Conversion Matters

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Every other day there is a post about the top 10 webmaster/SEO/webdeveloper [insert person here] toolbars/addons etc. that people use and it does, admittedly, get a bit boring. However, I thought I’d quickly share with you what I have and why because I actually find them rather useful.

Firefox Addons I couldn’t live without!

I have a few addons which I don’t really use but here are the ones that are actually useful:

• Web Development
  • Web Developer Toolbar - this has soooo many features that it is an essential toolbar for any webmaster or geek interested in web development. Think it was one of the first firefox addons I installed.
  • Firebug - similar to the web developer toolbar this is another one that is really useful for web developers/designers, especially if you do a lot of JavaScript. It is a really powerful tool if you learn to use it properly.
  • Cookie Editor - again probably more useful for the web developers out there but never-the-less worthy of a mention. It allows you to quickly edit/delete cookies.
  • IE Tab - this is pretty simple. Allows you to render a page as internet explorer would without needing to leave firefox. Really, really useful.
  • Live HTTP Headers - allows you to see all the individual header requests, status codes etc. as you load a page. Very useful.
  • Colorzilla - so you’ve just setup a new template and are heading off to set up some blended adsense units but have no idea what the colour codes are on the site? Well this handy plugin has an eyedrop whatsit thing that allows you to get the code for any colour on a web page. Great time saver!
• SEO
  • Search Status - this is quite handy, shows PageRank, Alexa rank and Compete rank as well as allowing you to check a load of things about a page.
  • SEO Quake - turn this on to see lots of useful information about a domain/page when searching in Google etc.
  • User Agent Switcher - want to see what Googlebot sees? Then use this plugin to easily change your user agent.
• Social Media
  • Stumpleupon - a social site that’s fun, interesting and a great time waster!
  • Del.ico.us - don’t lose that interesting page; tag it with del.icio.us instead.
  • Social Media For Firefox - the concept behind this is great: shows you how many times a page has been dugg/stumbled/redd/del.icio.us’d. From my experience, doesn’t appear to be entirely accurate but it should still help with working out what to submit where.
  • Twitterfox - this makes keeping up and replying to tweets dead easy, they just popup while your browsing.
• Misc.
  • Down Them All - ever wanted to download all the .jpgs/.mp3s etc on a page quickly? This addon allows you to do just that. I think it supports regex too!

Web apps/sites I can’t live without!

• Facebook - yes some people don’t like it but it’s undoubtedly my most visited website (probably because I’m a student..)
• Google Reader - couldn’t live without this, it’s how I keep up to date on all blogs I read.
• Twitter - ok so I used to not see the point in Twitter but it’s actually really good for having short conversations, sharing links etc. You’re definitely missing out if you don’t use it.
• Stumbleupon and del.icio.us - you may have guessed from the addons above that I really like Stumbleupon and del.icio.us. I use Stumbleupon because I find it interesting and fun and I’m trying to build up more of a power user account there because I feel it’s the social sharing/bookmarking website I enjoy the most and one I actually waste an hour or so a day on! I use del.icio.us because it’s useful to have a central repository of all my bookmarks. I mostly just tag interesting blog posts that I’ve read but will probably forget about.

Applications I couldn’t live without!

There is only really one application I would say I can’t live without and that is: Launchy. What is it? Well it’s a free launcher application so basically you hit Alt-Space and a little box pops up and you start typing iTun.. and then you can load iTunes. Much quicker than the start menu/desktop etc. Massive time saver.

Actually that is a lie, I couldn’t live without MSN Messenger either. Everyone I know (pretty much) uses MSN Messenger. With a mix of messenger/facebook it pretty much negates the need for e-mail amongst my close friends.