Firefox is awesome!
Are any of y'all not using Mozilla's Firefox browser (without good reason)? If you've never tried it, if you're just used to using whatever your computer came with, please allow me to persuade you to try it. It's free, it's easy, and it's waaaaaay better than IE, Netscape, or Safari. Why?
[Update: Lifehacker has since published a similar list of why Firefox rules.]
1. Tabbed Browsing: The other browsers eventually started offering this, but Firefox does it better. Instead of having multiple windows open, you can have index tabs along the top of the browser, up by the other tools so you don't need to mouse all the way to the bottom taskbar, where if you have many things open, they collapse and you can't flip through them as easily. You can move the tabs around to arrange them in order. My favorite is having a window of links open, and having a long list of links open in tabs. You can keep reading and clicking while the other pages load on other tabs, so there's no waiting for things to load, and you can quickly open a ton of links with very few clicks. (This is best featured if you read a lot of fandom newsletters, where you click on many articles and photos, and you can close each tab as you read them, making your Attention Span quite organized. The final love for tabs comes when you accidentally close something. Go to History: Recently Closed Tabs: and you have a list of the last few things you closed. History shows where you went in the order you went there. Tab History shows where you were in the order you left. Much handier!
2. SPELL CHECK (see bottom)
3. Restore Session: If you have to restart the browser, you have the option to restore your previous session -- so all the pages you had open before the crash automatically pop back up!
4. Security: I'm not real savvy on modern security issues, but I do know this: When visiting a new site that attempts to install something, Firefox will ask you to approve it, so I never get weird installs or pop-ups. I imagine someone could explain it better, but I say it's safer.
4. Search Box: Up in the corner is a search box that you can add a ton of sites or search engine. I keep mine on Blingo (Win prizes for searching with google!) but I also use it for eBay, Dictionary.com, Food Network recipes, IMDB, Pirate Bay, TorrentSpy, Wikipedia, and YouTube. Save a click, man!
ADD-ONS
[Update: Lifehacker offers a different Top 10 Extensions.]
Ultimately, the appeal of Firefox are the Add-Ons. Here are some that I've found so useful, I actually sent paypal donations to the people who wrote them. <3!!!
6. FireFTP: Seahorse icon in the top corner opens up an FTP client right in the browser that allows me to have several accounts in the menu, so when I click on a particular client or projects, it automatically opens the local folder for that client, and signs on to their FTP ready to upload files. I used to use the Dreamweaver Site FTP, but it's better to have the browser open and ready to check and preview the finished files.
7. Morning Coffee: Opens a list of tabs with one click. For example, every day I usually open the same sites: gmail, livejournal friends list, livejournal post entry, woot, and cuteoverload. I have the morning coffee set up so when I click that cup, all those sites open. You can also customize each day, so if there are sites you check on certain days for updates, you can program that in there. If I recall, there are donation sites that pay charities each time you click through, I bet you could set up your mcoffee to open up all those pages for you too. Rock! [Update: I have listed my favorite Morning Coffee destinations.]
8. Linky!: If you have a long list of text links, you can highlight a chunk of them, right-click, and Linky will open all selected links in new tabs or windows for you. Not as useful with LJ entries, but for sidebars, photo sites, craigslist, or other text link lists ... oh man, crazy useful. It also allows you to do things like mass-open all links on a page, all the photos on a page or selection, etc. This can seriously speed up your searches and browses.
9. VideoDownloader: Saves videos from YouTube, GoogleVideo, etc. (You will need a .FLV player, such as the free one here.) I hate finding something awesome on YouTube to later find out that it's been deleted. Now I have my favorites downloaded for offline viewing any time. (Particularly useful for videos that you know will be deleted quickly, such as NBC clips that get taken down within hours.)
10a. GreaseMonkey: I haven't been using this very long, but it's a useful script tool that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. Best script evar? ...
10b. LJ Thread Unfolder! Next to "Post Comment" will be an additional link called "Unfold" that will expand all the comment threads on the page! YAY!!
11. IE Tab: Some sites load wonky, so this tab will use the IE engine to show your page. I use it rarely to preview sites that I've made in other browsers. I might get rid of it.
12. AdBlock: I don't actively use this, I was told I must install it. Maybe it's doing good things in the background? I actually don't see many ads, but if I wanted to block ads or pictures on a site, all I have to do is right-click on it to make it load without, or create a filter that intercepts anything like it in the future. Neat.
Am I missing anything? What are your favorite Add-Ons?
Oh snap!
13. LJ Login Extention: Switch between livejournal accounts with a simple drop-down menu. Holy cow, thank you atdelphi for pointing out that teeny note that there's a version 2 update now! Woo!
[Update 2]
OMG I have the clincher! I forgot to tell you that it has spell check running always! When you're typing an email or lj entry, misspelled words underline in red (similar to how word processing software does.) No clicking external spell checkers! Right-click the underlined words to add to your custom dictionary! OMG! The things you take for granted, until you have to use IE on a friend's computer and you install Firefox on their behalf.
I have a coworker who felt Firefox was take-it-or-leave-it ... until he used my computer for a week and then when he got back to his own computer, he said the running spell check was the one thing he absolutely had to have once he had been using it. Hasn't used anything else since. <3
[Update 3]
14. Foxmarks is awesome! Save your bookmarks, sync them to any computer, or just use the website to add or use your list. I was using Yahoo Toolbar to get this accomplished, but I'm glad I gave this a shot. Thanks for your recs!