Link Alert: Firefox Addon

By Josh | April 23, 2008

When you see a link on a page, there is really no way to tell where it is leading unless you roll your mouse over it and take a look at the status bar. The link could be leading to a file, to a document, an email address, an image, etc. However, with Link Alert it is easy to tell where the link is leading to. Link Alert adds a small icon next to your cursor, which indicates what kind of link it is. (Via Ghacks)

As you can see from the options, there are many different types of icons that you may use. One of the ones that I like is the one that allows you to see if a link opens in a new window. That way, maybe I’ll think to middle click it so that it opens in a new tab instead of a new window. Also, if there is more than one icon that is associated with a link, it will sort the icons by priority. You can set the options to display up to 5 icons for a link. If the icon sizes are too small for you, then you may change them to be larger in the display options.

Another nice feature is that you can add your own icons for different link types if they are not included in the addon. This would be useful if you are constantly clicking on a certain link type that is not included in the addon.

I’m using Link Alert in Firefox 3 Beta 5, and it works fine. I had to restart my browser when I chose to have 5 icons displayed, but it works very smoothly for me. The icons pop up right away when I roll my mouse over a link. I think this is definitely one of those addons that I keep around.