Firefox Explained
What to do
- We recommend you download the Mozilla Firefox with the Google Toolbar.
Anyone, anywhere in the world can use Firefox - it isn’t just for US users.
- From now on, when you want to surf the Internet, we recommend you use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer (which you may get to by clicking on the blue ‘e’ on your desktop). To open Firefox, double-click on the orange fox on your desktop.
We recommend copying the link above for this website, and then starting Firefox. Paste the link in the address bar and hit ‘enter’. You should be brought back to this page - read the explained below to get and an understanding of why Firefox is safer, faster, and overall enhances your browsing experience.
Then we’ll take you on a tutorial step-by-step as to how to use some of the basic features of the browser.
A little more
How do you get online? Do you double click on the blue ‘e’ on your desktop to surf? If you do, you are using a program called Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is a browser - in essence that means it’s a program that allows you to surf the web.
If you are like most people, you probably got Internet Explorer with your copy of Microsoft Windows. Since Windows is everywhere, many people don’t know that there are alternative free browsers that exist.
Why get a different browser? Here’s the thing. You’ve probably found that your basic Internet Explorer has a couple of visible problems:
A. It doesn’t block what are called popup ads - or those little advertisements that ‘pop up’ when you visit a site. B. It often script errors, telling you that Internet Explorer was not able to read certain scripts on a page. C. Internet Explorer only allows you to open windows. That means that if you want to have a lot of websites open, you probably find that your menu bar at the bottom of the screen is full of open windows, and that your computer is slower.
There are also a couple of invisible problems that you may not know about. Like your copy of Internet Explorer may be susceptible to security violations - things like viruses and spyware which may enter your computer through Internet Explorer. These viruses and spyware can be dangerous to various degrees - but most of the time, you will find that if you have viruses and spyware on your computer, your browsing experience (and maybe the overall function of your computer) is slowing down.
Mozilla Firefox: A Brief History
Basically, a while back, a couple of guys who were involved with another browser you may have heard of (called Netscape) got together and decided to build a better free browser called Mozilla Firefox (or ‘Firefox’ for short). This browser solved a lot of the problems of Internet Explorer and included features for an enhanced faster browsing experience (we’ll explain all this stuff below). They provide this browser online for free.
The most important thing though was that these guys made the code for Firefox open-source. This means that people everywhere could look at the code that made the program, suggests ways to fix it, or create add-ons that could add functionality (or basically help you do more stuff). These most used of these add-ons are called extensions, and Mozilla lists them on their extension page here.
So a community of developers can get together and continuously share ideas as to how to make Firefox better. That means that Firefox keeps evolving to better protect against security violations, as well as adds features to enhance your web browsing experience.
That’s enough of the history (if you are interested, you can read more about Firefox here). Let’s explain some of Firefox’s basic features, and why they are going to make your web experience more enjoyable.
1. Blocks Pop-ups and Script Errors and Other Bad Stuff
Ok, open Firefox and click here: Cnn.com. At the top of the screen, you should see a message that tells you that Firefox has blocked a pop-up ad from the website.
Firefox’s first feature is that it automatically blocks a popup ads and script errors. If you are visiting a site, and Firefox blocks a pop-up ad, it will tell you at the top of the screen. And Firefox just blocks script errors, so you shouldn’t see those again. What this means for you is ‘less clicking’ - you don’t keep closing popup ads as you browse.
Firefox also blocks viruses and spyware, protecting your computer from this stuff. Firefox doesn’t block ALL viruses and spyware, but it does block a lot of them.
2. Tabbed Browsing
Ok, do you have Firefox opened? Because the use of tabbed browsing is easier to show than explain. Basically, once you have Firefox open, open up a new tab by:
A. Hitting ‘Ctrl-T’ on your keyboard; OR B. Clicking ‘File’ and then ‘New Tab’ in your Firefox window.
Now, you should see two ‘tabs’ in your Firefox window. To select a tab, click on it. A tab is basically a new window for you to view a different website. Now, instead of having a whole ton of Internet Explorer windows open, you can open up a series of tabs within Firefox. Tabs keep your open websites more organized, and generally use fewer system resources (or make your computer run faster).
If you find a link on a webpage that you want to open in a new tab, right click on it with your mouse, and select Open Link in New Tab.
To close a tab, select it, and hit the red ‘x’ at the top right of your screen.
3. Now, you don’t have to keep going to http://www.google.com to do a Google search (or http://www.yahoo.com to do a Yahoo search, http://www.ebay.com to do an eBay search, etc.)
Ok, you see that search box in the right hand corner? It should have a ‘G’ in the left side of the box. That box represent a Google search field. Now whenever you want to do a Google search, simply type your search in that box and hit ‘enter’ on your keyboard. The Google results for your search should show up in whatever tab your viewing.
What this means is that you don’t have to keep typing in http://www.google.com in your address bar to do a Google search. You can do it from your browser.
Say you don’t like Google. Say your favorite search engine is Yahoo. No problem - click on the little black arrow in the search box, and select Yahoo. The search box should now change to a red ‘Y!’ in the left hand corner. From now on, every time you type a query in the box and hit enter, you will get Yahoo results.
You can change that search box to one of a whole ton of search engines. To do so, click on the little black arrow, and select Add Engines to search for your favorite search engine.
You may have downloaded Firefox with the Google toolbar. The Google toolbar comes with a whole bunch of features, including its own search box (which you can use to do Google searches as well). Google has put up a great page describing what features are available here. Read the page to learn more about how the Google toolbar works.
Don’t like the Google toolbar? You may feel that the Google toolbar is ‘extra’ and doesn’t provide any value to you. No problem - you can uninstall the Google toolbar by clicking (in your Firefox window) on Tools, and then Extensions. A menu of all your extensions will come up. Click on the Google Toolbar extension and click on Uninstall. The next time you restart your browser, the Google Toolbar will be gone.
4. Extensions
Instead of Firefox giving you a whole bunch of features you won’t use, the developers of Firefox tried a different approach. They decided to give users a simple version of Firefox, and allow users to add extensions to the browser as they choose. You can shape Firefox to do the things which are useful to you.
Think of it this way: you’ve got the basic Firefox, and now you can ‘customize’ it in a multitude of ways, for free.
Want an example of how extensions can improve your browsing experience? Visit our article Boost Firefox.
You can browse through the extensions available for Firefox here.
That’s all for now…we hope that Firefox makes your browsing experience more enjoyable.
You may be interested in our article on How to More Safely Surf the Web.
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