Firefox may not be the most used web browser, but it is the best. It is based because it is supported by various free-to-use plugins. With Firefox, you can do whatever you want to do, within the scope of Internet access. Every year lots of free plugins are introduced and lots of them fade away in the oblivion. In this article, we will not concern ourselves with what dies out, but our focus will be to find ten best Firefox plugins of 2009.

No. 1: NoScript

NoScript plugin is the best security available for a web browser. It disables any script, rich media, and other unwanted codes from automatically running when you open a website. By default, NoScript will block all scripts on the websites you visit. You can enable scripts on your trusted sites, while, leaving it disabled for the websites you are not sure about. Earlier, NoScript had problem in working with iFrame, but this issue has been resolved. If you want to keep your computer safe from virus, trojan horses, or other types of malicious codes then you got to use NoScript.

No. 6: Personas

The plain-Jane days of Firefox is long gone, now everyone is busy dressing up his or her browser. Thanks to Personas, now even you can dress up your web browser. This plugin gives you free and easy-to-install skins to decorate your Firefox. You can choose from 30,000 cool designs to decorate your browser. Around 11 million people have shown their confidence in this plugin, which has secured it the Number 2 slot in the list.

No. 3: Adblock Plus

Flashing banners and gaudy flashes not only irritates us, but it also sucks the bandwidth away. How many times have you seen that the content of the websites has been loaded, but the ads and banners have not? Adblock Plus plugin solves that problem. Just right-click on the banner you want to block, and choose Adblock. This is all you have to do to stop unwanted ads from loading up.

No. 4: Video DownloadHelper

We all watch videos on YouTube and other similar websites, and at times we want to download them to our desktop so that we can watch it offline or on our portable video devices. Video DownloadHelper will help you do that. 51,717,982 users have shown their confidence in this plugin. It helps you download and convert videos from hundreds of video sharing sites.

No. 45: Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey does nothing so exciting on its own. It works as a platform that enables you to use small JavaScript snippets to customize the look and feel of your browsers. Usercripts hosts many scripts that you can use with Greasemonkey to personalize your web experience.

No. 6: Xmarks Bookmark and Password Sync

Memorizing passwords, and keeping backup of bookmark on your system is one way to keep your bookmarks and passwords, but this is not the right way to do so. The right way is to install Xmarks Bookmark and Password Sync to backup and synchronize your Bookmarks and passwords (optional) to Xmarks’ secure server. You can use Xmarks to keep bookmarks and Password synced on multiple computers or multiple browsers on same PC. Xmarks allows you to sync bookmarks and password of your Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browser. It was formerly known as Foxmarks.

No. 7: WOT – Safe Browsing Tool

Web is not a safe place. There are lots of threats out there waiting for us. How do you plan to handle it? There are two ways, either to abandon the web altogether, or use WOT – Safe Browsing Tool with Firefox. Web of Trust (WOT) warns you about the malicious sites that cheat their customers, install malware, send spam, and steal their private information. WOT is a community-based tool used by millions of WOT user who rates websites based on their usefulness. This helps us add extra layer of security to our web browsing.

No. 8: Firebug

Firefox is known as Geek’s browser. It may not be true on its own, but this plugin certainly will make it look like a geek’s browser. Firebug is a must-have plugin for web developers and web designers. You can find, analyze, debug, and even edit HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., of a web page that you are surfing. This is nice little tool to find and fix the troublesome area of your website. You can do this in real-time.

No. 9: Flagfox

This is a nice little plugin that helps you find the location of the website’s server. This plugin sits in the address bar and displays the flag of the country where the website you are visiting is hosted. This tool can be very useful for SEO guys, and those involved in web development research. This plugin does not leave a heavy footprint on your system, and it uses IP address of TLD (top level domain) like .com, .org, .uk, .net, etc., to locate the server.

No. 10: Cooliris

Cooliris brings photos and videos from the Internet to your desktop. This little plugin adds a 3D wall to your browser that makes it easier for you to search and fetch images and videos from Google, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Picasa, and hundred other similar websites. The infinite 3D-Wall enhances the experience of watching web-based visual content. No more clicking next page, just scroll up or down and you will see images and videos for the search term you have entered. It is a must-have plug-in, if you are more into consuming visual contents.

This brings us to the end of the top 10 plug-ins of 2009 list. The above plugins were chosen not solely on the basis of total download, it was chosen based on the usefulness of the plugins for Firefox users. It was a tough call, but I am glad that I could take it.

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