Ever since Firefox came on to the scene, its success was largely dependant on the community that sprung up around it. Developers took the browser to new levels by creating plug-ins and themes that extended the functionality and look of the browser itself.

Mozilla did well to embrace and encourage this community. And now they’ve taken another step forward by making it easier to create these plugins with the beta of a new Mozilla labs effort named Jetpack.

You can learn more about Jetpack on the Mozilla site, as well as these other good resources. But, in a nutshell, here’s how Mozilla describes this venture:

Jetpack is a Mozilla Labs project that enables anyone who knows HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create powerful Firefox add-ons. Our goal is to allow anyone who can build a Web site to participate in making the Web a better place to work, communicate and play.

Today I wanted to cover some of the better Jeptacks available. We’ve covered some of the better Firefox extensions in the past, so it’s our due diligence to look at how to best make use of Firefox with the following Jetpacks.

Keep in mind that Jetpack is still in beta and that many of these extensions are unreviewed. Use at your risk.

Enjoy.

Google SlideSuite

All your Google in one place.

This Jetpack enables you to check various Google accounts in a sidebar in your browser window. Seeing your calendar, email, RSS feeds, new chats and Wave account all in one place can be a handy addition.

One positive with this option is that it simply worked — no logging in required. A negative is that the display format of some of the accounts is not pretty to look at.

JetWave

Get notifications of your new waves in the status bar.

If seeing all your Google accounts is too much for you, you can at least get notifications of new Waves with this Jetpack.

ThumbTabs

Thumbnail views of all your tabs in the sidebar.

It seems like every browser is starting to offer thumbnail tabs — or at least have an extension available for it. This entry will do the same for you.

Image Editor

Makes use of the Pixlr web service.

From the Head of User Experience at Mozilla, Aza Raskin, comes the Image Editor Jetpack. Simply right click on any image on the web, select “Edit Image” and then you are taken to the web service Pixlr where you an edit the image as you please.

ClicktoFlash

Only view flash content when you want to.

A necessity on any browser, this Jetpack gives you the ability to block flash content by default and enable it at your discretion.

Twitter Statpack

Get more Twitter stats when viewing someone's profile.

A newer addition, this Jetpack adds a few interesting stats to someone else’s profile page on Twitter — when you are logged into the service.

It displays two items: 1) people you both follow and 2) people who you follow, whom also follow the person whose page you are viewing … say that ten times really fast!

Jetstatus

With built in Growl support for OS X.

Of course, it didn’t take long for someone to create a Jetpack that gives you your Twitter updates. This one impressed me because of its Growl support on OS X. Once installed and authenticated, it simply started working.

You can also view your Twitter timeline in the sidebar.

GTranslator

Use Google's translation services to read any text.

For those who need to consistently translate web pages from one language to another, this Jetpack is for you. Simply click the GTranslater button in the status bar.

Wikify

Hail the wiki!

This one is simple, but effective. Select a block of text on the page and then click the W button on the status bar. This will load a new div with related information from entries on Wikipedia.

Simplify Webpage

Simplify cluttered pages.

Similar to one of my favourite bookmarklets, Readability, the Simply Webpage Jetpack strips a page down to the essentials to make a better experience for the reader. In my testing, the end result was not as clean as Readability, but was an improvement over the default.

Patience Required

From even a short period of testing, it’s clear that Jetpack and its early entries need some polish.

But in the end, Mozilla has proven that there is a hunger for an extensible browser. Jetpack should open up the doors to allow more people to scratch the development itch and create a wider variety of options for end users.