If you have been using the Internet for a while, you may have heard this catch-cry before, “Get a better browser!!” from web developers and users alike, and one of those browsers they would be referring to is Mozilla’s Firefox. One of the best known and supported free web browsers on the market, Mozilla’s FireFox was first introduced in 2004 and now is used by more than 30% of all web users and is a favourite amongst developers.
Mozilla FireFox is released as open source by the Mozilla Organisation, and with a large backing of volunteers and paid developers sports the following functionality
- An auto-complete address bar functionality. This allows you to start typing a web URL in the address bar and a list of similar previously browsed sites will populate.
- Tabbed browsing, which has become a common feature in most web browsers.
- A minimalistic display, reducing all menu items into one button. This can be easily be changed to display a full menu bar through the options menu item.
- App Tabs, allows sites that you have permanently open to be kept in a reduce web tab at the top of the browser. Handy for sites like Facebook, twitter and your web mail.
- A great sync feature between your mobile phone (running FireFox mobile) and your computer, where you can sync browsing history, passwords, bookmarks and more.
- Common browser functions like Auto-complete, password manager, pop-up blockers and easy search in the toolbar to simplify web browsing.
- Other features include offline browsing, page zoom, RSS feeder and more.
Most web browsers do support the above functionality in one way or another, but what makes FireFox stand out are
- Its speed, from its super fast start up time to fast page load speeds.
- The thousands of add-ons available to customize the web browser, from modifying the skin of the web browser through to extra functionality
If you are running the default installed web browser on your computer, then looking to upgrade to FireFox is well worth considering. The little extra time it takes to familiarize yourself with the new layout, will be made up for in a faster and more enjoyable web browsing experience.
You can find out more information about FireFox and download from the Mozilla Website.
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