Hey DU Researchers - 'Find' FireFox

[DoYouEverWonder]

Firefox is a new web browser that is becoming the rage and for many good reasons. First of all, it's fast. Much faster than IE or Netscape. Second, Firefox is very good at blocking pop ups. Rarely does one get through.

However, the best part which I discovered by accident the other day is their 'Find' feature. Under Edit, you will see an option called 'Find in this Page'. You type in the text you are looking for and if it is on that page Firefox will find it. This one feature is a major time saver and by itself makes switching to FireFox well worth it. Not to mention, that FireFox will import all your old bookmarks too.


http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

[bunkerbuster1]

1. I use that feature all the time

along with tabbed browsing, I'm amazed that IE hasn't already copied it.

BTW, Ctrl-F (in Windows) gets you there a lot faster than mousing over to Edit--> Find. And pressing "Esc" closes the Find box.

[Jim Lane]

2. Comparing Firefox and MSIE

I've tried Firefox and it does seem to be better than Microsoft Internet Explorer at blocking popups. The "Find" feature, though, is not a reason to switch. MSIE offers the same thing. In either browser, you can open the "Edit" pull-down menu. MSIE calls the function "Find (on This Page)"; Firefox calls it "Find in This Page".

Whichever browser I'm using, I find things by using Ctrl+F, anyway. It's easier than using the pull-down menu.

[HamstersFromHell]

"Find..." is an old feature which...

...goes all the way back to it's ideological predecessor, Netscape 2 and 3. I can definitely remember using it in Netscape 4.x years ago.

I changed to Mozilla (before Firefox) simply because it's wasn't IE (therefore, much less likely to be exploited by hackers and even if so, much more quickly patched against such exploits).

Then I got addicted to tabbed browsing....game over, IE.

Tabbed browsing while surfing DU and/or eBay is more than enough to sell anyone on Firefox.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. So after all these years

it was there all the time?

Well damn,

[BlueEyedSon]

3. You can set this to be automatic when you start typing a search phrase

rather than using the menu or Ctrl-F.

[Atman]

4. I just switched, finally, mostly

I've been using Safari as my "alternative." I love it...it blocks pop-ups completely, it's W3 compliant (renders pages properly, without proprietary MS code bullshit), and it WAS much faster than IE or Netscape. But, a funny thing has happened to Safari with the last couple updates which has made it all but unusable. Now, for some reason, when switching from one window to another, even if it is just going from a form field (like the reply box in DU) to another page, it's like Safari has to search the entire History before it proceeds. The browser just stops for up to five or six seconds (that is an eternity when waiting for a mouse click to register), while the candy-cane wheel spins around and around. Doing simple things like updating a CafePress page could take several extra minutes by the time you're done, just waiting for the damn refreshes, or whatever its doing.

I'm on a G3, and maybe Apple's optimized Safari for their G4 or G5, but I don't think so. And it doesn't much matter now, because nothing even remotely like that happens in Firefox. Plus, I just discovered the way-cool pushed news headlines under "Bookmarks." Firefox is fast, and there's a lot to like about it. However, the cutesy colorful Windowsy icons I could do without, but there are some things no one but Apple seems to be able to do right.

And as an aside, on my site, generally around 20-25% of my traffic now uses Firefox. That is huge, and it must give MS some indigestion!

[Nomad559]

5. Mozilla Drops IDN Support Due to Flaw

Mozilla Drops IDN Support Due to Flaw

-Snip-

Mozilla developers are closing the door on phishing schemes that exploit a widely reported flaw in the Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) specification. Upcoming builds of Firefox 1.0.1, Mozilla 1.7.6 and Mozilla 1.8 beta will have IDN disabled as a temporary corrective measure to protect users from identity theft.

IDN is presently enabled by default in Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, and Apple's Safari Web browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer does not have native IDN support and therefore is not affected by the problem.

The flaw permits malicious users to "spoof" legitimate Web pages by taking advantage of how some Web browsers handle the Unicode unified character set utilized by IDN. A specially crafted link can mimic a trusted URL in a browser's address bar, SSL certificate and status bar, but take the user to another location.

http://secunia.com

[robcon]

6. The best part of firefox is the fact that there are fewer viruses.

Fewer hackers/virus makers have designed their dastardly deeds to work on firefox... although at the current rate of growth, I suspect they will eventually catch up to the spread of firefox.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. I'm glad to see that Firefox is finally catchiing up to Opera...

which had all of this stuff for years.

[sendero]

11. Exactly..

... Opera has "tabbed browsing" (and has for years) only it is much better than Firefox because you can put the "tabs" at the top, bottom, left or right of the screen. On most monitors, vertical space is precious, horizontal space is plentiful. The tabs at the top eat up way to much needed space, especially if, like me, you keep 30-40 URLs open simultaneously.

I use Opera for 98% of my browsing, and have for several years. It is not perfect, but it is so far ahead of everyone else I can live with the occassional flaw.

[no name no slogan]

13. Opera user here....since 3.46

Yes, I actually bought a license! I'm a web developer so I use just about every browser you can imagine (even Lynx). Still, my hands-down favorite is Opera.

It is by far the fastest, best browser there is. FireFox is great, IMHO, but I'm still an old Opera stalwart.

My only gripe about Opera is that it doesn't yet support inline HTML editing, like IE 5.5+ and Mozilla 1.3+. However, that does open up potential security issues and does tend to "bulk up" the code, so maybe it's best left out.

Either way, Opera still has it going on. :thumbsup:

[sendero]

14. Excellent..

... yes I'm a software/web jockey from way back and I think us techie types warm up to Opera the quickest. I spent 10 years developing Windows user-interface code and I know a good user interface when I see it :)

I also registered Opera. I register about 1 out of 50 programs I try out (I think the overall average among users everywhere is about 1 of 100) and Opera is one of them. It is WORTH the $40 and it is still free if you don't mind a small banner ad at the top.

Anyone out there who spends a lot of time on the web and hasn't given Opera a test-drive owes it to themselves to do so. The current version is very stable. There are lots of cool features that are not readily apparent - take some time and learn it - it is worth it I promise!!

[DireStrike]

9. Ctrl-F... it's been there a long time

IE has it too.

And I don't get tabbed browsing. That's just like browsing with multiple windows, except you go somewhere else to change windows. I use firefox, but not tabs.

[messiah]

10. The best thing about FireFox is

that it stops allmost all spyware and mallware programs from being installed into your hard drive.

[TNDemo]

12. How do you clear temporary internet files from Firefox?

On IE you go to tools and internet options but I could not find the feature on Firefox.

[agitpropagent9]

15. clearing

tools > options > click "privacy" in the left of the little window.

"cache" and "cookies" clearing will take care of it.

[TNDemo]

16. Thanks!