Thursday, February 11, 2010

FireFox

I downloaded and began using the internet browser FireFox in the hopes that it would outsmart my computer and internet connection and give me better service. Overall, I think it has helped but I still do have to restart my computer when my internet looses connection in the middle of working on browsing the web.

FireFox is supposed to be faster and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. I know I recently read about a vunerability in IE that Microsoft did not fix in time and it was allowing viruses onto computers, or something technical like that. One way I'm guessing it is more secure is people don't take the time to write viruses for it since it isn't as popular as IE. I do notice it is faster in that it will load the text on a page and the pictures will come up when they are ready, instead of leaving everything blank until the pictures come up. IE was timing out on me waiting for pictures to load, but FF loads the text and I get to start reading while I wait for pictures (if there is any waiting needed.)

All of that is good, but the best part is it seems to have a built in spell checker, which is nice for people like me whose mom always wanted to buy her the shirt that says, "Bad spellers of the world untie!" When I type posts in FireFox in an online board about Belgian Shepherds that does not have a spell checker, it underlines my mistakes in red and when I right click on them it gives suggestions. It was also spell checking my blog posts, although that does have a spell checker built in also. However, if you respond to someone else's blog, there is no spell check for that, yet FireFox was helping me out there too. When I underlining first happened I thought the Belgian board had finally gotten a spellchecker. Imagine my delight at my discovery when I realized FireFox was the one responsible!

If anyone is interested, you can download FireFox for free. Just search for it on the internet, and after it is downloaded you can still keep your original browser and go back to if. FireFox even imported my favorites and cookies, although the favorites are out of order and I see some changes in the way some pages are displayed. I suggest everyone who hasn't checked it out should give it a try. You can always delete it if you hate it. But anyone who has a build in spell checker gets my vote!

Now I'm off to untie with the other bad spellers who love FireFox!

1 comment:

Claire said...

I LOVE Firefox! I think though, that it has made me lazy when it comes to spelling. I know that it will automatically come to my rescue, so I don't waste my time trying to figure out how to spell words. Still though, it's a great browser!