OK, we've all been there, lookin' up some video in Firefox and when we find it, the player just sits there, no video plays, and we are sad. So, what do we do? We push foward, whenever the little yellow bar comes on top of our screen we mindlessly install the "missing" plugins but when it comes down to it, do we really know what to do in a multimedia-plugin-related crisis? What happens when you can't watch the latest episode of the Tom Green show when you think you've got all your plugins plugged-in, so to speak? For most people, nothing happens; people have a way of just going about their lives missing out on great online video content simply because they can't figure out why the embeded video won't work. To this, I say, "NAY!" Ok, so maybe I wouldn't say Nay so much as I would say, "That Sucks, I ain't goin' out like that!" (Yeah, I'm gangsta! WHAT!?!) That's why this article is here, to help all the people adrift somewhere out in Firefox-internet-land without a plugin to save them.

• The first thing you might want to check once inside Firefox is what plugins you have installed. You can do this by keying up to Firefox's URL bar (Ctrl+L) and typing "about:plugins" without the quotes. This gives you a list of all the plugins that are installed in Firefox. You should see things like "RealPlayer Version Plugin", "Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library", "Java Plug-in", and "Microsoft® DRM". If you don't see some (or any) of those plugins don't sweat it, this article is definitely for you.
• Now that you know what you have installed you should test all of your plugins to make sure they're working (this is also a good way to see what you might still need to install if you couldn't tell from "about:plugins"). You can test all of your media plugins for Firefox here.
• Alright, by now you probably know what's what. You know what's missing so now you just need to download that ish. You can download most common Firefox plugins here and you can get more Firefox info (and more plugins) here. BUT WAIT I wouldn't just go mindlessly downloading plugins (that's how you end up with embeded video that just doesn't work) If I were you, which I am (don't question me!) I wouldn't download iTunes and Quicktime just to watch the occasional embeded Quicktime video. Instead I would just download the light-weight version of Quicktime -- Quicktime Alternative (Download Link). You should also download the alternative (to the much hated [by me]) RealPlayer -- RealPlayer Alternative (Download Link). I also don't like to use the bloated Adobe Acrobat and instead opted for the light-weight and agile Foxit Reader.
• So you think you're pretty hot stuff don't ya? You've got all the plugins you need, huh? Think you're better than me? Well, mister (or Ma'am) it's time to put that theory to the test. Go back to step 2 and test all the plugins you updated or downloaded and make sure they work. If they don't work a good first step is to check for solutions to your specific problem on Google. If your problem pertains to embeded WMV, RealPlayer, or Quicktime then I would refer to this little guide. I had some trouble getting Quicktime Alternative to play embeded video, The procedure to solve that problem was pretty simple: click Start > Control Panel > Quicktime > click on the browser tab > make sure you have "Play movies automatically" checked > click "MIME Settings..." > under "MPEG - MPEG system, video, and audio files" > I selected (checkboxed) all except AAC Audio and AAC Audio Book > click "OK" > click "Apply"; Now restart your Firefox and that should be it! If you are having trouble with Windows Media Player (which is pretty common in Firefox) check out the amazingly detailed guide here That guide is so good, even I can follow it!

Alright, after reading this article you should be good to go as far as Firefox multimedia plugins are concerned. However, there is one last plugin I would recommend to you: the *balloontoablimp search plugin! With the *balloontoablimp search plugin you can search *balloontoablimp from the default search box in the upper-right corner of your browser and the plugin is incredibly simple to set up (what have you got to lose? Coolness? I don't think so). All you have to do is download these two files (here and here) and save them both to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\search plugins, restart your Firefox, and that's it. You can key up to your search box (Ctrl+K) and select *balloontoablimp from the drop-down menu, now you can search our website where ever ye be!
So I guess that about does it. Happy Firefoxing (yeah, I used it as a verb, WHAT!?!).

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