Spread The Fox

Top 10 Firefox features that don't require extensions

2007-08-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

Good article from Lifehacker, highlighting the top 10 productivity-boosting Firefox features and that don't require an extension.

Security Advisories

2006-11-23T12:45:00.000-05:00

Was just on the Secunia web site. Since IE7 and Firefox 2.0 came out at about the same time, I thought I'd take a look and see if there had been any security advisories issues on the two browsers.

IE7 = 3
Firefox 2.0 = 1

Christmas Theme

2006-11-23T09:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you familiar with Firefox, you know you can change the look of your browser by using different themes. Get your browser into the Christmas spirit by using Tinseltown - A Christmas Firefox Theme.

Firefox Party!

2006-10-24T19:47:00.000-04:00

To celebrate the release of Firefox 2.0, this weekend Firefox users will be hosting or attending Firefox Parties all across the globe!

Find one near you at Firefox Party!

Firefox 2.0

2006-10-24T19:31:00.000-04:00

Firefox 2.0 is now available!

What's New in Firefox 2

Visual Refresh: Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering the familiarity of the browsing experience.

Built-in phishing protection: Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled.

Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.

Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

Resuming your browsing session: The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.

Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds: Users can decide how to handle Web feeds (like this one), either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a standalone RSS reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.

Inline spell checking: A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms without having to use a separate application.

Live Titles: When a website offers a microsummary (a regularly updated summary of the most important information on a Web page), users can create a bookmark with a "Live Title". Compact enough to fit in the space available to a bookmark label, they provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated with the latest information. There are several websites that can be bookmarked with Live Titles, and even more add-ons to generate Live Titles for other popular websites.

Improved Add-ons manager: The new Add-ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, combining them both in a single tool.

JavaScript 1.7: JavaScript 1.7 is a language update introducing several new features such as generators, iterators, array comprehensions, let expressions, and destructuring assignments. It also includes all the features of JavaScript 1.6.

Extended search plugin format: The Firefox search engine format now supports search engine plugins written in Sherlock and OpenSearch formats and allows search engines to provide search term suggestions.

Updates to the extension system: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.

Client-side session and persistent storage: New support for storing structured data on the client side, to enable better handling of online transactions and improved performance when dealing with large amounts of data, such as documents and mailboxes. This is based on the WHATWG specification for client-side session and persistent storage.

SVG text: Support for the svg:textpath specification enables SVG text to follow a curve or shape.

New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.

Download Firefox 2.0

IE7 is released

2006-10-19T19:34:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is now out. However, as has been known for some time, it's only available to people using Windows XP or later, and only those on the latest service pack. People with older versions of Windows, such Win98, ME, or 2000, won't be able to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

I tried the last Beta version of IE7, and even though it's supposed to be more standards compliant, I found it still broke some simple web sites and didn't render them correctly.

RealNetworks(R), Google and Mozilla Announce New Agreement to Distribute Firefox Web Browser and Google Toolbar(TM)

2006-08-02T08:33:00.000-04:00

RealNetworks®, Inc., Google Inc., and Mozilla Corp. announced a new multi-year agreement under which Real would offer the popular Google Toolbar and the Mozilla Firefox® Web browser with RealPlayer®, one of the most frequently downloaded applications around the world.

Read more

200 Million

2006-07-31T19:31:00.000-04:00

Today Firefox reached another milestone of 200 Million downloads!

Nice Description of Firefox ...

2006-06-30T07:56:00.000-04:00

This browser "has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more."

except it's for IE7 Beta!

All these features are already available with Firefox - and have been for some time! Which makes one wonder ... why wait for someone to play "catch up", when you can already be using them?

Internet Explorer 7

2006-02-02T19:39:00.000-05:00

Internet Explorer 7 Available for Public Download ... First IE 7 Beta 2 Bug Found 15 minutes later!

Great Firefox Marketing!

2006-02-01T08:41:00.000-05:00

In advertising ... sex sells! So why not use a little bit of that to promote Firefox?

"Candx", a Spread Firefox member, has created her own marketing Web site, to help spread Firefox in a most unique way!

Check out Femfox and see how she helps put the "fox" in Firefox!

Another Useful Extension

2005-12-04T19:32:00.000-05:00

If you have several tabs open in Firefox, I found a really neat extension to make your tabbed browsing experience even better.

An extension called foXpose opens up a nice preview of your open tabs. Then simply click on the previewed page you want to look at, and that page will come up. It's actually more difficult to explain than use ... but must be seen in action to appreciate!

It only works in Firefox version 1.5, so be sure to upgrade to 1.5 before using this extension.

Where are Firefox users?

2005-12-02T23:28:00.000-05:00

See for yourself on Frapper!

If you're a Firefox user and haven't already done so, go ahead and add yourself to the growing list.

Firefox Version 1.5 available

2005-11-29T23:34:00.000-05:00

Mozilla has released Firefox Version 1.5. This is the full official release ... no longer a "beta" version.

Spread Firefox plans an all out community marketing campaign for Firefox 1.5!

Browsers Face-Off

2005-11-29T14:06:00.000-05:00

Here's a good article comparing Explorer 7 Beta 1, Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 1, and Opera 9 Preview 1. The article doesn't declare a "winner", but rather reminds folks they have several options to choose from, to find what's right for you.

Getting Extensions To Work In Version 1.5

2005-11-23T09:22:00.000-05:00

If you're not familiar with Firefox and it's extensions, you may be asking "What are they?" Extensions are small add-ons that can help you customize Firefox to do what you want it to do. That's the beauty of this browser ... it's not crammed full of features you don't need ... but you can add features that you want. You can browse page after page of available extensions to find ones you might find useful. Simply download and install it (they install themselves), restart the browser ... and your new extension will be active!

However, if you're using and testing Firefox 1.5, you may find some extensions disabled or incompatible. This usually means, they have not yet been updated to work in version 1.5. If you've gone from a working version, such as 1.0.7 to 1.5 RC3, then not having your favorite extensions working, can be frustrating.

There IS a solution! Download and install the Nightly Tester Tools extension, and restart the browser. Now "update" your extensions, which can be found under Tools > Extensions. If you have any marked "incompatible", click on the "Make all compatible" button. This should get them working for 1.5.

You may try to install a new extension, and get a message that it's incompatible. On the small "Software Installation" box that pops up, check the box "Install using Nightly Tester Tools to overide compatibility". This will solve the incompatibility issue, and install your new extension.

New extensions are being added all the time. If you haven't found what you're looking for, be sure to check back in a few days ... it may be there!

Similar to extensions, are themes, which allow you to change the look (or skin) of the browser, and plugins which add more features. Also check PluginDoc for more plugins.

By adding extensions, themes, and plugins, you can create your own "custom" browser, to look the way and do the things you want ... giving you a more enjoyable surfing experience!

Firefox 1.5 Review By PC Magazine

2005-11-23T09:08:00.000-05:00

In the space of a roughly a year, Firefox has gone from relative obscurity to being the second most popular browser in the world. It's got only about 9 percent of the Internet browsing market, but that's incredible for a version 1.0 product, especially since the top browser, Microsoft Internet Explorer, comes bundled with new PCs. The release of Firefox 1.5, the first major upgrade since Firefox 1.0 came out in November 2004, is almost certain to drive adoption rates even higher.

Article

Happy Birthday Firefox!

2005-11-09T09:49:00.000-05:00

One year ago today, Firefox was released to the public for general use (although I'd been using a beta version for a month or so earlier).

Today, Firefox has been downloaded over 100 Million times, has reached 11% market share, and version 1.5 is soon to be released (I'm using a 1.5 pre-release version and it works well, except for certain extensions that haven't been updated yet).

It's been a great year for Firefox ... let's hope we have many more!

Thunderbird 1.5 Beta 1 Released

2005-09-10T12:24:00.000-04:00

Following on the heels of the Firefox 1.5 Beta release, comes word of Thunderbird's 1.5 Beta 1 release. Thunderbird is Mozilla's E-mail client program ... the perfect compliment to Firefox.

Haven't had much time to play with it yet, but I do like the automatic error correction while writing an e-mail!

As with the Firefox Beta, this is not the final version ... but a test version to look for bugs and other problems before the final version is released. And like Firefox, my "extensions" and "themes" aren't working ... but expect them to, once the authors have had a chance to update them.

Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 Released

2005-09-09T19:22:00.000-04:00

Mozilla has released a Beta (test) version of it's upcoming Firefox 1.5 Browser. This is not the final version, but one that has been released for users to check for any bugs or other problems.

I downloaded it last night, and so far it has been working well. The only "problem" is that my installed "extensions" and "themes" are not working, but that's understandable, since the authors of those haven't had a chance to update them.

Some things you'll notice right away ...

the pages seem to load up much more quickly and the back/forward button action is almost instantaneous!

You can also "drag and drop" the tabs on the tab bar ... another nice feature to keep tabs organized.

There are others ... but haven't played around to check them yet.

Web Standards

2005-08-04T09:35:00.000-04:00

For most Internet users (those who browse web pages), Web standards mean nothing. For Web developers ... those who design the web pages you're looking at ... Web standards mean everything.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the organization that sets the standards for Web development. Their goal is to make the Web accessible to everyone, regardless of the hardware or software being used. Standards makes it easy for those who code Web pages. Follow the W3C standards, and your pages will display properly and the same way on your cellphone or PC ... and in any Web browser.

Of course ... that would be in a perfect world. Almost all modern and current browsers do adhere to and work correctly using the W3C guidelines. However, there is one major exception ... and that, of course, is Internet Explorer.

"I'm using Internet Explorer and the pages look fine. What's the problem?" The "problem" is Web developers can't write standard code to display Web pages correctly across all browsers. Pages written using standard code, many times work as intended in standard compliant browsers, but are trashed when viewed using IE. So developers have to "hack" their standard code, in order to make the pages work in IE. Other developers write code specifically for IE browsers ... making sites that are unusable with other browsers ... going against the goals of W3C.

In a recent article, Paul Thurrott writes about the IE7 Beta, and its shortcomings when it comes to W3C standards. He is concerned that the final release of IE7 (as is the case with IE6) will continue to be non-compliant with all W3C standards. He says users should demand more from Microsoft, by boycotting IE and switching to a better alternative Web browser.

IE7 Beta Reviews

2005-07-30T17:59:00.000-04:00

The Beta version of Microsoft's new IE7 Browser is out, and the reviews are mixed.

A review on Flexbeta concludes, "It is fair to say that IE 7 has gone through a good upgrade from IE 6 if we consider the features such as tabbed browsing, phishing protection and the built in search bar. Though the same cannot be said for the GUI; IE 7 still has months to go before it reaches a final release in which the IE team will probably be implementing more eye candy into the browser while enhancing the page loads and patching tons of bugs. It is inevitable to dodge the fact that IE 7 Beta does look somewhat similar to Mozilla Firefox; both contain the search plug-in in the same area."

A review on ZDNet, states "It's been almost four years since Microsoft refreshed its venerable Internet Explorer browser. But Internet Explorer 7 for XP Beta isn't a Mozilla Firefox killer -- far from it. Microsoft's limited availability for IE 7 should only open the door wider for competing browsers to steal even more market share in the months to come. Given the high expectations, we're unimpressed with the IE 7 for XP Beta."

The review, also correctly reminds folks, "Only those running Windows XP SP2 will be able to run the latest version of IE. This is Microsoft's way of forcing non-Windows XP SP2 users to upgrade. Those still running Windows 2000, ME or even 98 SE will be forced to continue using IE 6 or commit to a Windows XP OS upgrade. This strategy could backfire, giving rivals Mozilla Firefox and Netscape an even bigger slice of the browser pie, especially among those wanting RSS feeds now."

Firefox in the Media

2005-06-04T20:22:00.000-04:00

Many Unaware of Browser-Security Link
Microsoft Says IE 7's Tabs Just "Catch-Up"
Windows 2000 users miss out on IE7
PCWorld Ranks The 100 Best Products of 2005

Site Statistics

2005-06-03T09:16:00.000-04:00

Was just curious, and looked at some current browser statistics for this blog. The browser numbers are:

Firefox 1.0.4 - 38%
Firefox 1.0.3 - 33%
Mozilla 5.0 - 7%
MSIE 6.0 - 7%
Firefox 1.0 - 7%
Firefox 1.0.2 - 3%
Opera 8.0 - 2%
Safari 1.2 - 1%
MSIE 5.0 - 1%
Firefox 1.0+ - 1% (not sure why that's listed that way)

Looks like most of the visitors are already Firefox users, which is great to see!

Firemonger Project

2005-06-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

The Firemonger project is dedicated to providing an easy to use CD which contains the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. The CD includes an excellent selection of plugins, extensions and themes and a comprehensive beginner's guide. The CD contains everything you need to start up with and get the most out of Firefox and Thunderbird.

If you are already a Firefox and/or Thunderbird user, you can burn copies of the CD and hand them out for others to try.

Firefox in the Media

2005-05-28T23:56:00.000-04:00

Fired Up Over Firefox
Mozilla Readies Alpha for Firefox Upgrade
Microsoft Says IE 7's Tabs Just "Catch-up"
AOL Concocts a Mess With Netscape 8.0
The Browser Wars are Back

Auto Updates

2005-05-27T17:59:00.000-04:00

If there is an update to Firefox, or any of your installed "themes" or "extensions", Firefox puts a small "update" icon on your browser.

To update, simply click on the icon, and the updates will be downloaded and installed. To activate the updates, you'll have to shut down and restart Firefox for them to take effect.

To update Firefox completely, it's suggested to uninstall the "old" version and then install the newer version. This will ensure updates are installed correctly. This update procedure my be changed in future versions of Firefox.

Tabbed Browsing

2005-05-22T19:01:00.000-04:00

Another one of the nice features of Firefox, is the use of "tabbed browsing". This means, you can easily switch between multiple web pages in one browser window ... as opposed to having multiple browser windows open to view each page. Once you've gotten used to tabbed browsing, you'll wonder how you did without it.

The easiest way to use tabbed browsing, is to right-click on a link and select "open URL in new tab". This will open a new tab, so you can view the page you just opened, and by clicking on the "tab" of the page you just came from, you can go back to your original page. By clicking on the "tabs", you can easily jump back and forth between pages.

When your done viewing the page, you can close the tab by either clicking on the "X" on the tab bar, or right-click the tab, and select "Close Tab".

You can also customize how the tabs behave, by going to Tools > Options > Tabbed Browsing , and play around with the settings until you get what you like. The "default" works just fine if you don't want to worry about customizing things.

Firefox in the Media

2005-05-21T07:18:00.000-04:00

What's All the Fuss About Firefox?
Firefox Gets Big Win with Big Blue
Firefox Doubles Its Browser Market Share Says Survey
Microsoft follows Firefox lead

Browser Comparison

2005-05-21T07:10:00.000-04:00

An article on C|net compares six Web browsers. Guess which was rated the best?

Built In Search

2005-05-19T05:30:00.000-04:00

One of the first things you'll notice with Firefox, is an extra space next to the box where you type in a web address. This is Firefox's built in search. Here you can type in what you are looking for, and select from any of the "default" search engines.

Type in what you are searching for, select the search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) you want to use from the list, and hit enter. Your search results will then be listed.

Advanced users may add additional search engines to this list.

Ready to go

2005-05-18T17:33:00.000-04:00

OK .. now you've checked out some reference materials about Firefox, installed Adware and Spyware protection, and are ready to give Firefox a try!

Here are some simple step-by-step instructions on how to get Firefox set up and running on your Windows computer.

Next we'll start to cover some of the neat features of Firefox.

Firefox in the Media

2005-05-03T13:23:00.000-04:00

Firefox: An Increasingly Popular Alternative to Internet Explorer
Firefox vs. IE in O'Reilly Network Logs
Firefox Crosses 50 Million Downloads, Market Share is 8.69 Percent
Some Simple Apps

First things first

2005-05-03T01:09:00.000-04:00

Have you been able to avoid Web sites putting little bits of programming in your computer without your knowledge ... eventually making it seem as if your computer has a mind of it's own? If you have, consider yourself lucky!

So, what can you do to protect yourself? The first thing to do, is download, install and run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy. These will attempt to remove as many of these bad programs as possible. The first time you run them, you may be surprised at the number of bad things it'll find! You should probably run these every day, until you remove as much as you can.

Then, you'll want to download, install, and run SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard.

With all four of these programs, make sure you check for the latest updates each time you run them.

Once you've cleaned your computer as best you can, now you can start using Firefox for another layer of protection. If you're lucky, the number of bad programs and files on your computer will have been reduced, if not totally eliminated. If you can't seem to get rid of them, you may have a serious infestation ... and may need to reinstall Windows in order to erase all traces of the bad programs.

Why Firefox?

2005-05-02T09:05:00.000-04:00

Firefox is an Internet Web browser, like Internet Explorer, Netscape, and others. A Web browser is the tool that allows you to view Web pages. Firefox was developed by some of the same people that worked on Netscape. In fact, Firefox uses some of the same programming that Netscape does.

So why Firefox? Firefox is an alternative to other browsers. The full release version of Firefox, came out in November 2004, and in just 99 days, was downloaded 25 million times! On Friday, April 29, 2005 ... Firefox passed the 50 Million download mark! Web site statistics, show that Firefox usage is growing ... which in turn, is cutting into IE's domination. Some statistics, say IE usage has dropped below 90% for the first time.

Firefox Advantages

There are many advantages of Firefox compared to other browsers. First, is it's small size, only 4.7MB. It loads Web pages much faster. It features a built in popup blocker, to prevent annoying popup ads, and tabbed browsing, so all your Web pages can be easily accessed from one browser window. It can be customized the way you want it, with optional themes and extensions. It has a built in search tool, and "live bookmarks", which lets you bookmark RSS feeds. Because it's not tied into the operating system, it's more secure against spyware. And because security is a major issue, potential security risks can be addressed in a matter of days, instead of months - if at all! Firefox works with Windows, Linux, and MAC. It's also the most standards-compliant browser available. This means Web pages are viewed the way they are supposed to be ... no "hacking" is needed to make Web pages work as intended. It's also Free!

These are only a few reasons why Firefox is better than any other browser. You can also read what Forbes had to say about Firefox!

If you haven't already done so, download Firefox today and give it a try.

What's This?

2005-05-02T03:15:00.000-04:00

I decided to start a blog, dedicated to helping spread the Mozilla "Firefox" Internet Browser. I've been a happy and satisfied user since I stumbled upon it around September, 2004.

I've always been a Netscape user (which was also developed by Mozilla), but just got bored with it. I've never been a serious user of Microsoft's Internet Explorer ... except for a time or two when that's the only browser that will work on a site.

Hope to post some additional information about Firefox ... such as user tips or some of the neat features I run across. Will also try and post links to articles or other useful information I find or hear about.

Stay tuned!!