Top 5 Firefox Social Networking Add-Ons

Social networking and social media now play an important role in people's life with those blogging for living demanding extended tools to publicize their writings online. In the past, most writers relied on manual submission to websites to popularize their articles but web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome now offer great social networking and social bookmarking functionality through external add-ons. These tools are offered for free and provide great functionality to both webmasters and average users while most developers offer add-on versions that are compatible with all major browsers. The below list of the best free Firefox tools for social networking is based on download and usage statistics provided on the official Mozilla Firefox Add-ons page and reflects the popularity of these social networking extensions. Following is the list of the Top 5 social networking tools available for Firefox:

1. AddThis
2. Yoono
3. WiseStamp
4. Shareaholic
5. LinkedIn Companion

AddThis is an add-on that has been downloaded more than 3,550 000 times from Mozilla's website alone. The tool provides great functionality for sharing web pages and online content and supports Firefox versions 2.0 to 6.*, which is still in beta stage. This add is highly customizable allowing users to select between a sharing toolbar, context menu and navigation toolbar button. It provides support for numerous online sharing and bookmarking services, including: AIM, Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, FriendFeed, Friendster, Google Bookmarks, LinkedIn, Live, Mixx, MySpace, Orkut, Plaxo, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress, and Yahoo Bookmarks. The complete list of supported services can be seen on the developer's website. In addition, AddThis supports most popular blogging platforms like Google's Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, Tumblr, MySpace, Joomla!, Drupal, and Movable Type. It also offers support for email newsletters and Flash, which is a functionality of special interest to webmasters. Yoono is the most downloaded Firefox social networking tool while usage stats rank it second behind AddThis.

It supports various platforms, including all major social networking services like Facebook, Foursquare, GoogleBuzz, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Yammer, and YouTube with many more available after installing the add-on. Developers of Yoono offer it for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, while versions for Apple's mobile devices are also available. Yoono users are allowed to share literary everything and update their status across various social networking platforms. WiseStamp is an email tool allowing users to take advantage of multiple email signatures, providing support for all major web email services like Gmail. Hotmail, and YahooMail. In addition, WiseStamp supports popular email platforms like Thunderbird, which can be used as a standalone email client, and AOL web email client.

Therefore, one can use WiseStamp to popularize his or her website or blog via multiple email accounts. Small businesses are allowed to incorporate a legal disclaimer into their web email signatures and add a corporate logo. Shareaholic is another great social networking add-on that supports all major platforms and is available for different web browsers. In addition, to all social networking platforms supported by AddThis and Yoono, it enables users to utilize URL shorteners, including popular services like goo.gl and bit.ly and. A major advantage of Shareaholic's is its not compulsory registration policy: users are not required to register in order to use the service. It is a resource friendly tool which is not slowing down one's PC, in contrast to other extensions that can freeze browsers run on slower computers. LinkedIn network managed to gain 90 million users since its launch, and offers valuable social networking options to professionals worldwide. LinkedIn Companion is designed exclusively for LinkedIn users and provides access to LinkedIn profiles of people who are sending emails to one's email account. It also supports several major job search engines allowing users to see links to profiles of LinkedIn members that are linked to hiring managers. Overall, a useful tool for those who rely on LinkedIn to maintain and expand their professional contacts. Of course, you can find many more social networking and bookmarking add-ons on Mozilla's website but these are the best tools to publicize your online content or simply share your favorite web pages with friends and colleagues.