Firefox most useless extensions

Mozilla Foundation's free web browser, Mozilla Firefox, is undoubtely one of the greatest and most needed software produced during the last years. In comparison with an old, insecure and unergonomic Internet Explorer, every normally constituted Web user should make his choice in a quarter of second - provided he is not mentally limited. I said it a couple of years ago, one of the gratest forepoint of Mozilla Firefox is his rich extensions echosystem. One can easily customize the default installation through "plugins", that add several features to the basic browser. For instance, I personnally use about 20 extensions, that allow me to improve my user's experience and Take back the Web .

There are also absolutely uneeded features, developped either for the programming challenge or just for the fun. Here is a sort of anthology of the most unusefull extensions to Mozilla Firefox. Sure theirs authors will love being cited here :) :

• Leet Key transforms typed or static text to L337 and various other common communication forms.
• Bork Bork Bork! transforms the web pages as written by the swedish chef from the Muppet Show. Hilarious.
• Anti-Paranoia 0.3 remind you to stay calm. Pretendly usefull when you are working as a network security administrator, but who can really believe it ? :)
• Anchorun makes your Firefox browse by itself, without any interaction required. A lazy way to discover the Web. Will you have time enough ?
• US Department of Homeland Insecurity Idiocy Level does what its name tells : it displays a small indicator of the Homeland (in)security level. I bet the author would love http://www.usinsecurity.us/.
• The only thing the Tab Killer extension could do for you is to show how much Firefox tabs are usefull :)
• With I must not fear!, I think we have a winner. The author himself recognizes its usefullness in his description : Whenever you need it...
• Should you be a Googleads fan, adbar has been designed for you !
• Defunk! let you hate your boss. But only in an alert window.
• I know some people who would like Beer oclock. Ok, right, I installed it myself some weeks ago ;)
• Grocery List Generator turns you into the perfect house-husband.
• WindowsUpdate might help me improve the security of my Ubuntu linux Desktop ? How, no.
• And finally, an extension that might only be usefull to you, the geek reading this page : EggOn.

The exploration I lead browsing the extension forest at addons.mozilla.org let me discover some intersting new tools and, if this list might seem a bit long, I remarked a lot of needs are covered by the extensions. Tired of a firefox behaviour ? Just search for an extension, it is almost impossible not to find one that will suit your needs ! And most important, never forget : useless so required !

written on

May 9th, 2006