Firefox Screams Ahead in the Browser Market
Are you sick and tired of the latest security hole in Internet Explorer, having to download popup stoppers and having to actually go to Google to do your searches? Well if so you are in luck and if you haven't heard about the latest, and probably most qualified entry to the browser market, known as Firefox I implore you to stop reading this article right now and go to Mozilla.org, download it and install it. If you are involved in any kind of web development you need Firefox and you need it now!
Security worries no more
So what's so great about this browser you ask. Where do I start. The one blaring thing that's right at the top of the list of reasons is the fact that it has none of the
security holes IE is famous for, literally you can start surfing and stop worrying again. This browser is what is known as an
Open Source
project which, unlike Microsoft's top secret code, has been looked at, tested and tested again by literally thousands of programmers. To the average
person this might not seem like a great idea. I have had people ask me Why would you want to let everyone see the code, won't that make it easier for them to hack into it?
You might think that but remember those eyes that are looking for those security holes are there to fix them, all those programmers look at code differently and what one set of eyes
doesn't see another will.
Toys, Toys & More Toys
So that really should be enough to get anyone to switch but there is more. Those tricky folks over at Mozilla have also included a built in popup stopper that works better than any, including the Google toolbar, I have ever seen. I haven't seen a pop up in so long I'm actually starting to forget what they are like. As if that wasn't enough they have also built in a search box that allows you to search via Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Dictionary.com AND you can add any other search engine you wish. Say goodbye to search engine home pages! Want to find something on a given page? Just hit control F and a search box pops up in the bottom of the browser window to enter your search along with a find next, find previous, highlight (my favorite) and match case button. This thing is just SO well laid out and packed with features it boggles the mind. If you're not happy with the standard features you can download any of the thousands of extensions, themes or plug ins that have been created by the wonderful open source community to do just about anything you can possibly imagine. Cost? Not one thin dime! We do though recommend any donation you can offer to the Mozilla foundation to keep this wonderful project running full steam ahead without the influence of large corporations, they'll just screw it up.
Standards Compliant
Now comes the important part, and if you have read any of this website or the other tutorials you probably know by this point that we are very big advocates on browser standards
and the advancement of the web as a tool that can be used by multiple devices and computers and work correctly in them. Firefox is THE most standards compliant browser available today.
What does that mean to the average user? Well it means that you can be assured you are seeing what the developer wanted you to see and in the proper format without tons of
hacked
code in an attempt to fix a bad browser. It means pages that are built in standards compliant mode will download faster and eventually developing websites will become
less expensive and the prices these websites charge you to use them SHOULD also come down. There are amazing things that can be done with a website that 99% of the world
has never seen because the browser they are running is either not up to standards or decided they didn't want to play by the rules
Firefox has put an end to that.
Tools For Web Developers
If you're a web developer, designer or programmer and are using anything else to develop your websites you are missing one of the most powerful developer tools ever invented. The Web Developer bar for Firefox, created by Chris Pederick gives you everything you could ever want to build websites! From the ability to validate your code offline to debugging JavaScript this tool has it all. None of our staff will work without it! You will however get so spoiled by this browser and it's goodies you are guaranteed to become an Internet Explorer hater in days!
A No Lose Proposition
In our opinion Firefox is the standard that all the other browsers must catch up too. Unfortunately Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has decided NOT to release any new version of
Internet Explorer until 2006, when their new operating system is due to ship. By that time I really wonder if anyone will even care about IE. The time to take back the web
is now
and watching the statistics for IE users (under 90% for the first time ever) the world is ready to do just that. If you like the web but hate the problems Firefox is the browser for you!
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