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The Internet Insider - Firefox |
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Tuesday, 22 May 2007 |
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It may sound like the Australian Airforce's next generation fighter jet but Firefox is a must have web browser if you surf the internet on a regular basis. In this article we'll explain what you've been missing out on if you haven't already installed Firefox on your computer. Best of all Firefox is free!
Chances are your already running a web browser like Microsoft's Internet Explorer or if you own a Mac the builtin Safari web browser. While these browsers perform basic functions Firefox takes things to a whole new level by introducing a number of new and innovative features. Belolw is a summary of these features.
Tabbed Browsing
If there was only one reason to upgrade to Firefox then tabbed browsing would be it. While most browsers including Firefox will allow you to open a multiple windows each displaying a different web page they do so at the cost of cluttering your screen. Beyond three or four windows things start to become unmanageable.
Firefox introduces a new way for having multiple websites displayed simultaneously by introducing tabbed browsing. Instead of opening multiple windows Firefox opens a tab for each web page but keeps all the tabs in a single window. Instead of changing windows you click the tab to view the different web pages you are browising. With this tabbed approach it's easy to have a dozen websites open at the same time which you can easily switch between.
Tabbed browsing can also be bookmarked. So lets say you have four different travel websites you use when planing a trip. You can bookmark them all as one and by clicking a single bookmark you can open all four travel websites simultaneously each opening up in it's own tab. Theres' no limit to how many tabs you can have in a single bookmark so you will find you use this feature frequently to bookmark related websites. You can also use this technique to set your default home or startup page to open multiple websites such as your email, newspaper, photos, etc everytime you startup Firefox.
Builtin Features
Along with tabbed browsing Firefox has a whole set of additional features built into it that you can start using right away. These include:
- Automated Update - automatically updates your Firefox browser when new versions or fixes are available
- Spell Checking - checks spelling in any web email or form you fillout.
- Pop-up Blocking - allows you to control which websites can send you those annoying pop-up windows
- Password Memory - keeps track of passwords to all your websites and password protects them so only you can access them
- Session Restore - if your PC crashes the next time you startup Firefox it will pickup right where you left off with all opened websites.
- Spyware & Phishing Protection - Protects you from spyware being installed as well safeguarding you from identity theft.
Addons
Once you start to master the Firefox basics you'll discover there's a whole other level of features you can add to it. Addons (also referred to as extensions) are little programs which you can add on to Firefox to provide additional functionality to your web browsing experience. As an example Google supplies a Google Toolbar addon to simplify searching the internet. Instead of going to the Google's website to do your search you can do it all within Firefox! A little window in the top right corner is displayed where you can enter your search word, hit enter and it displays all the Google search results.
There are similar tool bars for Wikipedia, The Free Dictionary, the Internet Movie Database, Ebay and too many more to mention. Toolbars are only one type of addon and there are literally thousands of others. If you've thought of an idea that would make web browsing easier there probably already is an addon that implements it. Here are some examples of addons we use:
- Google Toolbar - use Google search more easily from within Firefox
- Colourful Tabs - allows each of your tabs to be a different colour to make them more easily identifiable.
- Magic Password Generator - generates different passwords for each website
- ReloadEvery - allows you to automatically refresh a web page every number of seconds you specify
- Nandu Editor - a simple web page editor which you can download only on Bundeena Info here.
The best thing of all with addons is they are simple to install requireing only a click of a button!
Well this should give you an idea of what you've been missing out on, so take the next step and make surfing the net and even more memorable experience by downloading and installing Firefox.
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