Top 9 Must Have Add-ons for Internet Explorer 9

By Ciprian Adrian Rusen on 06/13/2011

After showing how to install and also remove Internet Explorer 9 add-ons, I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the best add-ons you can find for Microsoft’s latest browser. Therefore, I searched for a couple of days and tested lots and lots of add-ons: from very broken add-ons to terribly useful ones. Now that this exercise is finished, this is my list of "Top Add-ons for Internet Explorer 9".

LastPass - if you don’t know about LastPass already, you should definitely learn more about this cross-platform add-on. It can be used to store and synchronize your passwords security across all browsers and platforms, plus to generate random & secure passwords. One of the features I appreciate most about LastPass is its ability to audit your stored passwords and tell you how much you suck in terms of secure password habbits. It really opened my eyes and made me more cautious about using diverse and secure passwords, instead of the same 2-3 passwords on all websites. To get the Internet Explorer 9 version of the add-on, download the LastPass Universal Windows Installer and install it on your computer. You can find a complete tutorial about how to use this extension to tighten the security of your passwords here: Password Security - Turn Your Dumb Habits Into Geek Habits.

Evernote - is a great accelerator for Internet Explorer 9, which allows you to take quick notes while browsing the web and synchronize them across platforms and browsers via the the Evernote service. To learn more about Evernote and all its capabilities, check the Official Evernote website.

XMarks - is another useful cross-platform extension which allows you to synchronize your Favorites (or Bookmarks - depends how they are called on the browsers you use) across multiple browsers and platforms (including your smartphone). The service is now owned by the same company that provides LastPass.

FoxyTunes - if you are like me, you surely listen to music while browsing the Internet. Therefore, having a quick way to control your media player (Winamp, Windows Media Player 12 and others) from Internet Explorer 9 can be very handy.

Lyrics Search Suggestions - this is another add-on for those listening to lots of music. If you need to search for lyrics, this search provider can come in very handy - providing also suggestions as you search using the address bar.

StumbleUpon Toolbar - fans of this popular website discovery engine should definitely install this toolbar. For those of you who don’t know about it or don’t yet use it, you should definitely consider it. StumbleUpon is a great way to discover new websites with interesting content, such as our 7 Tutorials.

Share with Delicious - do you need a service to store, discover or share web bookmarks? If the answer is yes to at least one of these questions, you should consider Delicious for a try.

Foursquare - fans of this location-based social networking should be very happy to learn that Internet Explorer 9 has a search provider for it. Even if you don’t use it on your mobile phone, it will help you find places in your area and find out people’s opinion about them before actually going there.

YouTube Search Accelerator and YouTube Search Provider - if you are browsing the web, you surely are using YouTube. To help out with YouTube browsing, Internet Explorer 9 has a Search Accelerator which allows you to select a piece of text from a web page and search it on YouTube. Also, it provides a Search Provider which searches video on YouTube based on the keywords you enter in the address bar.

I hope this list contains some add-ons which are useful for you. If you have other good suggestions, don’t hesitate to share via the comments form below. Looking forward to your proposals.