The browser wars are in full swing again. You have Internet Exlporer 7, Mozilla 2.0, and Opera 9 all in beta and working hard to gain user share. But what is a person new to the internet, who is scared of viruses and everything-ware, and just wants to be able to read the news in peace suppose to do? The answer, is Mozilla Firefox. One of the forerunners on tabbed browsing and quality popup blocking, Firefox has long been associated with safe web browsing. Through the course of this article I plan on explaining the advantages of using Firefox to surf the web.
First and formost, Firefox has long been associated with increased security and safer browsing. The main reason behind this is due in large part to its extremely effecient popup blocker. The popup blocker in Mozilla Firefox is easily the best available on the market (that you can get for free) and continually blocks popups on a consistant basis. And while blocking popups is important, the ability to view the block popup and allow popups on certain sites is equally important. Firefox makes both of these easy by giving you the ability to kill two birds with one stone. When the user visits a site that has popups, Firefox puts a little bar at the top alerting them that a popup was blocked and this bar includes an option button. Through the use of this option button the user can both allow the popups on the site for the current session or allow all popups for the particular site all the time. The main Firefox options allows the user to manage their list of sites to allow popups from.
With the blocking of popups comes the removal of temptation for the user to click something they are not suppose to. This level of protection does not prevent someone from taking advantage of any bugs in the software itself. The software is only as secure as the programmers that code it make it. And while to error is indeed only human, when millions of people use your software daily, you can not afford to error much. Also, when the programmers do error, it is the speed at which they admit to and fix the error that dictates how much people are likely to use their software. The perfect example of this is Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is bug ridden and Microsoft can take as much as six weeks to release a bug fix when an exploit is discovered. Hence when people discovered Firefox and Opera their usage percentage jumped. Mozilla tries its best to release bug/exploit fixes within 48 hours of the discovery. There is only one instance I found that Mozilla did not admit to a bug in Firefox and took months to release a fix. That issue as long been resolved. Continually updating software to ensure it’s stability against new threats is an important step to keeping users happy.
It is true that security is a major advantage to using Mozilla Firefox to surf the web and while Firefox is loaded with ways to protect you from all the “everything-ware” out there on the internet, it also comes with some great features to make your browsing experiance more enjoyable. First off you have tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing gives the user the ability to look at multiple webpages without having to open multiple browser instances. Firefox also gives you options to allow the user to set up their browser so that clicking on links that would normally open new windows to open in a new tab, keeping the single instance browsing experiance just that.
Next off you have extensions (called add-ons in Firefox 2.0) little “programs” that run inside of Firefox to add functionality to the browser. These extensions range in functions from checking your email to letting you know when something has changed on a webpage.
If you read a lot of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds from your favorite websites (including this one), Firefox has a feature called “Live Bookmarks”. These items act like regular bookmarks except they update automatically with the latest “posts” to the RSS feed allowing the user to stay up to date without having to goto the actual webpage. Last but not least, Firefox is themeable. While some folks will argue if this really is a feature, to some this is a deal breaker. The ability to make your programs look like you want them to allows to user to have a little more control over their enviroment. The more control a person has means the less stress they will have (normally) and less stress equals higher productivity.
It is public fact that the other browsers have many (if not all) of the features I described here today in their most recent betas. Microsoft has introduced tabbed browsing and live bookmarking to Internet Explorer 7 (the latest version, currently in beta) while Opera has had similar features for a couple of years now but Firefox had most of them first. Though I would prefer everyone download and use Firefox, I would encourge everyone to try out the other browsers and find what works best for you.
To download Firefox click the link below:
[Technorati Tag: Technology]
[Technorati Tag: Internet]
[Technorati Tag: Web Browsing]
[Technorati Tag: Mozilla]
[Technorati Tag: Firefox]
Michael Koby 
How MySpace is Changing Music
Myspace, it seems everyone has one, including your favorite bands/musicians. A great marketing concept. Get your band on MySpace, get a ton of friends and maybe a major label will sign you. It’s a dream, but it could happen. While this is defiantly the exception and not the rule, MySpace has change the way local/unsigned bands use the internet.
Before MySpace, for band to have a website they either had to know a web designer, hire one, or do it themselves. All three options can end up disastrous. Since everyone thinks they can be a web designer, there were a lot of poor websites out there for bands. Hiring a web designer either got you a similarly poor website or the person the band hired was too expensive to keep on the payroll and so the website went out of date and just kind of sat there, lingering in the cloud of the internet forever ignored. The third option, doing it themselves, usually yielded as good of results as the “hire a friend” route. Resulting in a not so great looking website that was quickly left outdated and ignored.
So what does a band usually need in a website. First and foremost, they need a way for people to hear their music. Secondly they need to be able to keep their fan base updated with news, recent events, and concert dates. Also, and this is probably paramount in a band getting big or not, is they need a way for the fans to interact with band and vice versa. Taking feedback, holding contests, and connecting their fans to each other. These are pretty much the essentials. Some bonus options would be a place to upload photos and videos from recent concerts. MySpace offers every band in the world these basic needs and their doing it for little to zero monetary cost. However, the terms of service for musicians has changed recently and MySpace can use and sell a musician’s music without having to pay them, so that could be viewed as a very high cost.
But the basic point is still the same. A new band can set up a MySpace page and quickly begin communicating with their fans as well as other bands. And they can do it with almost zero up front cash.� This is a new/unsigned band’s dream, because keeping their costs low means more money in their pocket and/or more money towards the cost of merchandise which is going to make the band more money in the long run.
What is this going to do to the business of web pages for bands� Well while some bands have made their MySpace page their “official” website, I do not think it is going to hurt the web design business with regards to band websites.� While new/unsigned bands can benefit heavily from the free MySpace page, larger bands can benefit from their own website with their own tools and methods for communicating with their fanbase by utilizing the separation of data (example: different pages for photos, tour dates, message boards, etc) and easy navigation.
[Technorati Tag: Music]
[Technorati Tag: MySpace]