It is interesting to know that Firefox is the second most used browser behind Internet Explorer. From CNET’s Worldwide Browser Usage Share report released a few days back, Firefox holds 22.8% share of the market, which means that 1 in every 5 users use Firefox as his or her preferred web browser.
Internet Explorer has been around for so long such that when other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome and Safari came out in the market, I was so used to and satisfied with IE that I wondered why anyone would bother to download new browsers which to me were like… treading into unknown waters.
I don’t remember why I eventually used Firefox but while I have always been satisfied with Internet Explorer and think that it is good, I found that Firefox is actually better. Let me tell you why I favor Firefox:
#1 – Auto-complete Function
I’d say that this is the main reason why I am so greatly fond of Firefox. I don’t have to type the complete URL of the website that I want to go to in the location bar; I just need to type the little that I have and Firefox will complete it for me. It’s great because I can’t always remember the full website address and of course, I don’t want to type the whole thing out even if I do.
How does Firefox do this? It searches for possible matches from your browsing history as well as those that you have bookmarked and tagged. These are all saved as archives in the library. This feature is definitely handy and convenient, and of course, speeds things up very much too.
#2 – Tags and bookmarks to organize favorite websites
Tagging bookmarks is easy; just click twice on the star that’s located at the end of the location bar. Tagging bookmarks according to their respective categories makes it easier for me to find my favorite sites in the future. Smart Bookmarks will even allow you to access websites according to those that you have newly bookmarked, most visited or newly tagged. You can even choose where to save these bookmarks.
It isn’t a problem too if I want to give several tags to a website. This concept is similar to the tags that we labeled our blog posts. Just as a simple example, the website cnn.com can be tagged “news” as well as “world sport”, making the website listed under both categories when I want to access it later.
#3 – Security on the Internet
Firefox has advanced built-in security measures that protect the users’ computers from Trojan horses and spy wares. There is also a color-coded system that alert users of suspicious sites to prevent fraud. This is especially handy when performing online financial transactions and trading.
A high level of privacy can be established on Firefox if you want to. You can choose to delete a particular website visit from the browsing history or simply clear the entire history. You could even turn on the “private browsing” feature and no one would ever know where you had been!
#4 – High speed
Firefox is touted to have the best speed for downloading. Although I have not used other browsers such Chrome and Safari much, I’d say that the speed is definitely better than IE’s. A list of all downloads even appear in a table where you can delete or move them easily.
There has been claims that Opera is pretty speedy too. I have yet to give that a try… we will see when I get a chance to do that.
#5 – Customizable extensions
These extensions are add-ons that are created by users to allow you to customize your Firefox browser to your liking. Add-ons allow you to do things like recovering lost data if the browser crashes, having extra security features and having more functionality. I think of them as little “Firefox applications”; you can simply search for them and download the ones that you want.
So, there you are. My favorite web browser is Firefox. I suggest that if you haven’t tried Firefox out (is that likely at all?), give it a try… After all, it definitely has something that made it the second most popular web browser in the world.
I know this post is a couple of years old now, but I would still like to comment that Chrome is much better than Firefox, although it is susceptible to a few bugs from time to time.
To be honest, I use Chrome more now than Firefox. It's just better. But I still do use Firefox occasionally, since not all the plugins that I use are available on Chrome. I'm not saying that Firefox is a bad browser but it's just that Chrome has better overall features, and the selling point is that it loads way faster.
Firefox is rocking …
Recently I have checked out the statistics of firefox with Chrome
I am afraid that for sure chrome will cross firefox in couple of years
In a couple of years?… that’s a little long.
FireFox is my favorite browser if I need an application based work online.
Cool reasons….firefox is mine favorite too….
these all features are also present in Google Chrome..i was also a addict of Firefox but when tried chorme had to leave firefox..
But FireFox has many more plugins than Chrome which increase its functionality times.
Well, for me Chrome has always performed good. I had been using Firefox for past many years but after using Chrome, I had no intention to try Firefox again. Firefox startup was not slow in my case, but on most occasions I found that there was some lag while scrolling on many sites which uses heavy graphics or many JavaScript widgets. Moreover, the jQuery sliders as used in many blogs also seemed to be on the slower side while the same worked perfectly well for Chrome.
ff losing its popularity, chrome challenging ff, the main drawback of ff is the slow start
I do notice this too, Firefox seems to take a while to start up these days, especially on one of my laptop.
Yeah. Firefox takes time in startup but Chrome is too rapid.
Now a days there is fight between firefox and chrome. This is in my mind.
I use both and am more getting inclined towards chrome.
RockMeIt? Many bloggers reviewed this browser some time ago, but now seems like it’s quiet again… anyone using it?
I think points #1, #3, #4 and #2 (in some other way) are also available in most of the browses, aren’t they?
I would only prefer Opera. Read why over here – > http://hellboundbloggers.com/2011/01/05/browser-wars/#comment-65452
There is nothing to compare with IE. All the browsers(opera, chrome , safari, FF) are far better that IE. Because of windows OS, IE is still alive.
i get most out from firefox. so, is best for me atleast.
Chrome for sure. The day I was about to use Firefox, Chrome landed into the market and started conquering. So I ditched Firefox and started Chroming. And features you mentioned unbeatable in Firefox have already been outclassed by chrome.
Firefox is good but since I made the move to Chrome (which I earlier hesitated to do), I came to know that Google Chrome rocks 😀
I am also using firefox because as a developer, I need to use the browser which is popular on the internet and optimize for this browser.
To be honest with you, these were the five reasons why i loved firefox. However, now I’ve found new love with RockMelt.
Firefox is always my first choice, but since Chrome out of the box, I have another friend and sometimes I feel Chrome is faster than Firefox. Anyone heard to RockMelt?
Rockmelt is nothing but a browser that was built on top of chrome with social features.
Lemme tell you, Switch on to Chrome and you’ll get all these PLUS better features.
I’ve had liked Firefox till I started blogging. Chrome renders Page faster than Chrome and does Javascript work smoothly unlike Firefox. Head over to my website, open any Post and compare my sidebar on both – You will see what I’m talking about
Looks like Chrome is really good eh? 🙂
Hmm yeah it is. Simplicity wins.
I’m completely agree with saket,
The Google chrome is fastest browser available in Market. The page loading is just awesome. Also it supports almost all JavaScript frameworks.
The main display also larger compared to firefox, In chrome we can mange extensions with one click.