Firefox VS IE

Any webmaster can tell you how frustrating it is to build a web site around IE (short for Internet Explorer, which is the default internet browsing software that comes with your Windows installation). And yes, web browsers are made differently.

Years back, when I first started my internet subscription, I used IE. Back then, Firefox was still an unfertilized egg. But quickly, Firefox was born and it blossomed beyond IE. I recall being part of the skeptical lot. I was comfortable with IE and did not want to make the switch. But I did anyway - just to try it out. I’ve never looked back since.

Firefox is a web browser with a big edge over IE. This of course, is my opinion. But those who have used Firefox and tried going back to IE will echo my opinion. How sure am I? 110%. It’s a given - Firefox is safer, more stable, more extensible, and makes my website look better.

Safer: Heard about some malicious script running without your consent? My experience with Firefox so far has been smooth. Yep, it blocks popups as well.

More stable: Something like consistency in processing the HTML code. I don’t know how to explain it, but I can give you a feel of what it is like. You can check it out by following these steps:

Step 1:

Step 2: Install it and it won’t take long. Don’t even need to restart your computer. (You can keep your IE window open)

Step 3: Open Firefox and IE (the old window) and go to my website blog. Copy and paste this into the Firefox address bar: www.nobslaunchpad.com/blog

Step 4: Use your mouse and hover over the links in the blue box just above this entry. What do you see?

Let me tell you this: there is absolutely nothing wrong with the HTML code used to build this webpage. IE just does not respond as stably as Firefox. It has been reported so far that other browsers like Opera, Safari, Lynx are fairly stable in processing webpages, alongside with Firefox, and the complaints just keep coming up with IE.

Firefox - A Short Introduction

Now that you have Firefox, let me take you through a short walk. You should be looking at these words using your Firefox browser now. Follow the steps:

Step 1: Press CTRL-T. This will open a new tab just below the address bar. Can you see that your windows taskbar (the bar next to your start button) is not cluttered with windows anymore?

Step 2: Press CTRL-D. This will bookmark a page (ok, this function is just like IE’s).

Step 3: Open your favorite pages with an ‘S’ and go to Tools> Options> General. Under Homepage, click on “Use Current Pages”. Now, everytime you start Firefox, all these pages will load automatically. Yes, that means you can have many homepages, with an ‘S’.

All the usual buttons are in the right places - back, forward, refresh, stop and homepage. With the Google Toolbar, you can search directly from the toolbar and even view the PageRank of the webpage. It can also memorize your usernames and passwords from the different sites, if you give it permission to. If you want more functions, you can get them at Tools> Extensions> Get More Extensions (a blue link at the right bottom corner).

My Recommended Extensions

TabMix - Allows you to double-click to open or close a tab (and other features).
NoScript - For extra protection against malicious scripts.
MouseGestures - Using the mouse to navigate (by writing), for the fun of it.
FootieFox - Must-have for all soccer fans: it updates you with the latest scores.
Gmail Notifier - For those with Gmail accounts.
DictionarySearch - Looks up a selected word in an online dictionary. Very cool.
… just to name a few. Search for your favorites!

My choice is Firefox anytime and everytime over IE. If it ain’t that good, I wouldn’t be telling it to you. Things might change 5 years down the road, but for now, tabbed browsing is the way to go!