Firefox

Many people use only the web browser that came with their computer. If you are a Windows user that browser is Internet Explorer. If you are a Mac user, that browser is Safari. (If you are a Linux user - you know all about alternate browsers and don't need this article!) But there are other browsers out there that many people prefer to the pre-installed browser for many reasons.

First - a little vocabulary lesson.

Browser

A browser is a computer program - or application - that you use to access the internet. whether you are viewing videos on YouTube or visiting your favorite Cooking site - you are are using a browser when you browse the internet.

Three other popluar browsers are: Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. This artile will focus on Firefox. You can download a free copy of Firefox here. Follow the directions to install it on your computer. To use it, be sure you select it or change your default browser settings to Firefox. It will ask you to make it the default the first time you double click it. Otherwise, just clicking on a URL will just launch your previous (default) browser.

Why use Firefox?

There are several reasons people like Firefox. The biggest reason is that it is highly customizable. You can change how it looks via skins and themes. You can add plug-ins that do all kinds of extra things. One of my favorites is vertical tabs. I tend to have lots and lots of web pages open at one time. Tabbed browsing was a great advancement because now I don't have to have multiple windows open - but I do run out of space for new tabs across the top very quickly. With vertical tabs, I can have my tabs go down the side. I can even have them in collapsible folders just like the Explorer (Win) or Finder (Mac). Very nice. Check out the hundreds of add-ons here.