Web Browsers

Topic: Firefox|Level: Beginner|Type: Informational

Some people tend to think "the Internet" is that big blue "e" icon and the only thing the computer is for. That "e" is actually "Internet Explorer" (not "the Internet"), a product from Microsoft commonly referred to as "IE", and it's just one piece of software that may be used to access the Internet. The problem is since it's preloaded with Windows it's the only application most people use, and it is far from the best.

People using a Mac computer get there's preloaded with "Safari", which is now also available for Windows. And there's also "Chrome" which is a relatively new product by Google that may be worth keeping any eye on since Google puts out amazing stuff all the time. I haven't done much with Safari or Chrome yet, so nothing really to them at this time.

This post though is about another option, Firefox ("FF") from Mozilla. Firefox (available for free download here: http://www.firefox.com/), and it's quickly becoming one of the most popular browsers in use even over IE! And once you've tried it you'll likely see why.

So some of the quick things that make Firefox my browser of choice and reasons for anybody else to check it out...

Open Source
The Firefox source code is all open source. This means there's a lot more people in the development community who can find bugs and security holes and get them fixed.

Innovation over Replication
Firefox (to the best of my knowledge) was one of the first browsers to support multiple tabs for different pages as well as several other features they have that others are just now implementing.

Auto Crash Recovery
If the browser crashes for some reason (whether because of corrupt code on pages, the operating system, or some generic memory problem), when you open the browser back up it can restore all the tabs and pages you previously had open.

Customizable Themes
Themes are the images, colors & font styles of the browser's toolbars, statusbars, and buttons. 3rd party developers are able to create new themes that you can easily pick one you like and in a matter of just a couple clicks have implemented.

Add-Ons (a.k.a. "Extensions" or "Change-Arounds")
This is the most impressive part of FF in my opinion. FF supports 3rd party development of add-ons. These are what turns a good browser in to an amazing tool! You can easily peruse the catalog of available add-ons and select the ones you want to install, try them out, and if they don't work for you then you can just as simply remove them. I'll provide a list of some of my favorite and more essential add-ons in my next blog, but it's still worth checking out right away for anybody still using IE or some other browser.

Automatic Spell Check
Any text box you can type in automatically has misspelled words given a little squiggly red line that you can then simply right-click to get spelling correction suggestions

Middle-Clicking (or Wheel-clicking)
If you have a middle mouse button or your mouse wheel can be 'clicked', this is a wonderful thing with Firefox. You can middle-click a link to have that page link opened in a new tab, you can middle-click your tabs to close them, or you can middle-click your navigation buttons (back, forward, home) to have them opened in new tabs too.

Automatic Self-updates
Firefox as well as any installed add-ons can even automatically check for updates and download them so all you have to do is restart the browser after it prompts you and you're up-to-date.

So download & install Firefox (http://www.Firefox.com/), then once started go to Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse All Add-ons and start seeing what looks good to you. ("Adblock Plus", "Download Statusbar" are must-haves!)

Also, I plan on customizations and tweaks to Firefox to be the subject of some blogs yet to come.