SEO For Firefox (Firefox Extension)
SEO For Firefox is a Firefox Extension I wrote for SEOBook.com (Aaron Wall and I served in the Navy together). The
basic idea for this extension is to add all kinds of in-line SEO-related information to Google's or Yahoo's search results. The screenshot shows the
extension running with every single option turned on, however, most people only use a few at a time, which makes it look a lot less cramped.
This was my first Firefox extension and, I must say, Firefox's extension architecture is just plain awesome. The entire thing is based on JavaScript and XML, which makes it extremely easy for a web developer to pick it up in a weekend and write something useful. The encapsulation requirements of an extension are a little stringent. To avoid conflicting with other extensions, you need to keep your variable usage to a minimum and, preferably, encapsulate all of your code into one object. I had never dealt with objects in JavaScript on this scale before so that was a bit of a learning experience. Other notable learning experiences in this project: figuring out how to contruct a SOAP request using an XML template to talk to MSN's search API, and figuring out how to *reliably* grab 20+ pieces of information from a dozen or so different sources.
For more details on this extension, check out Aaron's tutorial here. I also found a screencast of someone using the extension here, though they seem to have a slow connection and they don't really go over all of the features.