One of the major reasons Firefox is approaching 400 million downloads is because of how customizable the browser is thanks to extensions. In a way Firefox extensions are bittersweet, because they can provide some unique and useful features, but at the same time they can cause some unwanted problems.

OpenOffice is a terrific suite of office applications in its own right, but it's out of this world when paired with extensions that add extra functionality. There are plenty of extensions to choose from, but let's take a look at a few that will really make your productivity soar.

The number of Firefox extensions continues to grow. For example, when I last wrote about tab extensions just over a year ago, about 110 existed. Now, despite the need to rewrite many extensions to make them compatible with Firefox 3.0, the number is over 190, and the choice is greater than ever.

Installing these Firefox extensions, like installing any other Firefox extension, is just a matter of clicking the shiny green Install Now button from the extensions' homepages. You'll find both the extensions enabled after a browser restart to complete the installation.

Now, a lot of people publish lists of 'best' extensions. It's quick and easy to make these lists. One difference between my list and some of those "99 Must Have, Best Firefox Extensions!" is that is the real list of the extensions that I use every day. These don't just sound good, they work well.

Google Chrome extensions pool is growing and growing fast. Firefox has been the primary tool for web developers for a long time now. Tools like Firebug in Firefox has taken cult status among web developers. But things are slowly changing now and a number of good alternatives for Firefox web developer extensions can be found among Google Chrome extensions too.

"...For an overview of extensions that will work with one of the Firefox 3 betas, check out this, somewhat obtuse, but largely functional chart, which tracks Firefox 3 compatible extensions..."

In the last-post, I went through the most popular Firefox extensions and talked about whether they were good ideas or not. However, it seems that not a lot of people think about another side to this, i.e. what are your Firefox extensions licenced under?

Want to expand OpenOffice.org's default functionality? The official extension repository has quite a few extensions you can use to add some nifty features to the productivity suite. Precisely which extensions you might find useful depends, of course, on your particular needs, but there are at least five extensions that deserve a closer look no matter how you use OpenOffice.org.