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I admit it. I have a social bookmarking/networking toolset problem. I’ve got too many toolbars/plugins/add ons cluttering up my web browser toolbars.

In an effort to clear some of this clutter up, I’ll review some of my most-used tools as I remove or cement each one on my browser’s screenscape. If you use anything I don’t that you find particularly useful, please point me to them!

BROWSER

Firefox - Mozilla’s Firefox is the best browser by far (unless you use Mac, in which case, Safari is catching up and Mozilla’s Camino isn’t quite so great). Has the greatest level of customization and add ons of any browser. You can really make the browser into a much more powerful tool.

Rating: Superb> Could be better, but already dominates alternatives

Staying Power: KEEPER!

TOOLBARS

Google Toolbar - Probably the de facto toolbar many toolbar users install. Main features include a Google search box, several other Google gadgets and a Page Rank tool.

Rating: OVERRATED! The Page Rank tool stands out as the biggest benefit to using this toolbar. The Firefox browser already has a Google search box installed , so no need for that on the toolbar too.

Staying power: Dropped! I care about Page Rank, but

Facebook Toolbar - Tired of always checking your news feed page to see if anyone has sent you a message? Want to get alerted to friend requests on the fly? The facebook toolbar maybe for you

Rating: Useful. Outside of Facebook networking, this toolbar does very little. But you can update your status directly from the toolbar, which is good for status addicts.

Staying Power: Keeper

Digg Toolbar - Get a drop-down menu of the latest Digg homepage stories and quick links to Digg logins.

Rating: Junk. I can create a live bookmark and get as much functionality out of my browser as the Digg toolbar offers.

Staying Power: DROPPED!

StumbleUpon Toolbar - One of the most popular and highly-underused toolbars in the history of the world. Not only can StumbleUpon help you find interesting new links, but it can also help you bring big traffic to your favorite pages - without all the needing to make friends like on Digg

Rating: Okay. If you’re a lover of StumbleUpon, you’ll love the toolbar. In fact, you pretty much need the toolbar to enjoy SU.

Staying Power: Will keep. The traffic generation ability makes this toolbar worthwhile.

Mahalo Follow Toolbar - The Mahalo human-powered search engine rolls out a toolbar that allows you to post favored links to their search results, del.icio.us, Twitter and social bookmarking site ma.gnolia. It also has a sidebar that automatically loads on your pages to show sites related to keywords found on sites you are browsing.

Rating: So Far So Good> The sidebar popup can get annoying. Usually it doesn’t pop up automatically, but it seems to be conflicting with some of my other toolbars.

Staying power: Will keep it, for now.

FIREFOX ADD-ONS

Shareaholic Firefox Add-on - One of the winners of the Extend Firefox 2 contest. Allows you to share the page your browsing to a number of services, including Tumblr.

Rating: Pretty great! Just added this one after dropping the Digg toolbar and looking for more ways to bookmark directly from my browser.

Staying Power: Keeper

Tab Mix Plus Firefox Add-on - Enhance the ways you manage your tabs. Think you don’t need it? Just give it a spin, it will be hard to go back to regular tabbing (e.g. IE)

Rating: Superb

Staying Power: Can’t live without it

GreaseMonkey Firefox Add-on - Possibly the most powerful add on in all of Firefoxdom. “Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript” - and you can even write your own scripts.

Rating: SWEET - not as scary as you’d think.

Staying Power: Keeper

Del.icio.us buttons Firefox Add-On - Easy click-to-bookmark button you can install on your toolbar. Allows you to take the strain out of bookmarking on Del.icio.us

Rating: Good

Staying Power: About to cut it. With both the Shareaholic add-on and the Mahalo toolbar, I don’t really need this extra button.

Web Developer Firefox Add-On - Gives you the ability to inspect the html, script, CSS and inner workings of a website your viewing. Can definitely be handy when needed. Turn elements on and off on the page to see what works and what doesn’t.

Rating: Superb

Staying Power: Keeper. You can hide it when not using it. It comes in toolbar form as well.

GSpace Firefox Add-On - Turn your Gmail acounts into file servers. Great for backing up files.

Rating: AWESOME

Staying Power: Keeper

Morning Coffee Firefox Add-On - Do you open the same sites every morning? I normally check about 7 news sites in the morning just to make sure I’m on the same page with the rest of the web. This handy tool allows me to click one button and have every page I want open.

Rating: Pretty good

Staying Power: Keeper, takes up very little space.

Screengrab! Firefox Add-On - Need to take a fullscreen screen shot? This is your add-on of choice.

Rating: Very useful

Staying Power: Keeper

IE Tab Firefox Add-On - If you use Firefox primarily, you’ll note that sometimes you can’t watch certain videos or view some pages correctly because they are optimized for IE. This add-on will allow you to load the IE engine in your browser and view the page as if it were an IE browser.

Rating: Fantastic

Staying Power: Keeper

Google Notebook Firefox Add-On - If your a Google gadgets fiend, this might be a great add on for you. Integrated with your browser and your Google accounts, quickly take notes and save text from web pages you visit on your Google-hosted notebook. You can login to your Google account from any computer to get your notes.

Rating: Eh. In theory, this is a reporters dream for taking notes. In reality, I never take notes from web pages and mark them down here.

Staying Power: Drop

UPDATE: Found this cool Digg bookmarklet, which, when clicked, will submit the page your browsing or scan Digg to see if it had already been submitted. Pretty sweet. I think Shareaholic does the same.

That’s it friends. I think I know the ones I’m keeping and getting rid of now. What are your favorite Firefox add-ons? What browser tools help you do your job? I’d love to try out new tools!