Mozilla Firefox, the world’s most popular open-source web browser, is commonly used by Web Designers such as myself. Here at Creare, it’s part of us Website Designers job to ensure that all of the websites we build are not only W3C compliant and SEO-Friendly, but that they also work across all major browsers, including Firefox.
One of the most appealing qualities of Mozilla Firefox is the sheer number of Add-Ons and Plugins available for the software. When developing websites, there are a large number of Web Design & Web Developer plugins that considerably aid me in my day to day work.
If you’re a Web Designer, I strongly recommend checking out the following Firefox Add-On’s..
Firebug, if you’re not already aware of it, is probably a Web Designers dream come true. Firebug allows you to edit, test and debug HTML, CSS & Javascript all within the browser window, allowing you inspect your own code, fix problems and most of all, make a Website Designers life far easier.
SEO FOR FIREFOX (Register on SEO Book to Download)
Utilising the SEO For Firefox plugin allows you to find out interesting Search Engine Optimisation related data for the website that you are visiting. This includes information on the websites current Google Page Rank, it’s Alexa Rating, Social Bookmarking Links (Delicious, Twitter, Digg) and it’s Directory Listings.
Web Developer Toolbar (Plugin Link)
Web Developer Toolbar boasts a variety of tools that allow you to deeply inspect and understand the makings of any website you are visiting. Strip away CSS stylesheets, inspect image and form data, alongside inspecting coding structures and much, much more. If you’re a Web Designer, this is a must-have plugin.
SEO Link Analysis (Plugin Link)
If you’re looking to improve your own websites Search Engine Optimisation, then install the SEO Link Analysis plugin. Working in sync with Yahoo! Site Explorer and Google Webmaster tools, this plugin gives you an overview on a websites Google PageRank, a links anchored text and whether or not said-website uses ‘NoFollow’ links. This plugin is highly useful for link-building campaigns.
For more advice on Web Design, make sure to check out our latest video tutorial series, which, if you’re a Web Designer, tells you How to build a Prototype Website using Fireworks. Additionally, we have also started a new video blogging series that talks about copy-writing and How to Write a Press Release.
That’s all for now!
Good post, I cannot say enough great things about Firebug.
The color picker plugin for Firefox is a simple yet useful tool for all web designers. Quite often as web designers we come across other sites where the color combination is impressive. Color picker can give us the right shade for any image of graphic.