As a web designer and developer, I have a handful of browsers to test sites for compatibility. But which browser do I use on a daily basis? I've switched to FireFox for productive reasons, some of which you may find useful for your online tasks.
1) Tabbed Browsing and Save Session
Browsing with tabs has been a real time saver. I generally have several windows I have to work with. My Twitter Dashboard, Web Site Editor, the web site I am working on, Gmail, and an active search. Rather than having that many windows open to switch back and forth to, I simply click between tabs.
Save Session is great. If Firefox unexpectedly closes, you don’t have to spend time recovering data or retracing your steps through the Web. If you’re in the middle of typing an email, you’ll pick up where you left off, even down to the last word you typed. Session Restore instantly brings back your windows and tabs, restoring text you entered and any in-progress downloads. With the Save Session on Exit feature added, I can close FireFox at any stopping point and return to that exact place when I return, including all the tabs I had running at the time.
2) Ad Block Plus
We are all annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page. Adblock Plus is a great plugin that gets rid of them. You can right-click on a banner and choose "Adblock" from the context menu — and the banner won’t be downloaded again. With a filter subscription, even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully and automatically.
You might also note that you can set Ad Block Plus to allow ads on specific web sites you choose. Quite often the related content on certain web sites can be important and relevant to your interests.
3) Customization
FireFox allows you to install Add-on's that can improve your productivity as well. For example, as I work throughout the day online, I have Add-ons that alert me to events that may require my attention. There are Add-on's that track your bids on eBay, alert you to updates on your favorite web sites, give you a live feed of activity from all of your social networks and more.
4) Security
An independent study shows that, in 2006, IE users were vulnerable to online threats 78% of the time. Firefox users? Only 2%. Over time Explorer has been attacked by so many threats that rumor has it, version 8 may be the last Explorer browser offered. With Microsoft seemingly always a target for hacks and cracks, FireFox has been a much more comfortable browser to use in my opinion.
5) Productive Features
One-Click Bookmarking allows you to bookmark, search and organize web sites quickly and easily. You can view web pages faster, using less of your computer’s memory. Smart Location Bar let's you find the sites you love in seconds — enter a term for instant matches that make sense. The Password Manager allows you to remember site passwords without ever seeing a pop-up.
And those are just a few. Using FireFox in combination with many online tools from Google and other parties, I can manage to fit what used to be a 12 to 14 hour day into an 8 hour day based on improved task management, automation, ease of use and speed.
5 Reasons I've Been Using FireFox
