Apart from the source code being freely available and modifiable  (and even distributable), this browser provides hooks for third  party customization via themes, extensions, search engines and plug- ins.

Themes provide the browser with a specific look and feel, similar  to the way Filipinos love to "mod" (geekspeak for modify) their  mobile phones by changing the casing. With close to 150 themes  available on the Mozilla add-ons site, I am sure that you are bound  to find one or two that you'll fancy. Personally, I use two themes  - NOIA and Grapple (eos pro).

Search engines on web browsers allow users to simply type in their  keywords on a text field and then automatically use that particular  search engine to do its web search. Firefox provides users options  to search using Amazon's A9 search engine to search Amazon.com's  collections, ESPN for sports related topics, Odeo for podcasts, AOL  and MSN as alternatives to Google, the default search engine of  Firefox. In addition, you can use IMDB for movie related searches,  Merriam-Webster for English dictionary and a whole lot more. I just  use the default Google search bar. :)

Plug-ins provide browsers will more functionality. Instead of  building these features into the browser and making it a bloatware  instead of a compact download, Firefox allows you to open and  display PDF files on the browser itself by the Acrobat Reader plug- in. More popular plug-ins are Flash Player. Shockwave, Java,  QuickTime, RealPlayer and for those who have not switched to Mac or  Linux yet, the Windows Media Player plug-in. My Firefox is enhanced  with all of these plug-ins except for RealPlayer and Windows Media  Player, for obvious reasons - ok, not so obvious, but I no longer  use RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. I have plug-ins that  support these formats.

In addition to plug-ins, extensions provide users with a unique  browsing experience. With more than 800 extensions registered at  the Mozilla site, it is not uncommon for users to use a lot of  these extensions. Top ten extensions listed to date include  FlashGot (download manager), NoScript (javascript, etc. manager),  Adblock (obviously an ad filter), FasterFox (performance and  network optimizer), Forecastfox (weather forecasts), Tabbrowser  Preferences (tabbed browsing manager), PDF Download (manages  whether you want PDF files downloaded or displayed within the  browser), IE View (for those non-standards compliant stubborn  websites that still only supports IE), StumbleUpon (a websurfer's  companion) and FoxyTunes (media player controller).

So what are installed on my Firefox? Well, in addition to the  default DOM Inspector (XML inspector) and Talkback (crash reporter  to Mozilla.org), I have installed Tab X (adds a close button to  each of the tabs), foXpose (Expose for Firefox - if you are still a  non-Mac user, refer to http://www.apple.com/macosx to find out what  Expose is all about hehehe) and Stop-or-Reload Button (integrates  stop and reload buttons into a single one). I have not checked if  these extensions are only for the Mac version of Firefox but I am  sure that you can easily verify. And oh, since I am using more  superior operating systems like Mac OS X and Linux, I need not  worry about those stuff that Windows users worry about (crashing,  mostly heheheh) but for sure, there are extensions to prevent  websites from messing up with your computer system.

Firefox, however, is not without flaws. One identified flaw is its  non-compliance to the ACID2 standard. I wrote about this in my last  article and Firefox 1.5 still does not support it. So far, only  Apple's Safari renders it correctly.

In addition, Mac users find that Firefox eats up a lot of memory if  you select a portion of text on the browser. This is a bug, for  sure. Similarly, other users find that Firefox uses more memory  when you have two tabs open. However, there are remedies to these  problems that can easily be dugg (http://www.digg.com) or googled  (http://google.com).

Inspite of these flaws, Firefox still continues to be one of the  fastest, if not THE fastest, web browser on the planet today!  Browsers such as Flock and Camino, which uses the same rendering  engine, may be optimized for speed but the expandability of Firefox  still makes it a preferred browser.

So, when are you ditching MS IE for Firefox? Again, I put this  challenge to web application developers out there - make your web  site standards-compliant and certify that it works on Firefox! That  means you, Bank of the Philippine Islands! Of course, there are  still other sites out there that have stubborn web developers who  refuse to conform with standards. Oh well...