5 Firefox extensions to enhance Google search result pages

Posted on November 7, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Make sure to read other posts from the Firefox Addons series!

After I turned on the Google Search History feature about 6 months ago did I realize just how many searches I perform everyday! It was quite shocking to say the least. I quickly learned that I usually perform between 80 and 150 searches a day using Google! Since I’m looking at search result pages so often, I figured they may as well be as enhanced as they can!

So here’s a list of five Firefox addons that I like to use to make my Google search results look prettier and work better.

Add FavIcon to Google Search Result Pages

Don’t ask me why I like this extension so much, but it’s just something I can’t live without now! This extension simply adds the favicon for each web site in the search results to the left of the URL title. It just makes it much easier to see common sites that you’ve visited before and brings a little color to the plain white and blue of the SERP’s!

Download Google FavIcon Firefox Extension

View Relevant Wikipedia articles in Google search results

If Wikipedia had a search history feature like Google, I’m sure the number of times I’m on Wikipedia looking for something would be close to the number of times I search on Google! So why not join the two together and get relevant Wikipedia articles right next to each Google search result! The cool thing about this extension is that it also converts the links in the Wikipedia articles to Google search links, so you can keep digging deeper without having to keep opening new windows.

Download Googlepedia Firefox Extension

Google Reader Watcher - Check unread items

I’m a big fan of Google Reader and use it daily to keep up with my 100+ RSS feeds. However, in order to see if there is something new posted, I have to login, etc. It would be really nice if I could simply see how many unread items there were via a status bar, etc. Well that’s what Google Reader Watcher does. At the bottom right, you’ll get a small icon which will tell you how many unread items there are from all of your RSS feeds. You can click on it to see unread items for individual feeds also.

Download Google Reader Watcher Extension

Use Google Advanced Search features easily

If you’ve never used Google’s advanced search features, you’ll definitely missing out on a lot. Of course, it’s not easy to remember options like INURL or FILETYPE, etc. However, you’ll find that using these advanced parameters will greatly increase your ability to find what you’re looking for. A very cool Firefox extension that I use is Google Advanced Operations Toolbar, which basically provides a shortcut to all of the advanced searches. Great for date searches, stock searches, file searches, phone numbers, etc.

Download Google Advanced Operations Toolbar

Preview web sites in Google search results

Another extension that I have really come to enjoy is the GooglePreview Firefox extension. It’s simply awesome and I can’t search without it anymore either! Basically, it lets you view preview images (thumbnails) of web sites in Google and Yahoo search results.

Download GooglePreview Extension

Those are five extensions that I use regularly and really enjoy. If you have other Google related Firefox extensions that you really enjoy, please post a comment and let us know! Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: firefox, firefox addons, google firefox, google search, google serps, serps, enhance serps, mozilla addons

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

» Filed Under Software Reviews

2 Responses to “5 Firefox extensions to enhance Google search result pages”

Alek Davis said on : November 7th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

My favorites include: Google Browser Sync (keeps my bookmarks, history, etc. in sync between computers), Hyperwords (adds context-sensitive menu options, such as search for higlighetd text, translation, etc), Interclue (shows a preview of the page pointed by a hyperlink), Price Drop (informs about price drops at Amazon.com), Woot Watcher (great for the Woot-off events), and more (see http://alekdavis.blogspot.com/.....d-ons.html).

ReviewSaurus said on : November 8th, 2007 at 6:31 am

That;s a nice list aseem! However, installing these plugins will mean that Google will look messy. I think that’s what not what we want