It is a web browser, just like Internet Explorer or Safari. If you can see this page, you used a web browser to get here.
WHY IS IT SO GREAT?
Mozilla Firefox, also known just as Firefox, is a pretty innovative web browser. The code responsible for this program is open-source, which means that anyone can view it. This encourages a lot of creativity within the web browser community, and there are more add-ons and useful features then you can shake a stick at. There are add-ons to play music, check the weather, make page fonts larger, or to check news sites! If Internet Explorer is a train- chugging along, gets you where you want to go- then Firefox is a VW Bug. It's fun, speedy, efficient, comes with great features, and- much like the spherical design of the Bug- it is actually very safe. Firefox is much less vulnerable to viruses transmitted on the web.
HOW WOULD I USE FIREFOX?
Firefox is great at managing multiple pages open at once. It uses tabs to help you control your pages. Think of a manila folder- the tabs at the top tell you what's inside, even though all the files are in the same drawer. Think of one Firefox window as a drawer capable of holding many tabbed files. Right now I actually have four tabs open at once, but flipping between them is as easy as pie! In comparison, most versions of Internet Explorer can only open one page per window. This forces your desktop toolbar to become very crowded and it can be difficult to remember which page is where when there is a bunch of clutter on your toolbar. Fireox eliminates that.
Another neat thing with Firefox is its close relationship with RSS feeds.* If you like reading news online or if you follow any blogs, Firefox makes it very easy to check the most recent headlines without actually visiting the page. There are also bookmark buttons that are very convienent to use. Instead of going to a Favorites menu, like in Explorer, you can press a button and voila! You are at your favorite website.
*note: RSS feeds give you a menu that tells you what the headlines on a page are. For instance, CNN.com publishes an RSS feed that will show you what the top headlines are without making you go to CNN.com. See the photo example below for an example of RSS feed headline-checking in action!
One of my favorite features is the built-in search bar. If you like to search on Google, or if you use Wikipedia, or Yahoo!, or Amazon.com, then the built-in search bar will be very useful to you. It actually suggests items for you to look up once you start typing in the box, too! So if I were start typing "oba," a little drop-down list would pop up and suggest things like "obama for president" and "obama muslim." These suggestions are based on popular searches, so even though Barack Obama is not a muslim, clearly a lot of people have been checking this on Google.com!
CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE FIREFOX IN ACTION
WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FIREFOX?
Firefox is a very hip way to surf the web. It is also the second most popular web browser in the world. In fact, when the latest version was released, it set a world record for most downloads in one day! So if you come across any college students, chances are good that they use Firefox. People in technology industry also like Firefox because it is more secure than Explorer- you can get fewer viruses and pop-up ads with Mozilla Firefox.
I hope this has been illuminating. No longer will you read a paper and wonder, what is a firefox? Maybe you will even abandon Internet Explorer in favor of something a little sleeker. As GI Joe and Sir Francis Bacon have said, Knowledge is Power!
If you are interested in downloading it, you can visit www.mozilla.com/firefox
1 comment:
sweet blog.
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