Kevins Tips

Firefox was created to be a lean web browser. In order to so, all the extra features found in many of the competing browsers (like IE) had to be removed. These are features that the average person most likely will not use.

You see when a piece of software, like a Web Browser starts up, it has to load up everything it needs all at once.

Let’s look at it in a layman’s type of example…

Say you are going on Vacation and in order to go on “Vacation” you have to pack clothes. However this abstract thing “Vacation” doesn’t know where you are going, so you have to pack ALL of your clothes, winter and summer clothes. Well if you “always” vacation in Florida, taking winter clothes will be a waste of time, effort, and space. This is what a web browsers in the past have been doing all this time because “maybe” you’ll be going to someplace cold??? Not to mention the people that never go on vacation.

Now comes along Firefox. Firefox doesn’t know anything about “Vacation” (it comes with just some basic functions), however you can get an “Add On” that allows you to tell it about your Florida Vacation. You load it into your personal version of Firefox and when you go on “Vacation”, it knows you only need summer clothes. Now you will be able to pack faster, with less effort, and have a lot less to carry and bring with you.

Software has been made this way for a long time. There are a lot of features that you may never use, yet they are included in the software, resulting in bloated software.

Firefox took a different approach and said, what’s the basic things you’ll need to browse the web, fast and securely. Let’s give you that, and then YOU can add want you want to use use as Add Ons. This way the browser will load and work fast.

So where do you get these Add Ons? When you bring up Firefox, look under Tools>Add-ons — then look at the bottom right hand side of the pop-up window. There is a link called “Get Extensions”, click on it and it will bring you to the Add on page. Including Add ons into the browser is straight forward, just click on the button “Add to Firefox” and it installs. You will have to restart Firefox in order for it to take effect though.

How much do Add ons cost? - Nothing, they are FREE

What kind of Add ons are there? Check here - Add ons

Here are a few of my Favorites…

- Mouse Gestures - This is a MUST have - I use it mostly to open a new Tab for a link. It seems almost silly at first, but its very useful.

- Image Zoom - Let’s you right-click and instantly enlarge any photo or image on a web page by using the mouse wheel.

- Tiny URL Creater - Create a Tiny URL by a right-click and selecting it from the pop up menu.