Mozilla Firefox: The "Browser Battle" is Back
by Brandon Hutchinson
The following is an article I wrote for a work newsletter.
Although Microsoft's Internet
Explorer dominates Web browser usage with 93% market
share, the "browser battle" has returned because of the emergence of a
serious competitor: Mozilla
Firefox.
Mozilla Firefox is a free, cross-platform, extensible Web browser. With
Internet Explorer already installed as part of the Windows operating
system, why consider switching to Mozilla Firefox?
Perhaps most importantly, Mozilla Firefox offers a "safer" Web browsing
experience, free of pop-up advertisements and spyware. Additionally,
Mozilla Firefox offers many features not available in Internet
Explorer, including:
- Pop-up blocking -- noisome pop-up advertisements no longer
clutter the screen.
- Tabbed
browsing -- multiple
Web sites may be loaded within the same browser window. Navigating
between these sites is done by switching between the "tabs."
- "Smart
Keywords" -- typing "imdb The Incredibles" in the Location Bar will
search the Internet Movie Database for The Incredibles, for example. Other
built-in "smart keywords" are available, and you may create your own.
- "Live
Bookmarks" -- headlines from Web sites offering Really Simple
Syndication (RSS) feeds--such as Yahoo!
News and Slashdot--are
continually updated
in the Bookmarks menu/sidebar.
- Extensions
-- Extensions are plug-ins that extend the functionality of the
browser. Some of the more popular extensions are Adblock, BugMeNot and IE View for Windows.
One caveat about Mozilla Firefox: some Web sites developed
specifically for Internet
Explorer, such as those with ActiveX controls, may not render or
function correctly in Mozilla Firefox. The aforementioned IE View for Windows extension
makes it easy to launch Internet Explorer to view these pages.
With its recent 1.0
milestone release and critical
praise, Mozilla Firefox is a FOSS (Free/Open Source Software)
package worth trying.
To download or learn more about Mozilla Firefox, visit http://getfirefox.com/.
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Last modified: 12/03/2004