Sunday, June 22, 2008

Firefox 3 is better than your average web browser.

I just want to profess my fondness for this web browser so that everyone may be aware.    Especially since you can use it on any OS.  Which you can use Safari for Windows, but I here from a very reliable source that it's really bad.  Take note I used to only use Safari and I was pretty much an Apple purist, but the features in the new Firefox had me intrigued.  To me using Firefox 3 is just like using Safari except that it's more stable and has more and better features.  Safari would crash on me more than I'd like to admit.  Firefox has features like better stability, the ability to type one word in to the address bar and have it know exactly what website you want, and the ability to save tabs when quitting. 

The address bar is pretty amazing.  Here's the quip from Mozilla:

"A quick way to get to the sites you love—even the ones with addresses you only vaguely remember. The new Firefox 3 location bar learns as you use it—it’s so highly evolved that we like to call it the “Awesome Bar”. Over time, it adapts to your preferences and offers better fitting matches. Type in a term and the autocomplete function includes possible matching sites from your browsing history, as well as sites you’ve bookmarked and tagged in a drop down. For example, you could enter the tag: “investments” to find “www.fool.com”. Matched terms are highlighted, making the list of results easy to scan."

The ability to save on exit is very useful.  It even works if I've logged out or restarted the computer. Another quip from Mozilla:

"Now when you open Firefox, your tabs and windows look just like they did when you closed it down. No need to reopen all your windows each time you start a session."

The ability to find add ons in the browser.  From Mozilla:

"You can now find and install add-ons directly in your browser. You no longer need to visit the add-ons Web site, simply fire up the new Add-ons Manager. Not sure which add-on is right for you? Ratings, recommendations, descriptions and pictures of the add-ons in action help you make your selection. The fully integrated Add-ons Manager even lets you view, manage and disable third-party add-ons in a few easy clicks."

My favorite add-on has to be Adblock Plus.  This is why:

No adblock in Explorer:



Adblock in Firefox 3:

 
The little image that says bling is from myspace.  If I wanted to take the time I could find it in the adblock preferences and block it.

So those are just a handful of reasons why I like Firefox.

Let's recap. Firefox has:
  1. An awesome address bar.
  2. Stability
  3. Uses less memory
  4. Design integrates with what OS your using
  5. Faster page loads
  6. Reopen closed tabs and save on exit

P.S.  The reason they are Vista screenshots is because I'm at work.

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