It has been many years since I switched away from Microsoft's Internet Explorer - that was around the time when IE 5.5 was ruling the world. I stumbled upon Mozilla Firebird (which was one of the earlier names of Mozilla Firefox, it was named Phoenix before that) - and have been with the Firebird/Firefox browser ever since. In the beginning it was the "magic" of tabbed browsing that got me switching - but today there's
three major reasons why I prefer Firefox over Google Chrome - which I believe to be one of the best browsers out there.
1. Google Chrome doesn't exist in a Mac OS X version (yet)
Using a MacBook daily in OS X - this is a no brainer, I cannot use the browser if it doesn't support my operating system. It is on it's way and you can even
sign up for notification of news on this.
2. The Firebug extension doesn't exist for Google Chrome
As a web developer - the Firebug extension is simply something I cannot do without. The functionality brings debugging of JavaScript into my world in a usable way - just like how I know debugging from other tools, such as Visual Studio. There's also network monitoring, DOM manipulation and much much more - it's simply a must have. Even
Internet Explorer has an add-on with this functionality.
3. The wonder of "typeahead"
When I first started using Firefox, there used to be an option in the preferences that was named along the lines of "Type Ahead Find". I enabled this, without really knowing what it did. It turned out that this wonderful option enabled you to simply type, while browsing a website, and Firefox would simply start searching for whatever you typed - saving the entire Ctrl+F keystroke. I got addicted to this and have used it ever since, and
I cannot live without it!
If you want to enable this today it's a little more tricky. Here's how you do it:
Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any harm this may do to your hamsters!
- Open Firefox, in the address bar type in "about:config"
- Let Firefox know that you won't blow up the universe by continuing and select "I know what I'm doing"
- In the filter box enter "typeahead"
- Set the option named "accessibility.typeaheadfind" to the boolean value of true (or 1 if you enter an integer value)
- Save, close and restart Firefox - and now it should work
- Get addicted
I just wish Chrome would add this option, release the Mac version and allow for extensions... that's all I want for Christmas, really - I mean it.
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