Best New Add-on

Pencil is a user interface prototyping tool. Not your ordinary extension and it could be useful, too.

Tagmarks is tagging in a click. Rather than use words to describe a bookmark, click icons.

HandyTag uses text tags, but doesn’t make you create them yourself (though you still can). Grabs common tags from del.icio.us and other sources.

Best Updated Add-on

Read It Later has almost hit 1.0. This extension makes it easy to create a “to read” list without the clutter of using standard bookmarks.

TagSifter provides several different ways to browse through the tags you’ve already created. Advanced users can use some fancy logic syntax to find just what they want (i.e., tagged with movie and comedy, but not jackblack).

Bookmarks Preview brings coverflow to bookmarks. Scroll through thumbnails of the pages before deciding where to go.

In addition to these six, the judges also chose some excellent honorable mentions (Close and Forget is a neat idea, if not a little paranoid). Also, probably in honor of sponsor Last.fm, the judges named Fire.fm the best music add-on.

Lifehacker is running a poll asking which of the winners and honorable mentions are best. It’s sort of a People’s Choice award. So far, Read It Later and Fire.fm are tied for a distant second behind None of the above. Tough crowd.

See also:

• Webmonkey Picks: Top Firefox 3 Extensions
• Extension Developers Race to Support Firefox 3
• 2006 Extend Firefox Contest