Get Firefox

Are you using Firefox for your web surfing? Firefox is the up-and-coming web browser, perhaps someday replacing the monopolistic Microsoft Internet Explorer. There are many things to like about Firefox, other than that it's not from Microsoft. For me especially the list of Firefox features includes search suggestion, RSS, and cool plugins/extensions such as VideoDownloader.

Nowadays most web browsers have a built-in search field where you can enter what you want to find and press Enter. No more going to Google first. With Firefox 2.0, as soon as you type a few letters into the search field, Firefox lists some suggestions, and usually its first suggestion matches what I want. Amazing! It probably has something to do with how popular the search term is, but still interesting.

RSS is the ability to subscribe to a web site. You end up having a button, sort of like a Favorite or Bookmark, but when clicked on reveals a list of recent entries to the web site. I subscribe to my sister's blog and now finding out if she updated her site is just a click away.

I installed VideoDownloader extension some time ago but never had any use for it. I probably read in some list of 10 Firefox Extensions You Must Have. VideoDownloader makes it easy to save a copy of a video seen on the web, which these days are mostly in Flash format, thanks to YouTube. A friend told me that he liked some old cartoon show on YouTube and would like to have a copy of it on his hard drive but didn't know how to do it. I visited the cartoon clip, clicked on the button that VideoDownloader added to the Firefox window, and clicked on the Get Video button. One more click to confirm that download and off it went. Some time later, I had the entire 50+ MB of the video on my hard drive. Maybe there is something else out there for MS IE 7 to do what VideoDownloader does, but I sure like the way it's implemented in Firefox.

I've joined the marketing group for Firefox , SpreadFirefox.com . I added a Get Firefox button to the sidebar of this blog. If you decide to go with Firefox, use the button to download and I'll get some points with SpreadFirefox. Hopefully enough points will be accumulated to convert into prizes, whatever they are. Happy Firefox Web Surfing!