The 10 Most Useless Firefox Addons Ever Created

Firefox is widely regarded as the undisputed king of browsers. It is open source, stable, secure, polished, and, perhaps best of all, extensible. Not every Firefox extension is a keeper, however. Here’s a list of Firefox addons that you could probably do without.

Update 2/15/2014:- Guess what? Most of these plugins are no more available in the FireFox Directory.

1. Google Icon: You know how Google made a name for itself by eschewing needless design flourishes, and focusing on returning useful results within a clean, minimal interface? The Google Icon addon for Firefox wants you to forget about that. This extension will pollute your search results with website favicons. Pointless? Very.

2. Chuushi Batan ga Shiitake ni Mietekomaru: A rough translation from the Japanese is “The Stop Button Looks Like Shiitake Mushroom.” Care to guess what this extension does? That’s right, it makes the stop button on your browser look sort of like that particular kind of mushroom. Here’s the description from the official Mozilla page: “Huh, you said the stop button looks like shiitake? No way, you must be tired.” Think this is a useful Firefox addon? No way. Maybe you should get some sleep.

3. BlockSite: This addon allows the user to add any URL to a blacklist so that that page cannot be visited. The only problem is that you can easily get to the web page anyway, either by using a URL that does not exactly resemble the one in the blacklist, or by simply disabling the addon. So, in essence, this addon does nothing. Maybe a future update will allow the addon to apologize for wasting your time.

4. Tab Killer: One of the best browser innovations in recent memory is tabbed browsing. Thanks to tabs, we no longer have to navigate through a stack of browser windows to switch back and forth between two or more websites. If you don’t like tabs for whatever reason, you are welcome not to use them. Or you could install Tab Killer, a Firefox addon that will remove tabs so that you cannot use them, not even if you wanted to. Not even if someone else in your home wanted to. That’s right: tabs are dead, forever. Thanks, Tab Killer! Truly, you are a useless addon.

5. Brisby: The description on the official Mozilla page for Brisby describes it as, “A mouse extension.” Does this mean it will alter the cursor, or the functionality of the mouse? No, it means it will add a literal mouse– a tiny rodent– to the status bar. What can this mouse do? Nothing. If you hover the cursor over it, it will display the text “Squeak!” It might be cute, but unfortunately a Firefox addon can be cute and useless simultaneously.

6. SayHi: Once again, here is a Firefox addon that comes with a brief, baffling description: “An extension that greets you!” This raises questions. First and foremost, a prospective user might want to know, Why? Why should anyone use this? Am I that lonely, that I need a pop-up window to greet me? Of course, there are no answers to these questions. This is a sad, useless little extension.

7. China Channel: The most useless Firefox addons always come with the shortest, most enthusiastic descriptions. The China Channel addon promotes itself with: “Experience the censored Chinese internet at home!” With this installed, you will only be able to view websites that have been approved by the Chinese government. Why is this desirable? It isn’t. It is depressing and terrible. This addon might just be worse than useless.

8. Bork Bork Bork!: Sometimes, the name says it all. In this case, the name of the addon “Bork Bork Bork!” says it all because it is total gibberish. That’s what this addon does: it will convert websites into long strings of gibberish, modeled loosely after the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show.

9. My Computer Hates Me!: This addon will hurl abuses at you. It will call you names by delivering insult-laden pop-up windows. This is because pop-up windows on their own are not annoying enough, apparently. Diagnosis: Useless.

10. US Department of Homeland Insecurity Idiocy Level: Here is a Firefox addon that will fetch the current Homeland Security Terror Threat Level, convert it to a blunt, satirical single word, then display that word and accompanying color in your status bar for the rest of the day, long after it is no longer funny. What’s worse, the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t even update the threat level anymore. This is a useless addon that has become even more useless with age.