7 Best Firefox Add-ons for Twitter Users

If you are an avid Twitter user and use Firefox for all your browsing, then you can get the best of both worlds by installing a Firefox extension for Twitter. There are many such Firefox extensions which integrate Twitter with web browsing. Here is a list of seven best Firefox extensions which give the convenience of tweeting from within your Firefox, without the need of any desktop Twitter client.

1. TwitterFox

TwitterFox is a cool Firefox Extension which has most of the features of any desktop Twitter client. TwitterFox shows up tweet notifications, mentions and messages, all in separate tabs in a single window. It sit’s in the status bar and pops up a balloon notification for any new tweets. The TwitterFox window comes in a default Twitter as well as a Black theme. Some of it’s good features are support for multiple Twitter accounts, Preview of Tiny URLs from within it’s window, inserting URL of current browsing window within Tweet by simply clicking on the link icon , favorite and replying from within the message box etc.

TwitterFox Preferences can be set by right clicking on the Twitter icon in Firefox status bar. Twitter notifications can be set to receive at a desired interval. You can also set a custom sound for these notifications.

TwitterFox shows up the last 40 Tweets in it’s window. Tiny URL preview is available only for bit.ly, tinyurl.com and is.gd. Due to it’s non-cookie based handling of Twitter accounts, you can log in to another Twitter account in Firefox even when TwitterFox is being used. TwitterFox always uses SSL encryption for sending and receiving Twitter messages.

2. PowerTwtter

This Firefox extension comes into play only when you visit the Twitter website. It adds all the extra features which enhance your Twitter experience within Twitter’s web interface. Some of these features include a Retweet button for each message, expansion of short URLs inline inside the message box, displaying photos and images inside tweets, ability to play videos and music without leaving your Twitter home page etc.
 
PowerTwitter shows up a tiny message over Firefox status bar which can be opened to display it’s settings window. You can choose to enable or disable settings like link expansion, rich media display etc. PowerTwitter integrates photo uploading and URL shortening by giving quick access to these features in the form of buttons above Twitter’s Status Bar. You can share photos by uploading to yfrog, tweetphoto, twitpic or twitgoo. For most of PowerTwitter’s features like image and video previews, link expansion and URL shortening you don’t have to be logged in to your Twitter account. However for managing Top Friends, posting photos PowerTwitter requires your password.

3. TwitterBar

If you just want to quickly send a  post to Twitter, without leaving the browser, then TwitterBar, a Firefox extension is right for you. With TwitterBar, you can send tweets from Firefox’s address bar. A small twitter icon is displayed inside Firefox’s address bar (also know as location bar) after it’s installation. The first time you try to send a tweet, TwitterBar asks for authorization of your Twitter account.
TwitterBar simply transforms your Firefox Address Bar into Twitter’s status bar, there by not using any of your browsing screen’s real estate. Even the number of left over characters in the message being typed is displayed inside the address bar upon hovering over the Twitter icon. Clicking on the ‘+’ icon sends the tweet right away to Twitter, giving you a short glimpse of “Post successful” message,  in the address bar. Type ‘–post’ at the end of your tweet and TwitterBar will post the tweet immediately requiring no further clicks or key presses.


You can also easily post web URLs to Twitter; clicking on the twitter button in the address bar will send a link to the current page in your browser to Twitter. You can also tweet the title of the webpage by simply adding ‘$$’ to the tweet.
TwitterBar is a handy Firefox Add-On for sending quick updates to Twitter. However it lacks all other necessary features of a Twitter client like displaying recent tweets, multiple account handling etc.

4. Yoono

Yoono is an all-in-one and quite powerful social media extension for Firefox which lets you post updates to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, FriendFeed and several Instant Messaging services like Google Talk, Windows Live, Yahoo etc. Yoono shows up in Firefox’s sidebar upon clicking it’s icon from Firefox’s navigation toolbar. You can add any of the supported social networks or IM to start sending and receiving messages.
All the added networks/IMs show up as tabs in the sidebar. The Twitter tab shows up your Twitter update timeline, messages from Friends, Direct Messages and replies, all in separate tabs. Also you can quickly search for messages from friends. Sharing has never been so easy.  Yoono integrates screen capture and clip marking functionality to let you easily share parts of a webpage from with in it’s interface in the sidebar. Simply click on the Share icon to select a whole web page or sections of it including images and videos to send it to your friends. ‘Share’ is also available as a right click context menu option in Firefox. Yoono uploads the captured parts of the web page and places an encoded URL in the status bar.

The most convenient thing is that you can post your Status updates to all the chosen networks and IM services at the same time from Yoono. Apart from networking and sharing, Yoono also provides web search from the Discovery tab, also available from Firefox’s status bar as a search icon.  
Yoono gives pop-up notifications for incoming messages and also quick access to reply, retweet or send direct messages from within the message box. However Yoono lacks the advanced features of TwitterFox like multiple Twitter accounts, preview of tiny URLs in messages, shortening URLs etc.

5. FriendBar

FriendBar is a Firefox Extension which brings Twitter and Facebook to Firefox’s navigation toolbar. With FriendBar, you can view Twitter Messages in a scrolling Ticker. Last 30 messages can be set to cycle every few seconds. FriendBar lets you navigate through messages and quickly  reply, send a direct message and retweet.

Posting a link to the current open web page in the browser window is very simple. Simply click on the link icon  to include a shortened URL of the link in your tweet. You can include the title of the web page you are reading by clicking on the heart icon .
Though FriendBar has some interesting features like Twitter Search, it lacks support for multiple twitter accounts, preview of shortened URLs etc.

6. TwitBin

TwitBin is another Twitter extension for Firefox which brings Twitter notifications to Firefox’s Sidebar. With TwitBin you can view messages from your friends, replies, favorites, direct messages and also public messages all in separate tabs within the sidebar window. Also you can add custom tabs, up to a count of five, to get updates from any Twitter users by giving their Twitter id.  Also, you can upload and share pictures with TwitBin. TwitBin uses Pikchur to uploads any JPG, PNG or GIF images less than 25 MB. Clicking on the icon in Firefox’s status bar brings up TwitBin’s interface in the left Sidebar in Firefox. TwitBin lets you quickly reply, favorite, send direct messages and retweet from within the message box.
 
Though TwitBin is good for viewing messages and sending simple tweets, it lacks the much needed preview of shortened URLs inside messages as well as URL shortening services for sending links in tweets. Also you cannot log in to multiple Twitter accounts.

7. TwitKit

TwitKit is yet another Twitter extension in Firefox’s sidebar. Like most Twitter Sidebar extensions, it organizes and shows messages in tabs. TwitKit displays messages from public timeline, User, Friends and Followers, Direct Messages, Replies, all in their own tabs. It also has a ‘Me’ tab which shows up counts of your friends, followers and updates.
TwitKit provides a host of options from it’s preferences window. You can change it’s color theme, choose a URL shortening service, refresh interval for message notifications, and also a secure connection for sending your Twitter updates.
 
A convenient feature of TwitKit is that it lets you separate it’s window from Firefox’s sidebar by clicking on the pop-out icon there by giving you the much needed screen space in browser window. TwitKit’s interface is not very user friendly; every time you want to open or close TwitKit you have to go to Tools –> TwitKit. and it also lacks some advanced features like preview of shortened URLs in messages, uploading of photos etc.