You’ve all been there before. You’re surfing around the Internet, maybe browsing eBay or doing some online shopping. You’ve found something you’ve been after but there’s a problem - the item is priced up in US dollars. You might have an idea of how much that equates to in your local currency (I know that one US dollar is about 60 pence) but you want to make sure you are getting the best price and what the actual conversion is….

Up to recently, I’ve often made use of XE.com’s Currency Converter when I’ve been in this situation. When you’re buying Internet-related geekery or electronic goods, you are often found searching around the International market. When I want to know how many of my British Pounds are going to come out of my bank account on more than one item, it can become quite tedious jumping between pages.

Last week, I decided to check if there were any Firefox extensions or search extensions which would make my life easier. To my delight, it turns out there is such an extension (and what a job it does too)…

ViewMyCurrency is a lightweight extension that plugs in to your Firefox installation and converts loads of foreign currencies to your local currency. Once you have downloaded and installed the extension, you will be prompted to setup your local currency and your preferred format of prices. From here on in, the extension will detect any foreign prices within websites while you’re surfing and present your local alternative before the foreign value, something like £260 (USD488.54).

Beware - the extension is still in its infancy and doesn’t have full International currency support (although it is fairly comprehensive in its current form). The website also points out that you shouldn’t take the conversions as golden - it is purely there for a guide. I’ve found it to be fairly accurate so far but I’m sure there will be some users feeling a little confused or left out.

If you’re a Firefox user, I highly recommend you download and install this gem. It’s not just restricted to shopping too. I’ve also found it comes in really handy when you’re checking your Google AdSense statistics too.

Hats off to Will Moffat for this development. This is exactly what FF extensions were made for - making my life easier. Good work that man.