If you take blogging seriously you will already know how time consuming the simplest of tasks can seem. Over time all bloggers will pick up on tools and add-ons which can make some of their blogging tasks easier and less time consuming. Most of the time we come across such tools and add-on through the blogging community and learning from other bloggers.

As a designer I have received loads of helpful advice from other designers who love to blog just like me. So I thought it was about time that I actually gave a little bit back in to the blogging community myself, by listing my top ten favorite  Firefox add-ons which I use in my daily design & blogging routine.

If you aren’t currently using Firefox, you should download the latest version now, as it provides a second to none browsing experience and an endless amount of functionality that I would challenge you to try and find in any other Internet browser.

TinyURL Generator Add-On For Firefox

This add-on allows you to generate a TinyURL for the page you are currently viewing in the background. The URL created is then copied into your clipboard so that it can be pasted into e-mails, twitter or IM messages instantly. You can choose to create a direct link, or one that allows the recipient to preview the link before visiting it.

Pixlr Grabber 1.3.0 Add-On For Firefox

Making screen grabs and pulling down images from the web just got even easier. With the Pixlr grabber add-on you can skip the part where you first save the images to your computer and then cut, annotate or edit them. You can now do it direct in  your browser!

translator 1.0.4.4 Add-On For Firefox

translator is web translation extension that allows you to translate any web page into nearly any language at the click of a button.

Firebug 1.4.5 Add-On For Firefox

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page

YSlow 2.0.2 Add-On For Firefox

YSlow analyzes web pages and why they’re slow based on Yahoo!’s rules for high performance web sites.

HTML Validator Add-On For Firefox

HTML Validator is a Mozilla extension that adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing. The extension can validate the HTML sent by the server or the HTML in the memory (after Ajax execution). The details of the errors are seen when looking the HTML source of the page.

CSS Validator Add-on For Firefox

Validates a page using the W3C CSS Validator. Adds an option to the right-click context menu and to the Tools menu to allow for easy validation of the CSS of the current page. Opens the results in a new tab. Will only work on pages that have a CSS file associated. For example it will work with http://www.w3.org/ as the URL has a CSS file.

Shareaholic for Twitter, Facebook, Google… 1.9 Add-On For Firefox

The ultimate add-on for the link sharing addict! Works with 60+ services including Twitter, Facebook, Google Gmail, Delicious, LinkedIn, etc. Shareaholic makes sharing online better, faster & easier and dramatically enhances your productivity.

SearchPreview 4.0 Add-On For Firefox

The extension previously known as GooglePreview. Inserts preview images (thumbnails) and popularity ranks of web sites into the Google, Yahoo and Bing search results pages.

WiseStamp – Email signature Add-On For Firefox

WiseStamp- Empower your email signatures in Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail or AOL…Multiple signatures , Auto insert , Add IM & Social profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn…) , Add Feeds  ,Easily add Logo or HTML & more

So there you have it,  my top ten firefox add-ons which I use on a daily basis. I hope you find them just as useful as I have and do. If you have an add-on which I do not currently know about, please let me know about it by commenting below.

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About The Author:

Michelle Kirkbride

Michelle Kirkbride is a web developer, she currently lives in Yorkshire, UK with her two beautiful children and loving partner. She spends far too much time at her computer and is currently addicted to her work. Michelle Kirkbride the founder of Kaplang is also a business Mentor with D100, a Success Doncaster mentoring programme run by Deloitte and funded by the Doncaster Council.