How these Firefox 3-compatible addons save me one hour per day
Comments (2) I’m on Firefox 3 too, and I utilize addons to enrich my web experience too, like most of you there.
There have been countless of entries to useful Firefox addons, but what’s different about this post is that it measures the costs that can be saved for users when using these extensions.
What are the costs of usability and how much are they?
The descending order of severity of the costs are
- Screen loads: this is a pain when internet connection is slow. It usually takes most time of all interactions with the computer
- Mouse movements: mouse movements severely damage the wrist and this should be minimized
- Mouse clicks: mouse clicks are less severe than mouse movements, but are also expensive
- URLs: an URL takes time to type in
- Enters: it hurts the little finger
- Hot keys: hot keys usually consists of at least 2 keys, but are regarded as less expensive than Enters because they are mostly done with the left hand, reduces damage to the right hand
Now, let’s start with the addons!
The first six in the batch: Google Toolbar, Diigo Toolbar, StumbleUpon Toolbar, TwitterFox, CustomizeGoogle, Better YouTube
Google Toolbar for Firefox
Google Toolbar provides search, “I’m feeling lucky” and images search functions without having to go to Google.com
It also supports Gmail notifications and Google PR check
| If I don’t use this addon | If I use this addon | |
| Costs |
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| Cost saved |
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Diigo Toolbar
I have used Diigo as a replacement of delicious (I still love the old brand del.icio.us)
Though delicious tagging is smarter and usability is better, Diigo supports web-highlighting which makes it an advantage.
Diigo toolbar allows user to bookmark their favorite web pages for later reference. With Diigo, all bookmarks are centralized when users move from computer to another.
| If I don’t use this addon | If I use this addon | |
| Costs |
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| Cost saved | This can save me 60 seconds |
StumbleUpon Toolbar
StumbleUpon works on an interesting concept: when you hit the Stumble! button, the addon takes you to a random interesting page that matches your preferences.
The StumbleUpon toolbar makes it more convenient for you.
| If I don’t use this addon | If I use this addon | |
| Costs |
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| Cost saved | This can save me 45 seconds |
CustomizeGoogle
This powerful addon modifies Google search results and display preferences. It supports options for Web Search, Images, Groups, News, Products, G Answers, G Books, Gmail, G Galendar, G Maps, G Docs, Video, Reader, Cache, Blogger, History, Privacy and Filter
| If I don’t use this addon | If I use this addon | |
| Costs | From Google Images Search screen
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From Google Images Search screen
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| Cost saved |
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Twitterfox
| If I don’t use this addon | If I use this addon | |
| Costs |
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| Cost saved | This looks like it costs even more than the web version. However, the time to load the mini-screen is much less than it does to load the full web page |
Better YouTube
This Greasemonkey-based addon loads the YouTube video faster and allows downloading the video. Generally it saves me half an hour per day for one video.
Conclusion
With the intensity of these service I use everyday, these addons easily save at least one hour each day for me.
I can use this one hour for other business purposes which can generate other benefits.
What is your experience? What do you think of my approach when analyzing these?
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addon, address, bookmark, browser, cost saving, diigo, extension, firefox, gmail, Google, images, pr, screen, search, search engine, social bookmark, software, stumbleupon, toolbar, twitter, usability, web, youtube
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