download a lot of images from the web, as I’m sure most of you do. Image toolbar makes this as simple as can be. If you hover over a picture, you can set it to have an icon that appears. Click it, and you can download that image to a folder of your choosing. No right-click needed. Even better, you can set a default folder and file naming convention that allows you to click any image and directly download it, saving you three steps. I hate doing without this one.

So, nerds, get to it. If you’re a coding whiz, take these languishing extensions and make with the updates. Or, if you’re one of the developers responsible for these extensions, do what’s right and update them. I’d be your best friend if you do. K? Thx.