Mozilla Firefox

More Than 200 Extensions

The Mozilla Community developers have created more than 200 small downloadable software applications called extensions, that users can use to increase functionality, including nice touches like an ad banner remover and a built-in spell-checker. Information about the browser’s features and the Mozilla Organization can be found at Mozilla.

Mozilla’s Thunderbird Email

Thunderbird offers the ability to synchronize address books with devices from Palm, secure mail clients’ SMTP and POP3 password authentication, a spell-checker and dictionary. You can download it here Firefox.

Mozilla 1.7 Suite

Mozilla Firefox is a stand-alone Web browser and e-mail application containing a Web page editor and Internet chat software. On my Yahoo home page resides Mozilla’s tool bar and Yahoo’s Tool bar that I use interchangeably with no conflicts. The toolbars at the forefront are neat tools that add to productivity. Everything is only a click away, from mail to Google and Yahoo search engines. The home page opens up quickly, approximately twice as fast as Internet Explorer. Perhaps the best feature of the browser is that it is relatively free from virus attacks. The nature of the browser offers barriers to these nasty critters that Internet Explorer cannot and is much more secure to use.

100 Million Downloads

In October 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that Firefox surpassed the 100 million downloads benchmark just before celebrating its first birthday. This represents a little more than 10% of the total browser market. This followed an announcement in August that the organization had gone corporate, it’s focus not on making money, but dedicated to sustaining the development of Firefox and other products, while promoting its goal of driving open standards on the Web, according to a company spokesman. Mozilla products will continue to remain free and open source, including Firefox and Thunderbird. Download Mozilla Firefox for free here. Versions are available for both the PC and Macs.

A Short History

The Mozilla foundation was formed in 2003 with $2 million in funding from America Online. Its Firefox browser has garnered nearly 10 percent of the browser market, giving Microsoft's Internet Explorer a run for the money. The corporation, based in Mountain View, California, was created because it’s easier to manage business contracts, according to Tristan Nitot, a Mozilla spokesman, and does not plan to do an initial public offering. The most recent information indicates that all of this has been accomplished with a staff of just 40 IT professionals formally affiliated with Netscape.

Upsides And Downsides

Like any other product, Mozilla Firefox has its defenders and detractors. Not every Web site will allow the Mozilla browser to work its resident applications. But this is more than offer set by operating relatively secure in an environment that limits or prevents virus attacks and the impact of spyware. Mozilla Firebox’s open framework and ease of use has made several web professionals loyal enthusiasts. One of the more attractive aspect of the Mozilla Firefox team, is that once a problem is identified, be it hacker attack or a feature that lacks enough oomph, the team goes to work immediately and makes a fix. Maybe Microsoft can take a lesson here. If not, Mozilla’s Firefox could become a giant killer.