10 Free Tips To Maximize Your Firefox Experience.

With over 465 million downloads to date, open-source Firefox is the next most popular browser after Internet Explorer. Packed with nifty features, Firefox received a string of accolades like Best Software Application from the Usability Professional's Association, Forbes Best of the Web, Softpedia's Users' Choice Award and PC Magazine's Best of the Year Award.

An easy to use browser, Firefox is not only faster than Internet Explorer but is also much safer as it comes with security features like phishing protection to guard against malicious and fake websites, and prevention against malware from installing or executing programs without your say-so.

Famed for its tabbed browsing, which organizes multiple sites into a single window for clutter-free surfing, Firefox is also highly customizable with thousands of tiny software called add-ons to ramp up its functionality. Be it speed, security or functionality, Firefox is fast becoming the browser of choice. And to further enhance your Firefox experience, here are 10 free tips to get the most out of Firefox :

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1. Ramp Up Functionality
To get the most out of Firefox, soup it up with thousands of add-ons or extensions like controlling your favourite media player to downloading videos from video-sharing sites to suggesting new websites to visit based on your interests, and even tracking prices on Amazon.com. Installation of extensions is simple and you can browse the many categories at :
addons.mozilla.org

2. Customize Your Firefox
Just like changing the skins on your gadgets, fit your Firefox with new clothes or Themes. There's a theme to suit every taste - from designs to please the cat lover or Harley Davidson rider to emulation of Mac OS X and Internet Explorer. Personalisations are a one-click installation affair.

3. Populate With Your Favorite Search Engines
For convenience, populate the search bar on the upper-right corner of the Firefox browser with your favorite search engines like BBC, Amazon.com, eBay to YouTube and many more. Install them simply by clicking on the link of the search engine listed.

4. Use Tabbed Browsing To Enhance Your Surfing Experience
Instead of opening a separate window for each website you visit, Firefox tabbed browsing feature, which organizes multiple sites into a single window for clutter-free surfing, is a delight to use. Use Ctr-T to open a new tab and Ctr-Tab to cycle through the tabs. Shift and click on a link to open it in a new tab in the background or press Shift, Ctrl and click to bring the new tab into the foreground.

5. Skip Typing Whole Domain Names
Tired of typing whole domain names with the "www." prefix and ".com" suffix into the address bar when you surf? You can save time and keystrokes by just typing the bits in-between, for example, enter "yahoo", then hit Ctrl+Enter. The complete "www.yahoo.com" address will be formed and loaded automatically. For websites with the suffix ".net", use Shift+Enter.

6. Speed Up Site Navigation
Instead of clicking on the Forward or Back buttons, navigate web pages by holding Shift and turn the scroll wheel of your mouse forward or backward.

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7. Assign Keywords To Bookmarks
Assign keywords to your bookmarked sites by right-clicking on the bookmark and click properties. You can load the keyworded bookmark quickly by entering the keyword in the address bar.

8. Search Faster For Text On Web Pages
Skip the usual way, Ctrl-F, for searching for text on a web page by using this shortcut : Under Firefox 's Tools : Options, select Advanced : General, then check "Search for text when I start typing". When you type a string of text, Firefox will automatically look for it on-the-fly.

9. Search Smarter With Smart Keywords.
If you regularly visit certain websites, for example Amazon.com, you can configure Smart Keywords, which lets you search the websites from the address bar. Go to the webpage with the search field, right-click the search field and then choose "Add a Keyword for this Search." The Add Bookmark dialog will pop up. Give the bookmark a name, for instance, "Amazon Search" and a keyword, for example "am" and save the bookmark. The next time you want to search for a book on Amazon.com, just enter "am (name of book)" into the address bar of Firefox and hit Enter.

10. Protect Your Passwords.
If you let Firefox remember your passwords, make them safer by configuring a master password. Select Tools : Options, then Security. Under the Passwords section, check "Use a master password". Ensure that you are using a master password that cannot be easily guessed by other people.

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- Flock - The Social Web Browser.

Flock - A Versatile Social Web Browser.

Everyone is familiar with web browsers like the ever-present Internet Explorer, popular FireFox and others like Safari and Opera but here is a little known, but fast gaining in popularity browser called Flock.

Called a "Social Browser" by its creators, due to its ability to interact and share content with popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and various blogging and news aggregation services, Flock is a web browser based on fast, secure and open-source Mozilla technologies.

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Even though Flock was actually released about two years ago, the latest version is decisively different and increasingly relevant, considering the heavy social bent that is evident in today"s Web. Flock makes it very easy to share content, publish to your blogs and connect with your friends at the same time. Here are some of the cool features that makes Flock a strikingly different browser from Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari :

1. YouTube, Flickr and Photobucket Integration.
With the in-built Photo Uploader, you can edit and upload up to 1,000 photos at any one time to Flickr and Photobucket and through the Media Minibar, instantly find, stream and view photos and videos from YouTube, Photobucket and Flickr, and also get informed when your friends post new media content. Built-in quick links allows you to embed images in blogs and bookmark content streams that you like so that you can return to them in the Media MiniBar without having to go to Flickr.

2. Facebook Integration.
For fans of Facebook, Flock's superb integration features with the popular social networking site allows you to keep tabs on your Facebook life without ever having to go to Facebook. A left sidebar list all your Facebook friends, allows you to browse their photos, your invites, messages and other Facebook stuff. Updated profiles and any change in information from your friends can be easily seen at a glance.

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3. Superior Bookmarking Feature.
Flock's Favorites, with the ability to add tags and descriptions, has to be the best bookmarking feature among all the browsers. In addition to being able to save offline, it has a built-in ability to
save your favorite sites to ma.gnolia. or Del.icio.us, enabling you to access them from any browser on any PC. The favorites manager also comes integrated with a favorites and history section.


4. Flock's My World.
Keep up-to-date when your friends post new photos and videos or content from your favorite sites with Flock's custom homepage, "My World". It comes with a Yahoo search box and allows quick access to all the favorite sites you have visited recently together with your favorite feeds.

5. Easy Blog Publishing.
Flock's Blog Editor makes blog publishing easy. Draft online or offline or drag items from the Web Clipboard to put them in your posts and post them directly to blogs on Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Wordpress and many other blogging platforms.

6. Web clipboard.
This feature allows you grab your favorite images, text and links from the Web and save them in the sidebar for later use.

Besides the nifty features, most Firefox extensions like Google Toolbar and Greasemonkey work well in Flock and it is available for Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems. It is truly a social browser and essential for those who participate in multiple social networks.

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Free Web Browser.

With its market penetration, we sometimes forget that there are other browsers other than Windows Internet Explorer and because of its major share of the browser market, Internet Explorer is especially vulnerable to security attacks. For users tired of IE, there are alternative browsers, all available for free downloads, which are actually much safer and even faster than Internet Explorer.

SAFARI 3
Experience the Web, Apple style, with Safari. A fast, easy-to-use web browser with elegant interface and loads pages up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer 7. Features include block-up blocking, tabbed browsing, built-in RSS and a nifty feature called Snapback, which allows you to instantly snap-back to your original search results when you have strayed to far from where you had started. Available in both Mac and Windows version.

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OPERA 9
Opera comes packed with features that enriches your surfing experience. With Speed Dial, one can access favourite sites faster and security features like Fraud Protection can protect you against stealing of your private information. The built-in torrent link also allows you to download large files without having a need for a separate Bit Torrent application.

MOZILLA FIREFOX
Probably the most well known browser after IE and rightly so. An open-sourced browser, Firefox is pack with nifty features that delivers a better Web experience and is definitely much safer and faster than Internet Explorer. Features include tab browsing, search suggestions, Phishing protection, automatic updates and thousands of add-ins to personalise your browser.

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