November 9, 2004 — 10 AM

Foxy Lady

We interrupt this regularly-scheduled web log to bring you the following unpaid public service announcement:

If you’re browsing the web in Internet Explorer right now, today is the best day yet to stop. Today marks the release of Firefox 1.0, the web browser from Mozilla.

If you’re not already familiar with it, Firefox is an alternative to Internet Explorer (and other browsers) which offers many benefits to Joe and Jane User. It’s also free! The most compelling reasons to use Firefox over Internet Explorer include:

• Better privacy and security control: Internet Explorer is plagued by loopholes which compromise the integrity of your data and your computer.

• Easy and automatic blocking of popup ads.

• Better support for web standards, which means that web sites will appear on your screen as they were intended to.

• As a special bonus, Firefox is also pretty speedy.

It also includes a number of features that make browsing the web easier and more intuitive, like a built-in Google search bar, text zooming that works 100% of the time (to make text more legible), and “tabbed” browsing, so that you don’t have to keep so many windows open on your desktop.

Firefox is also available for every major platform, including Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

You can learn more about Firefox, as well as download it, from the Mozilla web site.

(And no, I’m not being paid by Mozilla. As a web site designer, I would be in heaven if everyone used Firefox, especially over Internet Explorer, because Firefox “gets it right” every time when rendering web pages.)

Update for Mac OS X users: Although I personally prefer Safari in OS X, Firefox sometimes seems faster. Unfortunately, the default look of Firefox is not very “Mac-like”, but there are some really pleasant themes available to fix that.

Previously: Bat Right, Swing Left?

Subsequently: Avoid Enumerating Fetal Poultry

November 2004
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