Internet Explorer 8 and 9 both have some outstanding features, especially in terms of the various add-ons you can use to fully customize your browsing experience. These features take the form of browser plug-ins, called ActiveX objects.  ActiveX downloads are simple to install on your version of Internet Explorer, and once you’ve added your favorites, you’ll have a truly personalized browser. Need some suggestions to get started with your own add-ons? Check out this top 10 list of some of the best Active-X plug-ins, consistently ranked high by IE users worldwide. 

1. Share on Facebook
If you’re into Facebook and you like to share certain things with friends, this quick accelerator for IE8 makes it easier than ever to share what you like. Once you’ve installed the add-on, you simply need to highlight text on the webpage or news article and click the button. And just like that you’ve shared your tidbit for all of your friends to see.

2. Microsoft Silverlight
Upgrade your media with Silverlight. Relatively new, Silverlight integrates with existing web technologies improving your media online and actually gives you higher quality overall. It’s fast and easy to use and it works across all browsers and between PC and Mac technologies as well.

3. Integrated Google Search
You don’t even need to finish your thoughts once you have Google Search installed on your Internet Explorer task bar. Simply start typing in your search term and the Google Search add-on will respond with all of the various searches that begin the same way yours does. The more you type, the more specific the search terms suggested. This is great if you’re not sure of exactly what to search for to get information or if you’re unsure of a particular spelling.

4. Add to Amazon Wish List
If you’re anything like me you like to browse for various things, but when it’s time to buy, you can’t always remember what it was you were looking for. You might (or at least I do) find yourself digging back through your history to find whatever gem you committed to memory. With the Amazon Wish List, you don’t have to remember, you can just add any item from any site to your wish list and then when it’s time to shop you have it saved for easy purchase. 

5. Cooliris for Internet Explorer
Need to find pictures? Why not look more quickly with Cooliris? This ActiveX item is an easy add-on that creates a 3D Wall of pictures and videos so that you can browse through your collections of pictures more easily. The one you’re looking at now simply moves forward on the screen while the others are still visible for a quick and easy transition along the slideshow.  Cooliris is useful with images on Bing or Google as well as Picasa, Facebook and your own hard drive.

6. WOT For Internet Explorer
Need a bit of a safety net online? You can surf with a bit more confidence thanks to Web of Trust (WOT). With the WOT, you can see a visual indicator of which sites are safe and which are not. The red sites are bad – don’t click on them. The green sites are fine – go ahead. The yellow sites are a bit sketchy, so use good judgment. The WOT is updated every thirty minutes and currently has information on more than 22 million sites.

7. RoboForm Password Manager
You don’t need to mess with the dozens or perhaps even hundreds of passwords and logins you use these days, especially since they are all supposed to be unique. RoboForm will remember all of your passwords and actually navigate sites for you to fill in the username and password before clicking on Submit for you as well. All of the information is stored on a military-grade server and RoboForm is a favorite of PC Magazine as well, so I’m not the only one who likes it.

8. LiveTV
With over 1750 television stations, you can watch television from anywhere around the world on your PC without a TV tuner card. The LiveTV combines quite a few different technologies and is run in a regular view or full view mode and has a pop-up blocker and RSS video feeds as well.

9. Wikipedia Visual Search
Come across a word or name you don’t recognize – why not get a quick glimpse. With Wikipedia Visual Search, you’re able to see a small picture of the item or person you’re searching for. You don’t even have to go to the actual webpage to see and understand what something is. It’s like a picture dictionary that is entirely search based.

10. Digg’s Main Page Top Ten
If you like to be the main source of water cooler or break room discussion, you can get all of your current news from the Digg Top Ten with this ActiveX add-on. The top stories as voted by readers are shown in the feed in your toolbar and you’re able to check them all out with a glance to see if there’s anything worthy to read. Of course, this isn’t hard-core journalism, but if you’re looking for a quick read that’s interesting and engaging, Digg has just what you need.