While I'd love to wax exponentially about how great of a web browser Firefox is, I'm going to try and give it to you in a nutshell. A very easy-to-crack nutshell, that is...
- Gotta love that tabbed browsing! Firefox came up with it first, folks, so accept no imitations! A simple "Ctrl + T" will open a new tab for you instantly.
- A session-restore feature that rocks my world. If you get interrupted by a power outage or something like that while you're working in Firefox, it will restore your session when you open it up again. What's great is that it restores things to the exact pages you were working in.
- It's the little things that mean so much: a built-in spell checker, search suggestions, a pop-up blocker, easy RSS feed-management, the ability to clear your private data after every session, automatic updates, protection from spyware and phishing, and DHTML accessibility. Plus, there's an integrated search bar that comes pre-loaded with Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Answers.com, and Creative Commons search engines so, no matter where you are on the web, you can easily search one of these sites without ever opening a new tab or leaving the page you are on. And you can add more engines! I like to add the IMDB, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Flickr tags, and Webster's dictionary. I use this search engine feature all the time! AND...what's great is that now you can add the CML catalog as a search in Firefox! You never have to leave the page you're on to search the library's catalog again!
- Finally, one of the things I really like best about Firefox, is that you can do some serious pimpin' and personalizin' to this browser. Firefox calls them "add-ons," but I call them little rays of sunshine that make the browser mine. These add-ons tweak the browser in such a way that you control what it does, what it searches and what it looks like. For example, say you want to search a bookmark in del.icio.us quickly. Instead of logging in to del.icio.us, add the del.icio.us extension to the Firefox browser and you can do it all with one click. The list of recommended extensions is awesome. You can also change the look of the browser overall by installing a theme from the myriad of choices they have. I promise you you'll have fun with this! I often choose more than one theme to download at a time and then I can switch back and forth between them, just to mix it up a little. Hey, it's YOUR browser, make it look and feel and function the way YOU want it to!
Any dedicated or long-time users of Firefox out there? What do you like best about it?
8 comments:
This entry has made me sit up and decide to learn more about Firefox. Sounds great.
Have digital services started playing around with Google's Chrome browser? Any thoughts? I used the first beta and I loved how the pages were so much bigger---but the browser was still a little too wonky.
Thanks for the cheerful endorsement of Firefox. So far, I had only considered it a workaround for speed out on the web while we waited for our new computers. It got me through my wholesalers databases without freezing-and I was happy. I had no idead I loved it for so many other reasons. Now I have a Christmas theme...thanks1
Firefox Rocks! I am so glad you shared this with me years ago.
I recently started using Firefox this summer when my computer was repaired and upgraded by the Laptop Guy. Then I learned that my children have been using it for quite a while. They both love it and I'm beginning to see why. It really is faster than when I used Internet Explorer and I like the many cool features mentioned in the article. I'm still learning to use them all and having lots of fun too.
Agreed. I just joined! Thanks!
We only use firefox at home. We have found that Internet Explorer is not as dependable and will tend to freeze up more often.
While not a long time user, I've been hooked on Firefox for a little over a year now. Extensibility is the best!
Greasemonkey is a really helpful add-on. My favorite script is GoogleMonkeyR because I can pack a lot more search results into a page and even disable pages altogether so that the results just keep going and going...
Another fave add-on is Video DownloadHelper. The name says it all.
A few others I use are: Bug MeNot for sites I don't want to sign up to use, FireShot for taking and manipulating web screenshots, Translator for translations, NoScript for security, and Wizz RSS for managing my feeds.
I also like being able to right-click on a search box and create a shortcut using a keyword. This allows me to type in the keyword and then what I'm searching for in Firefox's URL/address box.
Also, the vodcast Tekzilla always has some great tips and tricks to get the most out of the 'Fox.
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