Helpful Internet Browsing Tips.
Posted by nathan on 13 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Tech Stuff.
If you are still using Internet Explorer (IE) to browse the Web, i would urge you to consider upgrading to a better browsing experience.
Firefox is standards-compliant, which means a site which is properly designed to standards always displays properly in Firefox. IE is not, meaning a properly designed site might display properly, but it might not (usually doesn’t).
IE has so many security holes and flaws, and the majority of users never even run an update. It’s a mess.
IE 7 fixed a lot, brought it into the Web 2.0 era, but it is still not a standards-compliant browser.
Firefox has powerful Add-ons which add great features. Here are some of the essential Add-ons I use regularly:
Adblock: Filters ads from web-pages (yeah! it learns as it goes, which is very nice)
Flashblock: Prevents all flash from displaying unless they have been approved (lots of ads are now flash, which Adblock doesn’t block)
IE Tab: Allows website which are poorly designed (not standards-compliant) to display in Firefox via an IE engine. This works well for running WindowsUpdate and OfficeUpdate.
Link Alert: Changes the cursor to indicate the target of a link.
PDF download: allows you to choose what to do with a PDF file, and makes firefox and PDFs much faster.
Web Developer: The essential web development tool. Only needed if you are involved in development, though.
5 Comments »
on 14 Jun 2007 at 2:51 pm 1.
Tara Lilly said …
I have never used anything but Internet Explorer and I have never had any kind of problem with any website. I do keep updates current though. Are any of the browsers you listed free? I am willing to try something else just out of curiousity. My husband would never be willing to pay for anything beyond what we have unless he started having problems with it. He takes internet classes through IPFW and doesn’t even have problems on IE with WebCT (which I hear from other IPFW students often has issues).
on 14 Jun 2007 at 3:13 pm 2.
nathan said …
Tara,
Yes, Firefox is free. It’s released under a license which prevents it from ever being charged for, so it will always remain free.
and i agree with your husband–i wouldn’t pay for a browser, either!
Also, all of the Add-ons I linked to are free as well.
I do love free stuff!
on 15 Jun 2007 at 9:09 am 3.
Todd Helmkamp said …
Isn’t firefox open-source? Not sure about it.
I saw the Firefox light a while back (thanks Nathan!!)and haven’t looked back since. With the wonderful IE tab, I don’t even have to use IE for work stuff.
@Tara, I use WebCt all the time for my classes too…if you switch to Firefox, you’ll probably need the IE Tab for WebCT.
@Nate: thanks for the add-ons recommendations. Some I knew, but I’m excited about the others!
on 15 Jun 2007 at 9:28 am 4.
nathan said …
Yes, Firefox is open source.
But open source does not necessarily mean free in price. It simply means the source code is open, and a programmer can have access to–and edit–the actual code of the program, changing it to their liking. (although a majority of open source is free in price, it isn’t all free in price.)
A lot of open source is free as in price, but some of it is not (Red Hat Linux is open source, but is not free in price).
The benefit of using IE Tab for Firefox is the increased security of Firefox plus the ability to view poorly-written website (evidently, like WebCT).
on 15 Jun 2007 at 9:29 am 5.
nathan said …
I might also add, I don’t see any ads in MySpace any more due to the ad blockers. I had to teach the blockers what to block, but it’s very nice now. No more scantily clad women–yeah!