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Extensions for Firefox Reviews - Part 1 Gmail Extensions

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Extensions - Addons, Firefox, Software

While looking for new extension add-ons for Firefox (can’t remember why exactly now), I noticed that many extensions preformed the same function, yet have different features. So I decided to start a new series of posts reviewing and comparing Firefox extensions. Hopefully, these reviews will remove some of the confusion over which extensions you want to use.

Before I begin, let me say that if you are not using Firefox I highly recommend that you download it. Here are just a few reasons to choose Firefox over IE7:

1. The Mozilla developers are quick to issue a patch for any bugs found in the system. IE7 was released with holes, bugs and exploits and when Microsoft finally issued a patch it still left holes.
2. Firefox is not part of the operating system, but a separate application. Was is this important? Think of it as a separation of powers. You don’t want your web-browser causing problems for your OS, and vice versa.
3. The relatively low percentage of web-surfers using browsers other than IE7 makes Firefox a less advantageous target for hackers to seek to harm.

Besides Firefox is fun and has a lot of interesting and exciting extensions (notably IE7 copied the same concept of extensions that Firefox and other browsers started).

Now on to business. The first extension set that I decided to review were those relating to Gmail, specifically those relating to viewing you new mail or notification of new mail. There are others covering different functions or features of Gmail that I may review at a later time. Scouring the extension lists for related extensions I found 5 extensions that related to Gmail notification.

1) Gmail Notifier (My Rating 3/5) — This was the first Gmail extension that I reviewed, and I was soon impressed with it’s clean look. Pros: This nifty extension notifies user for multiple Gmail account simultaneously. It can remember usernames and passwords and will log you in automatically upon start-up. There is a good amount of preference options including adding sound notifications and statusbar icon positioning. Cons: The biggest drawback to this extension is the lack of a preview feature that would show the first part of an e-mail or even the subject line, but apart from that I don’t find many flaws with the Gmail Notifier extension.

2) Gmail Manager (My Rating 4.5/5) — This was the second extension that I reviewed and, wow, this one has it all almost. Pros: Like the first extension this one also supports multiple Gmail accounts and simultaneous logins. It has the expected options of a status bar icon with optional positioning, the sound notification of new mail, and then the preferences take off. You can change settings for all the Gmail accounts or you can change setting for a specific account. The best feature in my opinion is the e-mail preview. There are two options for previewing or reviewing e-mails. First you can hover the mouse-pointer over the status bar icon and it will show status of your Gmail account along with the 10 most recent unread messages including the subject line and the first line of the body of the message. The second option for reviewing your e-mails is a slide show that will scroll through your unread messages showing again the subject line and first line of the body of the message. Cons: While Gmail Manager has many features and preferences you can change it may be a little overwhelming and heavy, if you just want a message that you received a new message. Other than that the only other negative to this plugin that I could think of was that it didn’t also support other platforms, such as Hotmail or Yahoo.

3) Gmail Checker (My Rating 3/5) The third extension I tried was much lighter, yet preformed the desired application well. Pros: Its lightweight feel and look is refreshing. The extension has sound notification and shows a clickable preview of the 20 most recent unread messages. Cons: This extension can get the job done, unless you have multiple Gmail accounts, as it only supports the ability for a single login. Also the preview function would be smoother if it had a hover-over capability.

4) Webmail Notifier (My Rating 2/5) Though not a specific Gmail notifier it has the same abilities as the other notifiers with a twist. Pros: This extension can support multiple webmail platforms including gmail, yahoo, hotmail (not sure if this includes msn), Nate, Empas, Naver, and Daum. Along with supporting multiple platforms it has the ability to do so with multiple accounts simultaneously across platforms. It also has a default notification sound, whereas the other notifiers required that you import a sound file for the extension to use. Cons: Again the biggest complaint against this extension is the lack of a preview of unread messages. Also the extension include all unread messages in the Gmail account and not just the inbox like the other extensions. It does not seem that important unless you have a separate folder that is receiving a daily e-mail such as backups.

5) Better Gmail (My Rating UR) I was unable to review this extension as it is incompatible with Google’s newest version of Gmail. But it promises to be a compilation of the best Greasemonkey Gmail enhancements in one extension. I have not looked into the Greasemonkey Gmail enhancements, but I will let you know when I do.

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Tags: , Extensions, Firefox, Gmail, Software