January 27, 2005

Customize Your Web Browsing Experience

If you've been using the same Microsoft Internet Explorer you don't know what you are missing. I've been using Mozilla's Firefox for several weeks now and LOVE it so much. Others use a similar tool, NetCaptor, which is an enhanced version of MSIE

There's usability features like tabbed browsing that make going to multiple web sites (I now have more then 10 open) a joy; better security; no-popups and other things can all be yours if you know how.

The NY Times writes If you are considering making the leap to a different browser, there are other choices, too. A Norwegian company, Opera, is selling its browser (though a free version that displays advertising is available as well). Apple has Safari, which builds on one called Konqueror, from the world of Linux.

If that's not enough to choose from, there are dozens of browsers out there like Amaya and Dillo that cater mainly to people with particular interests ("Star Trek" fans, for example).

There are also hybrids like Netcaptor, Phaseout and Avant that use Internet Explorer's core and add new features. Microsoft encourages software developers to revise and extend Internet Explorer, and maintains a catalog of such offerings at www.windowsmarketplace.com. Some, like Netcaptor, which offers a popular feature called tabbed browsing and sells for $30, cost extra, but many are free.

This mix-and-match nature is echoed by Mozilla and Firefox, which also help users create their own features, known as extensions. There is a large collection of extensions at the Mozilla update site (update.mozilla.org), including tools that add weather forecasts to the margins of the Web browser, let you control the music playing in the background, or make it easy to look up a word in a dictionary.

If you want to see how more efficient and secure you can be when going to the web update and/or change your web browser and see what you've been missing.

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