One of the cool things about running my own website is getting to see the “back end” of things. I am able to get all kinds of information on my site, who reads it, when they read it, what they click on, how long they visit, and more. I really had no idea that website owners can see this information. It is really very useful, though. I am able to learn about my readers and what they like (and don’t like).
One of the many things that I am able to see is what browser my readers are using. The other day I was looking at the stats and I was astounded to find out that almost half of you still use Internet Explorer. I really, really thought that everyone knew of the advantages of Firefox over Internet Explorer, but apparently, that is not the case.
So, today’s COMPUTER TIPS AND TRICKS is all about Firefox. If you think your web browser doesn’t matter, then keep reading. And if you already use Firefox, then scroll down to see some of the amazing add-ons that will make your web experience even better!
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There is so much information on the web about Firefox and its superior features for safe (and fun!) web browsing. The latest version, Firefox 3, has some truly amazing features. I won’t go into great detail here because there is so much already out there. Do a quick Google search and it is easy to see why more and more people are choosing Firefox (and I really want my readers to be some of them!)
There is a great review of the most recent version of Firefox HERE.
Here is what computer critic Paul Thurrott says about it:
“Mozilla Firefox 3 is the fastest, safest, and most feature-rich Web browser available on any platform and I recommend it to one and all. This is one area where Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux users can simply agree: Firefox is without peer, and regardless of which browser you’re currently using–be it a previous version of Firefox, any version of Internet Explorer, or, heaven forbid, Apple’s buggy Safari–you need to upgrade to Firefox 3 immediately. I recommend Firefox 3 without hesitation and without caveat, as it is one of those very rare software products, and a key tool in my own personal computing arsenal. No software is perfect, but Firefox is close enough. Highly recommended.”
Another in depth review of the top browsers (Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari) while they were all in beta, had this to say: “Firefox remains the best browser on the whole, with great features, impressive improvements all-round, a revised bookmarking system and thousands of add-ons to make it easy to perfectly customize. The improvements in performance are stellar, it’s got some well-integrated features that everyone will use (resumable download manager, tag-ready bookmarking) and it offers, overall, a better, richer Web experience.”
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If you are already using Firefox then here are some great ways to make your use of Firefox even better!
One of my favorite features of Firefox features is the new Star icon. It is located at the end of the address bar, right next to the RSS icon. Click it once to store the page’s URL as a bookmark; click it twice to assign the bookmark to a new or existing folder. You can also give it tags: short keywords to help when searching through your bookmarks. Use the new Library feature to create and store searches. It makes bookmarking so easy!
Firefox is most widely known for its endless ability to customize your browsing experience. Add-on after add-on are available to do some pretty amazing things. I want to show you some of the great ways you can use Firefox. Here are some of the most popular (or just coolest!) ad-ons. Try one (or ten!) today!
Themes: Check out all this cool themes you can have to make your viewing experience better or even just prettier 
Look at my pretty pink browser bar!
Ad block Plus: Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. (Just note that this will disable all banner ads at places like DST so if you like the banners, don’t use this. You CAN disable and enable with a click of a button, though.)
DownThemAll: The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox! (Never be annoyed with multi-part downloads at your favorite scrapping sites again!)
FoxMarks Bookmark Syncronizer: If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you’ll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it works silently in the background to keep your bookmarks and (optionally) passwords synchronized. Foxmarks also keeps your data backed up and safe from computer failures. If you’re away from your computer, Foxmarks allows you to access your bookmarks online by logging into my.foxmarks.com. (Okay, this is so, so, so hot and I just learned about it. Just the other day, I had to get out my laptop and email myself links to some bookmarked sites because I didn’t have them on my desktop. No more of that nonsense for me!)
StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.
Cool Iris: Full-Screen, 3D — Cooliris (formerly PicLens) transforms your browser into a visually stunning, lightning fast way to search, discover, view and share online photos, videos and more. Our unique “3D Wall” lets you effortlessly zoom your way around thousands items on a single, ever-expansive wall. It’s the fastest way to search and enjoy Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, Hulu, and hundreds of other sites. See HERE for a list of all features and supported sites. (Check this out…you can do a search for something like cribs, Hawaii, or alphas and it will bring up images from all over the web in a cool 3D wall of photos. Here is a search I did for “Project 365” with a search in just Flikr.)
WOT: WOT, Web of Trust, warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam. Protect your computer against online threats by using WOT as your front-line layer of protection when browsing or searching in unfamiliar territory. WOT’s color-coded icons show you ratings for 20 million websites – green to go, yellow for caution and red to stop – helping you avoid the dangerous sites. Surf safer and add WOT to your Firefox now.
InterClue: Ever wanted to know what was behind the link before you clicked? Interclue tells you everything you need to know before you open yet another tab.
Read It Later: Read It Later allows you to save pages of interest to read later. It eliminates cluttering of bookmarks with sites that are merely of a one-time interest.
Morning Coffee: Keeps track of daily routine websites and opens them in tabs…(Seriously, could this be any more hot?? I go to the SAME places EVERY day…what a time saver this will be for me!)
PermaTabs: Turn tabs of your choice into permanent tabs. PermaTabs can’t be closed accidentally no matter what you click (even actions like “Close other tabs” will not affect them) and will stick around between sessions.
ColorZilla: With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes.
Session Manager: Session Manager saves and restores the state of all windows – either when you want it or automatically at startup and after crashes. Additionally it offers you to reopen (accidentally) closed windows and tabs.
ColorFul Tabs: The most beautiful yet the simplest add-on that makes a strong colorful appeal. Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface. An essential…
And finally, the IE tab. For those ancient sites that still insist you use IE (because they don’t know how much cooler Firefox is!) you can install the IE tab which eliminates all the other reasons to keep using IE by forcing Firefox to render a page using the Internet Explorer engine. You must have IE installed on your machine for this plug-in to work, but the convenience and saved resources can’t be beaten.
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One thing I LOVE is that I can enable and disable these add-ons with a click of a button. Sometimes I am in the mood and sometimes I am not!
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So, are you convinced yet? There are SO MANY reasons to use Firefox. I hope that you are intrigued enough to try it! If you do it for no other reason…at LEAST do it for security reasons. With anti-malware, parental controls, anti-virus software, clear private data, customize security settings, add-ons, password manager, pop up blocker and MORE, Firefox is by far the safest (and hottest!) way to surf the web!
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Fantastic site Janet!!! I’ve loved reading all your entries. And I adore Firefox- I could not live without stumbleupon- I love it!!!
OK…I am now convinced. Holy cow! I had tried Firefox a couple of years ago and was really rather so-so over it. All these new features are just too cool! Will be dowloading it to my laptop tonight!!
WOW!! I love your new site & all the info. I, too, like many others have been an IE user for years simply because it’s what comes w/ new computers. I heard a lot about Fire Fox, but was afraid I wouldn’t like the change. Well, you convinced me to give it a try & I just downloaded!! I love the auto spell check & am off to explore all the other goodies ;p Thanks & you are now in my Favs. I’ll be back for more!!
Yay, Janet, you are my HERO! As you know from our experience together, IE (especially IE6) is the bane of a web designer’s existence…so much, in fact, that it is affectionately referred to as “the devil” by many in that group. This post should be tagged as a PSA (public service announcement) because Firefox is truly so much better and safer than IE! Thanks for sharing all this great info with your readers!
OMG.. this post was awesome. I love Firefox but I didn’t realize there were so many cool add ons and features. Wow. I am off to get 2 or more of them now. I just have to say, I love this site. This is the best. Thanks.
I like the following addons (Read it Later is my favorite, though!):
- 1-click weather (weather channel weather, in my menu)
- Adblock Plus
- Download Statusbar (puts downloads at bottom on a toolbar showing progress. Way cool!)
- IEView Lite
- Noscript (only allows javascript if you allow the site)
- Tabs Open Relative (new tabs open to the right of current tab instead of at the end)
can I just tell you that I love you for posting all these great firefox addons!! I love firefox and have had wonderful sucess with it and I did not know some of these tips like the star hello that is a huge time saver and the coffee addon wow what could be better thank you thank you
OK! You’ve convinced me… I’m gonna switch! I’ve heard of Firefox, but never checked it out. I made the switch at work yesterday. Today I’ll make the switch at home!
Looks like lots of cool features! Thanks for the window into the world of Firefox!!
I’m impressed with Firefox. I haven’t used it for years. I’ve already noticed a difference in speed. I love the morning coffee cup feature. Off to check off more features. Thanks!
OK OK – you convinced me. Really. I downloaded and installed Firefox last night. You did what no other person, including my DH, has been able to do.
Great entry! I’ve been using Firefox for years because it was “better” according to good friends. I just never knew why! Now I do.
Wow! I am a recent convert to FF and I TOTALLY *HEART* it! Never knew what I was missing out on because I was “used to” IE. Thanks for all the great add-ons! So Many of them will be GREAT for me!
Only problem my DH has with me using Firefox, is that HE has to relog into his stuff all the time (because he has been a devoted FF user for ages!)
Oh wow!! Thanks so much for all the tips! I’ve been using FF for a few months now and had no idea all that stuff was out there!!
I have Firefox on my girls’ computer and have a parental controls plugin that works from a “WHITE LIST” — meaning they can only open sites that are ON the list. I *love* that! So much can happen with a “black list” and something sneak through. But this control totally rocks my world for their computer…just an added bit of safety for them.
I too love my Firefox.
Another addon to check out, especially for multiple tab addicts like myself: Taboo, and Tab Mix Plus.
Thanks for the tips! Although I’ve used Firefox for a while, I didn’t know about some of those add-ons – thank you!
Thanks so much for this post. I’ve been using firefox for a while and never even knew what the star was for. I also love the “morning coffee” plug-in. I added “the daily digi” to my daily reading. I also added a few of the other plug-ins. Looking forward to future posts.
Everyone laughs at me because I still use IE! I’m just so used to it it seems easier. But, I think I am ready to make the change over….you are the straw that broke the camels back!!
My DH ^
Thanks for the tips on the addons, I’m going to check some of them out.
From what I’ve heard, Google’s new Chrome browser is faster than Firefox – at least in terms of Javascript performance by a wide margin. I’ve used it and like it a lot. I can’t leave Firefox though because I’d miss my addons too much.
Chrome is Windows only for now, but will be cross platform in the first half of 2009.
One thing it’s great for is I use Chrome if I’m on my wife’s computer. That way I don’t have to disturb her gmail session and I don’t have to use IE!
I tried FF about a month ago and it wouldnt let me log into a site i visit everyday (many times), so I deleted it. After reading about the IE Tab, I have just reinstalled it and WOOT now I can get into my fav website! Thank you!!
You have talked me into it! Thanks for “showing me the light”!!!!
I love FF but I use hardly any add-ons, so I’m off to try out that Coffee one and maybe go all pink!
Oh haha. I think I’ve heard of Stumble on in passing but never tried it and now I’m hooked. Firefox, making it easier for people everywhere to idle away time. (Because we all need help there huh?)
I have been using Firefox for about a year but never tried the add ons until now….. thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
Thanks so much for this awesome post! I’m already a Firefox user, but some of these add-ons are new to me. Thanks so much for helping make my Firefox experience even better!!!
And FF gives you the option of importing your IE bookmarks. The one drawback is if you had the orgainized a certain way, they’re not after the transfer, but they’re all moved over!!!
DH already had us switched to FF for a couple of weeks & I knew about some of these options but some of them you highlighted are just way too stinkin cool! Yeah, he’s going to be very surprised when he gets on here & sees a pink browser. hehe Keep up the awesome work!! Oh…have you gotten a blinkie yet? I’d love to be able to sport a fan blinkie & link back to you!!
I agree with you EXCEPT for one thing… I cannot edit my website ( a tripod site) using Firefox. I have to use IE. I can upload pictures and edit them but not text. We wish we knew why
Wow, where have I been. I have only been using IE because well, that’s what comes on the computers when you buy them
Your post has made me want to try Firefox however I do have the concern posted above. How to move my favorites from IE to Firefox w/o doing it one by one. Hopefully there is an easy way for that.
I read my blogs at work, where I’m stuck using IE 6!
But I”m all FF and Mac at home
Also, what Erin-Joi said- I read using Google Reader, so you won’t “register” me unless I go directly to your site to leave a comment.
Enjoying things so far!
I have two not quite related comments
1. I love seeing all of the information about the visitors too. I have found out thought that some of the visitors to blogs are not recorded. I read blogs by reading their RSS feeds. As such I do not go to the blog itself unless I am posting a comment. I checked this with my husband’s blog. When I read his feed, his stats did not capture my visit. He is using three different stat counters and none of them captured it. When I clicked to leave him a comment, they all caught it.
2. Even with Firefox’s IE tab, some of us still have no choice about using IE. My work and my husband’s recent work (he was laid off) still have a lot of internal sites which will not work with anything but IE. This very much annoyed my husband because, like you, he is a very big fan of Firefox. Since he was writing web code for the company, he tried to get things changed but no chance.
Thanks for the great info you are giving every day!
Erin-Joi
Janet, you blow me away daily. I’ve been using Firefox for a couple of years and I was going to just skip this post. Then I saw the bottom half was ways to make it better. I love the colored browser bar and the colorful tabs! I did not know about those! I’m off to get all colorful
Thanks for always having something new & exciting to read!!!!!!! hehee
Ok dokey…you’ve convinced me to give it another try. Off to download!
Thank you so much for the information!
Im excited to start using some of the ad ons! I currently use the life feeds feature and it is FABULOUS!
Where have I been?!?!?
You’ve convinced me … I’ll make the switch this weekend. Thanks, Janet!
WOW!!! I have been using FF for a couple of years now and had no clue about some of this stuff…namely what that little star was capable of doing! LOL!!! Thank you so much!
Hi Janet,
My mom has been bugging me to switch to Firefox too (I actually have it on my computer and do use it when my IE crashes (which is quite often, frustratingly enough). I am wondering if you have any tips on how to easily transfer ALL of my favorites/bookmarks to Firefox from IE?? That is my main reason for not wanting to switch…I know that might be a pathetic reason, but I just don’t think I can go and add them all back in one by one! It would take WAY too long. Thanks! Love your new site, by the way! Thanks for doing it!
Firefox remembers me the dark ages when I didn’t have internet at home and I needed to check my e-mails in the library. There was just Firefox there. Since Google Chrome was realesed I use it, I am Google fan, however my main e-mail is Yahoo one.
While I knew that firefox was much better than internet explorer (my husband is a computer person), I usually don’t take the time to check out add-on. The ones you highlighted are really cool, especially the “Read it later” and “Morning Coffee” ones. Thanks so much, Janet!
What a GREAT post! I didn’t know about half those add-ons and now I have a ton of new stuff to try out! Thanks!!
Okay, I use FF and didn’t know most of that info! Thanks for all the great links!
Oh yeah–I should mention one thing I love about FF…it has spell check built in!!! That is so very cool and helpful! One of my fave things about FF
I switched a while back, and I have to say that I wish the interface was more like IE. I really preferred how IE did the favorites/bookmarks. I can’t stand all the drop down windows then creating new little windows of each folder. But THANK YOU for all the cool tips. I will check some of these out! They look like fun!!!
Wow! I do use Firefox, but haven’t taken the time to investigate all the cool things. Thank you so much for highlighting these…..the browsing experience will be so much better!
Very cool, Janet! Thanks for the info. I have FF installed because my on-line classes require it, but I’ve never really explored it. I will definitely check it out – I like to make things “mine” LOL!
I love add-ons! You mentioned several that I already have and love. Other ones I like include
Clippings (for saving snippets of things you type over and over); CustomizeGoogle (which gets rid of Google ads and other stuff); FoxClocks (let’s you add small clocks from around the world on your statusbar); GCal popup (open your Gcalendar as an overlay on any page); Sxipper (keeps passwords and fills forms); Tab X (makes every tab have a X button); Wired Marker (puts “permanent” highlighter on web pages.)
Gee…and that’s only a few I have installed. *snork!*
Thanks so much for the tip! I just recently switched to firefox…i know i know…and can’t believe I didn’t do it before! I’m off to grab some add ons!