There are many things to like about Firefox (and a few not to like) but the real killer feature for me is the power unleashed by its extension mechanism. In fact, I have a page where I link the best Firefox extensions. It is probably worthwhile for me to highlight some of the greats in my blog from time to time, in order to share the goodness.

Download Statusbar has always been one of my favourites. I think it is an extremely good solution to the unobtrusive-yet-informative download manager problem. A few days ago I got the latest version which solved my only gripe: visuals. The new look is very sharp, and very customisable. You can even set the colours to vary by download speed. Here are a few action shots:

Here we see my attempt to improve myself by downloading Dr. Phil’s book dip dangerously low, awash in a sea of pr0n.

In this second highly contrived screenshot, we see my first download has finished (and will automatically disappear in a few seconds) while the second download cranks it up to full speed - a massive 5 KB/s - denoted by the “warp factor blue” colouring. (I considered “lightning with smaller faster lightning around it yellow” but decided that was too similar to the medium-slow amber colouring.)

In the old days, downloading a file used to be a bit of a hassle. Now, all I have to do is Alt-click (the built-in Firefox shortcut) and everything else just happens. This is why I love using Firefox: highly evolved UI. Elegance. Get yourself some Download Statusbar today!