While Internet Explorer is on the majority of users desktops, Firefox has made steady inroads into the web browser market share. 42% of visitors to the RWT website use Firefox. We would like to see that percentage move over 50% by the end of the year. So, why choose Firefox?
Tabbed Browsing
Users work with multiple windows open. However, we have found that having multiple browser windows becomes overwhelming. Tabbed browsing means being able to open multiple websites within the same “window” session. Each open website exists on its on tab within the browser. Tabbed browsing provides a better user experience. It also maintains a certain level of organization. Additionally, multiple home pages can be set when the browser is opened. Tabbed browsing allows for a more efficient and effective browsing experience.
Standards Based
Firefox conforms to current W3C web standards. Why is this a big deal? When a website is developed according to said standards it will behave properly when viewed via Firefox. Other browsers overcompensate for poor web development. They “work around” poor code and display it how they think it was intended. While in some ways this is good, in the long run it works against having any sort of standards in the first place. Firefox avoids this by sticking to the standards.
Pop-Up Blocking
Firefox has a built in pop-up blocker. No need to install a toolbar or any other program. Users can allow pop-ups on a per-site basis.
Community
There is a large and supportive community of developers and users surrounding Firefox. This creates an immediate “help desk” of sorts. There are numerous sites/forums available to get help for Firefox if it is ever needed.
Customization
Through extensions and plugins, Firefox can be customized. Typically extensions consist of tools that make tasks easier. Take the Snapper extension as an example. It allows users to create a snapshot of any portion of the screen. Once installed no other software is needed and creating well-defined snapshots is a breeze. This is but a tiny example of the multitude of extensions available.
Our only wish is that more IT depts. within corporations would support Firefox. Once this happens on a large scale Firefox will easily catch up to IE in terms of market share. We would love to hear from you if your company officially allows users to use Firefox.
Firefox Help Resources
Open Source Articles
Firefox Support
While we strongly recommended Firefox, we also support the initiative of Browse Happy which seeks to have users switch from IE to one of four alternative browsers.
