Released in late 2004, Firefox is a web browser managed and developed by Mozilla. It brought revolution in the world of browsers which was dominated by Internet Explorer, a web browser managed and developed by Microsoft.
Prior to Firefox, I was using Internet Explorer as the primary web browser even though Netscape and opera were quite popular too during those days. When I first came across Firefox browser while surfing at a friends place, I was pretty impressed by the speed and ease of use of this browser. Ever since, I switched to Firefox and there was no looking back. Firefox improved in terms of functionality and user friendliness with the upgrading of version over the past few years.
Here are some of the vital features of Firefox:
Speed: Yes, this is the main feature that makes Firefox beat all the other browsers in terms of popularity. With its lightning fast speed, it surely makes our surfing experience more enjoyable. This was one of the reasons that made me shift from IE to Firefox. These days Google Chrome is giving a good fight in terms of speed and claims to be faster than firefox.
Open source: Firefox is an open source software. It means that we can make changes in the configuration and source code as per our requirements. We can tweak the setting by working in the developer mode. We can also modify the source code as per our needs.
Tabbed browsing: This feature enables us to surf the internet within a single window but different tabs. It is much convenient that opening each website on a different window. It provides flexibility as well as ease of use. A new tab can be opened by pressing ctrl+t or by clicking on the plus sign at the end of the last tab.
Add-ons: Firefox offers a lot many add-ons than IE and Opera. A few of the add-ons and plugins that I use are as follows:
a. A few days earlier, I was tempted by the speed dial feature of Opera browser. Speed dial allows us to select our favorite sites and add them as thumbnails to a grid. So whenever we open the browser, we see all the thumbnail pictures of our favorite sites on a grid and browse them with the click of a button. No need to enter the the site address all the time. I was not inclined to change my browser only for this feature and fortunately I found out that Firefox offers the speed dial feature too! We just have to install the add-on for speed dial! Amazing!
b. Another great add-on is the ABP ad blocker. This add-on serves as an ad blocker by filtering out the flash ads and the pop up ads from the website we visit. It ensures advertisement free browsing and blocks all the unwanted pop-ups that most of the other browsers cant block.
c. Downloadthemall!: This add-on ensures effective download management. We can pause active downloads and resume them whenever we want. The downloading starts from where we left it. There is no need to restart it.
5. Security: Firefox offers great security to users. It verifies the authenticity of the security certificate of websites. Its security standard is based on the secured socket layer and it also follows certain cryptographic standards for ensuring fool proof security for the end user. I have received security warnings several times and firefox automatically blocked the harmful websites.
Themes: Users can change the theme and look of firefox according to their taste. I am currently using the Japanese Tattoo theme. :-)
Other features: The latest version of Firefox ie. 3.6.10 offers more features such as spell checking and improved privacy settings. We can use firefox safely for banking transactions by disabling cookies and clearing the cache. The clear private data option in to tools tab ensures enhanced privacy.
Almost everything is perfect with firefox but there is one problem that I would like to share with you all. Firefox sometimes freezes while handling java scripts. I dont know if its a bug but this is the only minor problem I have been facing with this browser.
Overall, I will recommend firefox to all who want to experience lightning speed while surfing the net. I have not used google chrome as yet so I cant say whether it offers better speed than firefox or not.
Do share your valuable views about firefox browser.