A Brief Introduction to Firefox

I am sure by now most of you have heard about it and some of you have started using it. If you have not started using it, now is the prefect time! Let me give you a few good reasons why to choose Firefox over any other internet browsers.

Firefox is fully customizable. You download themes to make it look the way you want to, you can download add-ons to customize the way it behaves, and guess what if you think it does not have some functionality, you can make your own add-on and post it on Mozilla website. These are just a few basic things that Firefox can do, but you’ve got to use it to know it. So go on and download Firefox today for a better browsing experience.

Stay Secure on the Web

The Web is a great place, but sometimes you’ll encounter bad people. Firefox keeps you safe from spyware, hackers, scammers and spammers, using the power of a vigilant and passionate community to protect you 24/7.

Phishing Protection

Phishing Protection takes Firefox’s security to a new level, helping to safeguard your financial information and protect you from identity theft. When you encounter a Web site that is a suspected forgery (known as a “phishing” site) Firefox will warn you and offer to take you to a search page so you can find the real Web site you were looking for.

Open Source, More Secure

At the heart of Firefox is an open source development process driven by thousands of passionate, experienced developers and security experts spread all over the world. Our openness and active community of experts helps to ensure our products are more secure and updated quickly, while also enabling us to take advantage of the best third party security scanning and evaluation tools to further bolster overall security.

Automated Update

Firefox’s update system always checks to see if you’re running the latest version, and notifies you when a security update is available. These security updates are small (usually 200KB - 700KB), giving you only what you need and making the security update quick to download and install. The automated update system provides updates for Firefox on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 40 different languages.

Protection from Spyware

Firefox will not allow a Web site to download, install, or run programs on your computer without your explicit agreement. Period. You will be notified whenever downloading or installing software, and Firefox will always tell you what’s happening so that you can stay in control of your computer.

Clear Private Data

Firefox offers the ability to clear all your private Web browsing data with just one click with the “Clear Private Data” tool. You can be confident that when you clear your private data in Firefox it’s gone - whether you are using your own computer or one at the library.

Enjoy a Better Web Experience

There’s a lot to do on the Web, and Firefox 2 is full of helpful features to make your time online more productive.

Improved Tabbed Browsing

We love tabs as much as you do, so Firefox 2 will open new web pages in tabs by default. Each of those tabs has its own close button, but don’t worry - if you accidentally close a tab, just go to the History menu to bring it back from the list of “Recently Closed Tabs.” You’ll never be crunched for space anymore, either. When you have too many tabs open to comfortably fit in a single window, scroll arrows will appear on either side, and a button on the right side will always show you an easy-to-read list of all your open tabs.

Spell Checking

Sometimes you’re in a rush, and can’t remember if it’s “i” before “e” or the other way around. Firefox 2 has built-in spell checking to keep you from making any mistakes in your blog posts and Web-based email, so you can worry about more important things.
Search Suggestions

Some of the search engines in Firefox 2 can read your mind, and actually suggest search terms for what you’re looking for. Just start typing into the Search bar, and a drop down list of suggestions will appear. (Works for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com.)

Session Restore

Losing your place while you’re doing things on the Web is a pain. Now, with Session Restore, if Firefox has to restart or closes when it comes back you’ll pick up exactly where you left off. The windows and tabs you were using, the text you typed into forms, and the in-progress downloads you had running will all be restored. You can even set Firefox 2 to always restore your previous session instead of loading a home page, so you’ll never lose your place again.

Web Feeds (RSS)

What do news headlines, indie rock podcasts, and pictures of kittens have in common? They’re all things that you can subscribe to with Web feeds. Firefox 2 gives you full control over Web feeds, showing you a preview and letting you choose how you want to subscribe. You can use a Firefox Live Bookmark, or a feed reader that you’ve installed on your computer, or through a Web service such as My Yahoo!, Bloglines or Google Reader.

Live Titles

Keep an eye on that auction or the status of a delivery using the new Live Titles feature in Firefox 2. Compact enough to fit as a bookmark label, Live Titles are regularly updated summaries of the most important information on a Web page. As the information on the page gets updated, so does your Live Title. Try one out in Firefox 2 by bookmarking www.woot.com.

Integrated Search

Firefox helps you find whatever it is that you’re looking for. The Search bar comes pre-loaded with search engines for Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Answers.com, and Creative Commons. Wherever you are on the Web, you can enter a search term in the Search bar and receive immediate answers from the search engine you’ve chosen. You can select a new search engine from the Search bar menu at any time, and add search engines from hundreds of your favorite Web sites.

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What is this?

Extending Firefox

Some of the coolest things about Firefox are its extensions, which add more features, capabilities, and options to the browser. Rather than including every extension to the browser install and giving everyone features that they may or may not need, it's better to install it yourself—you get what you need without dealing with browser bloat.

Occasionally, when clicking on an extension to install it, Firefox asks how to open the file. When this happens, close the box and click the link again. After installing an extension, close and reopen Firefox before using it so it can pick up the extension on startup.

CAUTION

A word of warning. Sometimes extensions cause problems with Firefox, leading it to crash or not work right. To address the problem, disable one extension and reload Firefox. Use Firefox as you normally would. If it crashes again, disable another extension. Repeat until Firefox behaves.

Some extension authors' pages provide information on extensions that may not work when loading the author's extension.
xMirror

Every extension has its own Web page and that's the best place to download it because the latest version publishes there first. It may take time before the version arrives at Mozilla or other Web sites housing extensions. xMirror adds a drop-down list to the Extensions window linking to the extension libraries. The Web site has a few other extensions.
SessionSaver

In writing this, I installed the extensions to be sure that they are A-OK. It gets old to close Firefox every time I load a new one and then reopen the previously loaded Web pages. SessionSaver puts an end to this nonsense because it restores the pages you had open before closing Firefox or when it crashes.
AutoCopy

How do you copy text from a Web page? The most common way is to highlight the text, press CTRL+V, and press CTLR+P. You can do this in one step using AutoCopy. Once you highlight the text, it's copied to the Clipboard.
TabBrowser Preferences

Tab browsing is a favorite feature for many users. Take it to another level with TabBrowser Preferences. You can control how Firefox handles links, move the tab bar to the bottom of the browser, and manage tab focus (when clicking on a new link, select whether the current tab stays in front or if the new tab steals focus).
DictionarySearch

Expand your vocabulary with DictionarySearch, which does exactly what its name implies: It looks up a word in a Web page or email in an online dictionary. After installing DictionarySearch, all you have to do is select the word, right-click, and select Dictionary Search for....
AutoForm

Do you like Internet Explorer's capability to automatically fill in forms for you? Add this feature to Firefox with AutoForm.

Adding extensions takes little time and provides timesaving features to Firefox. Expand Firefox's horizons and explore the extension libraries.