Business Tools Blog

I have been searching for a topic I could write about for a few days now; something I use myself that I can really endorse. While reading some articles in my Google Reader, and sharing some links on my social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), it dawned on me, I’m doing most of my sharing via Firefox add-ons. Any or all of these add-ons can make your life so much easier. Some of the essential add-ons I use daily are Greasemonkey, Shareaholic, Diigo, Foxmarks, and Google Preview. They work so seamlessly in the background I forget they are there.

Greasemonkey is a very versatile program. It runs user created scripts. Don’t worry, there are thousands of pre-made scripts for pretty much every repetitive task or need that may come to mind. One of the scripts I use is called ‘Endless Tweet ‘. It simply keeps me from having to hit the NEXT button when I get to the bottom Twitter time line. I know it may not seem fancy, but when you get used to it, you will not want to be with out it.

Greasefire is a great add-on to piggyback Greasemonkey. It automatically finds
Greasemonkey scripts on Userscripts.org (requires Greasemonkey). When you’re on a page, right click the Greasemonkey icon. Greasefire has a pop-up window that lists all the scripts that can be used on that page. Makes it very easy for you to pick the script you want to use.

Shareaholic allows you access to post a link or article to any number of social media and bookmark sites. If you’re reading an article and you really like it, you can add it right to your Google Reader. Then, if you want to post that same article so all of your friends can see it, you can send it to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumbler, etc. It also adds an option to shorten the URL using Bit.ly

Diigo is a great tool for researching pretty much anything online. You can either download a toolbar or use bookmarking via a drop-down menu. If there’s a group of people researching the same thing, your findings can be shared with your “friends”.

Foxmarks is a great add-on if you use Firefox on multiple devices. Use it to sync your Firefox bookmarks between those multiple devices. I use it with my work computer and my flash drive by running Firefox portable synced together. It’s a huge time saver for me because, no matter where I am, I have all my bookmarks. Foxmarks can also be used to sync saved passwords but, personally, I don’t use that feature.

Google Preview is more of a novelty to me than anything else. When you search for something on Google, a picture of the page the link will take you to appears next to the normal information Google provides.

I have mentioned only a fraction of the useful Firefox add-ons available. Others I would recommend checking out are Morning Coffee, Power Twitter, and Stealther.