November 18, 2004

FOX YOURSELF:

Mozilla Firefox: The Searcher's Browser (Chris Sherman, November 8, 2004, SearchEngineWatch)

Firefox has emerged as the first browser in years to seriously challenge Internet Explorer—with good reason. Firefox has superior security and anti-scumware features, it works on Windows, Linux, MacOS X and other operating systems, and it's free.

Best of all, Firefox offers lots of goodies for searchers, both through a built-in Google search toolbar, as well as dozens of free extensions created by an active open-source developer community.

This week, I'll be taking a close look at Firefox, reviewing some of the native features that make it a compelling alternative to Internet Explorer. I'll also review my favorite browser extensions that enhance both search and browsing the web.

If you haven't yet tried Firefox, download it now. This link is to the 1.0 "preview release," but this version is very stable and really works like final, production software. The download is a relatively light 4.5 MB, and the program installs quickly, without requiring any type of registration.

During installation, you can also opt to have Firefox import options, bookmarks, browsing history, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer or a previous version of Firefox.

You'll also be asked whether you want to make Firefox your default browser. Although I love Firefox and use it daily, I still keep Internet Explorer as my default browser, because some web sites are designed specifically for IE. If you find that you really prefer Firefox you can always set it to be your default browser later through the options panel.

Once installed, you should have no problem using Firefox.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 18, 2004 8:41 AM
Comments

Great browser. I could sear I saw a demo of a Firefox feature/extension that allows one to sign-on to any of many of those annoying "registration required" sites by accessing a common registration. Does anyone know about this, and how to invoke it?

Posted by: Moe from NC at November 18, 2004 9:58 AM

Moe--

I bet you're thinking of the bookmarklet for Bugmenot, which is, IIRC, also available for IE if you must stick with it. But I use Firefox at home and the Mozilla suite at work--they're terrific.

Posted by: Brian (MN) at November 18, 2004 10:39 AM

They were talking about having a Firefox link to the www.bugmenot.com website, but I didn't see anything in the download last week that connected to that, or any other registration bypass tool.

So far, I've found Firefox pretty similar, but not as laden with extras, as Netscape 7.2 is. It acesses websites at about the same pace, although there are a couple of pages that are aligned for IE browsers, that, like Netscape, it misaligns in the window (usually by making the parameters too wide). But I've had that complaint about websites built with Microsoft tools for the past seven years, so my complaint is with Mr. Gates.

I haven't tried the Thunderbird e-mail program yet that's supposed to go with Firefox, but I'm guessing it's going to be close to what Mozilla 1.7 or Netscape 7.x's programs look like.

Posted by: John at November 18, 2004 10:46 AM

Moe--

I should have looked first. The bookmarklet works very well, but there are also extensions available for both IE and Firefox (not Mozilla). The extensions automatically fill out the registration forms for you. Great stuff.

Posted by: Brian (MN) at November 18, 2004 10:55 AM

John---

A couple of weeks ago there was a Firefox link (extensions, I think) but it has disappeared. Brian (MN) has the author's link.

I suppose it is possible that one or more sites that require the registration dance objected and the Mozilla folks decided to stop linking to the Bugmenot site.

Posted by: Uncle Bill at November 18, 2004 10:55 AM

Thanks all. Installed it and it works.

Posted by: Moe from NC at November 18, 2004 11:13 AM

Since Nov. 9th, the 1.0 full version (not the preview) has been available.

Posted by: jd watson at November 18, 2004 12:04 PM

I have Fedora Core 3 installed which comes with firefox (preview version). I've had some problems with it (crashing and the like) so I can't say that I recommend it. I'll try installing the full version. I've always like Galeon...

Posted by: Bret at November 18, 2004 12:23 PM

I use Firefox on my home computer. Its very good and has a cleaner and better interface than IE. I also use it for the anti-network effect -- since IE is 75% of all browsers and FF is like 1%, viruses, spyware, scumware, etc. are all written for IE not for FF.

Posted by: AML at November 18, 2004 1:30 PM

I switched to Firefox about 4 months ago, and it is great. it blocks popups nearly perfectly, but I like the tabbed browsing the best. you hac be on a page, open a bunch of other pages, and once they are loaded, just hit the tab.

Posted by: John Cunningham at November 18, 2004 2:26 PM

I use IE, Opera and Firefox on a regular basis. I think I'll end up using Opera primarily, because it acts a lot like Firefox but with a number of additional features I find very compelling (such as being able to re-order the tabs).

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at November 19, 2004 1:21 PM
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