Firefox add-ons and Google Chrome extensions are are great way to keep tools and information on tap. Here are five that I really like.

Rapportive: Rapportive works with your email and reports information on the person who sent you an email message. Don’t have a clue who the person is who just hit you with a curt missive? Well, their Linkedin information just popped up. So did their Twitter stream and their Facebook info. Now you know whether to click delete or politely respond.

Firebug: Sometimes a little more useful than the developer pane. It lets you mouse over sections of a page look at the code. As the name suggests, it’s great for debugging or just looking at how someone else accomplished a task.

Web Developer: Lots of cool features that help you work with webpages. Including turning off styles, measuring and inspectors.

Google Toolbar: Super-useful tool for everything from referencing page rank to a quick translation.

SEO: Wondering what Google page rank a page has? Wondering how many incoming links it has? Also like to know the Compete rank? This tool saves a ton of time for doing basic SEO research.

I haven’t linked these tools because the easiest way to install them is from within your browser. In Chrome, just click the wrench, in the drop down there is tools/extensions to find what you want. With Firefox, use the Tools drop down menu and select add-ons.

Posted on: August 14, 2012, by : Jimmy Gilmore