Mozilla Firefox is one of the fastest growing web browsers today. In fact, it has taken (and is still steadily taking) a considerable chunk of market share from the once mighty Internet Explorer of Microsoft. Aside from the significantly better performance, speed and efficiency compared to the competition, one of the features that made Mozilla a phenomenal success is the wide variety of add-ons that users can easily install to enhance their web browsing experience.

These add-ons and extensions cover a wide range of functions — from changing the look and feel of the browser to simplifying common tasks such as filling up forms and downloading files.

Here are some of the Top Mozilla Firefox Add-ons that will be very helpful for any user:

1. Greasemonkey – This is one of the most useful extensions for Firefox. Less advanced Firefox users may scratch their heads over what this plugin actually does. But once they understand its immense capabilities, using it to enhance a wide range of functionalities is a breeze. Greasemonkey is actually a sort of meta-extension.

When first installed on its own, it does nothing by default. It simply provides a platform for hundreds of Greasemonkey user scripts created by JavaScript developers. The list of useful Greasemonkey scripts is quite extensive. There are scripts for all sorts of functions like site-specific tasks.

2. Adblock Plus – With the Adblock Plus installed, it’s soon easy to forget how the Internet really looks like. This extension efficiently blocks all sorts of ads making web browsing a more pleasant experience. No more

obtrusive (and sometimes, offensive) ads and pop-ups that hurt eyeballs and distract attention.

Adblock Plus’ powerful ad blocking feed subscription is also easy to configure. Users can simply right click on ads that are particularly distracting and permanently blocked. In the same way, Ads can easily be brought back if the user wants to view the ads.

3. DownThemAll! – There are a number of download managers for Mozilla Firefox but DownThemAll Is easily one of the most popular of them all. This powerful selective download manager makes it easy to find and download images, music files, and any type of media file from websites.

It can even access hidden links to bigger versions of photos in sites such as Flickr. Users can also set up their own filters to customize their downloading needs.

4. Foxmarks – This nifty extension is more than just a bookmarking tool. Its range of potent features allows users to store passwords securely and synchronize between browsers on any platform. The information is stored on the ‘cloud’ so even if a user visits a browser where they can’t install any extension, they can still access all their data easily.

Foxmarks (rebranded as Xmarks) also allows users to organize their bookmark such as work-related and personal stuff. New features such as searching and social bookmarking will add a new dimension to the functionality of this helpful add-on.

5. Better Gmail 2 – For Gmail users, this add-on will instantly enhance Gmail functionality. This plug-in solves a number of issues with Gmail’s usability all in a single package. What’s great about Better Gmail 2 is that a user can enable or disable any of its wide range of fixes and improvements individually. This allows the user to fine tune the plugin to serve his or her particular needs and preferences.

These five top Mozilla add-ons will instantly boost Mozilla Firefox’s already impressive performance and range of features. But these are just five of the thousands of add-ons available for any Firefox user. There’s a Mozilla Firefox add-on for all kinds of web browsing needs.

You may also be interested in reading The Must Have WordPress Plug-ins.