I love change and I embrace it wholeheartedly always looking forward to the challenges it would bring. As a matter of fact, the last book I bought besides Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix was Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, an international bestseller that discusses change from the perspective of two mice.
And so one day after reading about the availability of different browsers that were better than Internet Explorer, I decided to give them a try.
I’ve long read about Mozilla and how much better its browser is than Netscaper Navigator and IE. Now it has developed another browser called Firefox 1.0. A browser is software used to view web documents.
I lost no time downloading the software, which was pretty quick, proceeded to install it, and then used it. Upon opening the application I immediately noticed a different toolbar – the icons had colors!
Other than the colors, there’s more to Firefox. The Bookmarks, like that of Netscape and the equivalent of Favorites in IE, allows a glance at the headlines from your favorite websites like RSS (Rich Site Summary) and blogs and is frequently updated. It also automatically imported the websites stored in the Favorites folder of IE.
Another cool feature of Firefox is that it allows for Tabbed browsing, which I find very convenient. In Tabbed browsing, web pages are downloaded in tabs within the same browser window, which facilitates switching back and forth among multiple web pages. I had previously arranged websites I frequent in folders and by simply selecting the “Open in Tabs” option all the web sites loaded at the same time. Now I load all my e-mail accounts in one browser window and switch e-mails in a breeze without signing out.
This feature works well in using a search engine, too. Once the search results are displayed, right click on the link and choose “Open in Tabs” then browse the web page and go back to the search results page easily. This is way much better that opening a link in a new window.
In IE, only one Home Page can be saved but with Firefox, tabbed websites can be saved as Home Pages. In IE, there is only one default search engine but in Firefox, a pull down menu on the toolbar lists different search engines and a user can add more to the list. In using IE for my Yahoo mail, I view attachments in HTML but with Firefox, I can view attachments using an appropriate application.
Other customizable features of Firefox are its Themes and Extensions. Themes are different designs for the browser and there are a lot to choose from, which users rate. I changed mine from the dull gray background to the popular “Walnut” so now my browser looks like it’s made of wood. The Extensions, on the other hand, are add-ons that add functionality to the browser. I have yet to see how they work.
So if you seem tired of seeing the same gray browser and feel that you need a change of scenery, go ahead and make that change. Have fun customizing your browser.
