5 Reasons Why I Switched To FireFox 3 From Safari

Wed, Jun 18, 2008

Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client.jpg

I am a long time Safari user, but after the FireFox 3 release, I have decided to switch over for a least a while. This is because of all the awesome new features that FireFox 3 has that make it a better browser than Safari. In this list, I will give you my 5 reasons why I switched to FireFox 3 and why you should too.

1) The Awesome Bar

Yes, that’s its real name. The Awesome Bar replaces the address bar because now… its awesome. Instead of a place to simply put address and show the progress of opening pages, it now automatically searches your history as you type. As simple as this seems, it’s actually extremely handy. Here is an example of the great things the Awesome bar does for you:

Lets say I want to go to my wp-admin page for my blog. Instead of actually typing in “http://www.gabejacobsblog.com/wp-admin/,” I can simply search “admin” and firefox will find it for me. You also notice that there is the same link under the first one. This is because the Awesome Bar also searches your bookmarks (site admin is one of my bookmarks) and the tags of your bookmarks. You will never need to type in a full address again with your new Awesome Bar, in FireFox 3.

2) The best pop-up blocker

Even though Safari has a good pop-up blocker, it is not nearly as good as FireFox’s. I don’t quite know why, but I do know that I get some pop-ups on Safari that I don’t get on FireFox. I value this a lot because I hate pop-ups! I am constantly contacting owners of sites that I view a lot and telling them to get rid of the pop-ups. Now, I don’t have to worry because I am confident FireFox will take care of them all. Mozilla has done a great job with the pop-up blocker.

3) Customization!!!

Can you say plugins! Can you say themes! This isn’t new, but when coming from Safari where there is almost no customization, it’s a big deal. I have already gotten used to searching for great plugins and themes. Here are the good ones I have found so far.

Plugins:

Themes:

4) Safety

Even though I am not worried about viruses because I have a lovely Mac, I do worry about phishing. I am starting to use PayPal a lot more and online services that require me to put in my social security number. Because of this, I have to be really careful what where I am putting these things in. FireFox helps me with their new, anti-fraud system. Here is what I see when I go to PayPal, a secure site:

When I go to a risky site, FireFox will warn me before I can enter any secure information. Since FireFox has a good community, this is updated all the time with the right information. This will keep me safe from getting my identity stolen.

5) It is just as fast as Safari

I used to really feel that Safari was faster than FireFox, but FireFox 3 has changed my mind. I feel that with the new performance upgrades of FireFox 3, it is now just as fast as Safari. I cannot tell the difference when I use the two and since FireFox has so many more features, I am forced to use it. Some people will argue that FireFox is faster now, but to me they are exactly the same and if you only care about speed, either one would work fine.

Some new features that I love, but didn’t make it to the list are: