What’s in Your Web Browser?

I switched from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox several years ago and really had not thought about it very much since. When out in the field doing presentations or while collaborating with colleagues, people who notice me using Firefox as my default browser continue to ask me about it and so I thought that it was finally time to address the use of web browsers as an important technological tool.

Indeed, your web browser is one of the critical technological applications that we use today because we spend so much time communicating, getting information, collaborating, delivering lessons, and more on the web. As counselors and as people in general, we need a web browser that is secure, efficient, customizable, easy to use, and works well with other programs.

The biggest factor for me that inspired me to start using a browser other than Internet Explorer (IE) was the constant bugs and security fixes that were plaguing IE and the need to find something faster. As you can imagine, I spend a great deal of time on the Web because of my professional interests in counseling technology as well as my day to day use (communicating, teaching researching, and learning online, for example). Speed is definitely a factor. Seconds add up to minutes and even hours over the course of a day and especially over weeks or months. So, I first turned to Firefox for increased security and speed and Firefox did not disappoint. As I adapted to this new browser, I also began to see other advantageous features that I did not anticipate which further reinforced me for using Firefox. For instance, these included:

– Find As You Type. Rather than using the "find" bar to search for a word on page, just click anywhere on that page and start typing the word you want. Your cursor will immediately jump to the first instance of that term. You can use it for links, too. For example, instead of moving your mouse across the page to a "learn more" link, just start typing the word and when the cursor finds it, press enter.

– Relatively Small Learning Curve. Firefox uses many of the same keyboard shortcuts as Internet Explorer(e.g., hitting Ctrl-Home in the address bar to automatically fill in the ".com" after a word you type) which made migrating easier than I expected.

– Tabbed Browsing. When having multiple web pages open, it is easier to manage (especially identify and open) the window you want when they are presented in the form of tabs instead of windows. The analogy may be searching for a file in your filing cabinet by thumbing through the file tabs instead of opening each and every file.

– Multiple Home Pages. When I start my browser, there are usually several pages that I want to quickly look at. Firefox allows you to open multiple pages upon launching (click here to see how).

– Accelerated Development. Because Firefox was developed as part of an Open Source project, thousands of independent programmers have been working on its development, finding security holes before they are exploited, developing new applications, and overall increasing its utility.

– Smart Keywords. Smart Keywords are an easy way to search websites right from the Address or Location bar. Lets say you want to get to ASCA’s Ethical Standards document. Instead of navigating .. Click, click, click. Just type in “school counselor ethics” without the quotes in the address bar and it should come up in a set of search results.

– Keyword Shortcuts (a.k.a. Custom Keywords). One of my absolute favorite time savers is Keywords which allows me to type in a single letter or word in the address bar and automatically be directed to a web page. So, for instance, I can type in the letter “f” and be directed to one of my favorite professional forums. Typing in the letter “g” brings me to a page at my work that I have to visit quite frequently throughout the day. (By the way, if you are on the webpage and quickly need to get to the address bar, hit F6 or CTRL-L on your keyboard which is faster thank clicking on it with your mouse). Click here for a nice tutorial.

– About:Config. For those school counselor who are a bit more tech savvy, you can easily get under the hood of Firefox and change its advanced settings. about:config is a feature of Mozilla applications which lists application settings (known as preferences) that are read from the profile files prefs.js and user.js, and from application defaults. Many of these preferences are not present in the Options or Preferences dialog. Using about:config is one of several methods of modifying preferences and adding other "hidden" ones. Simply type “about:config” without the quotes in the address bar to access them (see http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config).

Add-Ons

Although firefox has many useful features, if you are like me, you want more. Fortunately, Firefox has incorporated the ability to install add-ons. Add-ons extend Firefox, letting you personalize your browsing experience. There is an amazing selection of add-ons, some better than others, available online at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/.

Here are the add-ons I use which I have found to help me become significantly more effective and efficient in my work:

1.  AutoCopy. Select text on a web page and it's automatically copied to the clipboard. That’s right. After I highlight something on a website with my mouse, I don’ have to hit CTRL-C or go to the Edit, Copy menu to copy it into memory, it’s done automatically. I can skip that step and go right to pasting what I copied into the application that I want. Also, this add-on has another neat feature called append URL. I can copy something on a website, right click on it, choose append URL and the website address automatically gets appended to the content that is copied into memory. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/add-on/383

11. Quickdrag (one of my all time favorites). Extends the function of the drag-and-drop mouse gesture so that it can be used to load URLs, do a web search of selected text on a page, or save an image on a page. The successor to Super DragAndGo. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6912

12. Download YouTube As MP4. Adds a direct link to download YouTube Video as MP4 File (which is the youtube high definition video. after you install this one, a link is automatically added (see below). https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11869

An important note: You should choose and use your add-ons carefully and sparingly. The more add-ons you install, the slower Firefox will run and the greater the chance that an add-on will cause a glitch. I have installed wonderful add-ons in the past that I found helpful although made Firefox on my computer cause terrible hang-ups. Once I uninstalled it, Firefox came back to normal. Ten to 15 add-ons is probably enough.

Disadvantages

There are a couple of disadvantages to using Firefox, although not enough to make me quit using it and go to something else. One disadvantage is that some websites count on Microsoft Internet Explorer to work correctly and do not work quite right in Firefox. For instance I have trouble listening to Sirius Satellite Radio and calling up a “Watch Now” Netflix movie using Firefox. When accessing my Outlook mail at work from the web, I find too that it works best in Internet Explorer. But, that’s what the add-on IE Tab is for (see above). Using the IE Tab add-on, I can just add these sites to the list of sites to open in Firefox using the IE engine, problem solved. The only other disadvantage that I’ve run into, and its not a big one, is that Firefox takes just a bit little longer to start up because it is not built in to the Operating System like Internet Explorer and Safari.

Other Options

Still want to check out some other options in web browsers, the competition is definitely steep:

– For Windows users who just want fast, simple browsing, you might check out the minimalist Google Chrome. Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
http://www.google.com/chrome/

– An up and coming browser which I have not used yet although is recommended by reviewers is Flock for people who "live on the Web" because it has all the speed, security and options of Firefox 3 but builds in a blog editor, photo-uploader and big sidebar to keep current with social networking friends and RSS feeds. A horizontal photo bar shows thumbnails from photo-sharing sites. You can try this one at http://www.flock.com/

– Opera. Opera Software’s browser is a really good piece of work. Billing itself as “The fastest browser on Earth!”, it is a free browser with excellent standards support. (http://www.opera.com/)

– Safari. Safari is Apple’s own web browser, and for its first few years was only available to lucky Mac owners, coming pre-installed on all new Macs since 2003. A Windows version was released in June 2007. Safari is a clean, fast browser based on the WebKit rendering engine that also powers the Linux browser Konqueror. (http://www.apple.com/safari/)

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