Research Firefox Extensions for College Students

Much of students’ library research nowadays takes place online, so make sure you’re making it as easy on yourself as possible with these extensions.

1. Zotero: This research tool will help you collect, organize and appropriately cite any sources you find over the Web. You’ll no longer have to switch between windows — you can do your work right in your browser window.
2. BetterSearch: Enhance your search engine experience with this extension. It adds previews as well as options to open search results in a new tab or window to almost all major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and more, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.
3. Clusty Toolbar: Don’t search harder for more information, search smarter. This toolbar will allow you to cluster search results from several sites, get dictionary and encyclopedia definitions, and many other useful features.
4. Snap Links: Sometimes during a search, more than one site will come up that looks promising. With this tool you can open these sites all at once in different tabs. Simply click and drag over all the sites you want to open and it will take care of the rest.
5. ScrapBook: If you’re collecting research for a project or just doing some online comparison shopping, this can be a valuable tool. It allows you to save and organize websites and parts of websites, and also take notes on them while keeping everything in one easily accessible place.
6. Read It Later: One way to keep on task or to accelerate research is to not read every interesting page you come across. This tool for Firefox allows you to save these tidbits for later when you have more time and to store them in an easy-to-find-and-manage menu in your browser.
7. Googlepedia: Get both Google search results and Wikipedia entries with this extension. It splits the search in half and gives you (hopefully) more interesting and useful information.
8. Customize Google: This extension allows you to easily move from your Google search results to Yahoo, Ask.com, Technorati, Wikipedia and more. It makes switching through search engines much quicker and easier.
9. WorldCat Search: Quickly find a book or download a video with this great search plug-in. WorldCat will find resources at the libraries nearest you so you can quickly find research materials.
10. Yoono: Enhance your browsing with the features of Yoono. It will automatically suggest other sites it thinks you’ll like and allow you to save and share your articles and websites.
11. Bookstack: This extension allows you to add sites to a file to read later. It’s easy to use and can be a great way to keep track of information you want to read but just don’t have the time to.
12. eReader: This extension makes it easy to read ebooks right in your Firefox browser, helping you to take advantage of free online materials from Google and sites like Project Gutenberg.