According to Net Market Share, Firefox has a 24.59% market share. Not too bad for an open source web browser. If you’re still on some version of Internet Explorer, check out my previous article “Ditch Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8” on why you should be dumping it. Here are a few tips that I’ve found essential:

Use these techniques to outfox other web browsers

1. Use keywords: Chrome and Safari both have wonderful “Speed Dial-like” quick launch pages to bookmark your most visited websites, but I find it too slow. I don’t want to have to write “Facebook” or “Gmail” or “Google Reader” or god forbid the sometimes long URLs for some blog. To get to where you need faster, create a keyboard keyword shortcut. Here’s how:

Bookmark the website (Control/Command + D). Ex) Facebook. Then go to the “Bookmarks” menu. Click “Organize Bookmarks.” Navigate to where the bookmark is (usually in the Bookmarks Menu or Bookmarks Toolbar) and click on it. There should be a little arrow icon for more options situated at the bottom of the window. Next to “Keyword,” type a shortcut. For example, for Facebook, I keyworded it to the letter “F.” Now when I type “F” and then press enter, Firefox brings me right to Facebook. I’ve done the same for other websites I visit every day, several times a week. Here’s what I have: YouTube = “YT,” Gmail = “G,” Google Reader = “R,” Yahoo = “Y,” and “Ploked” = “P.” These are just my shortcuts, but I find it has sped up the time I spend on Facebook and YouTube by getting me in and getting me out. The faster I can say “done,” the faster I can start doing more important things! Read the rest of this entry »

By now, just about everyone and their grandma knows about the whole Google versus China fiasco. News that big can’t be quelled; I’ll bet even the technology averse Amish know all about it.

What a lot of people don’t know is that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) played a role in helping hackers attack Google and essentially start up this entire debate on internet freedom. McAfee security experts discovered the attacks on Google, allegedly made from within the Chinese government, were made possible by security vulnerabilities in IE 6. The attacks on Google are now dubbed “Operation Aurora”. The code for the attacks was released to the public on Friday, January 15th.

According to McAfee, the security hole in IE 6 works by tricking a user into visiting a malicious website which then compromises their entire operating system, relinquishing control to an attacker lying in wait. Microsoft was notified and confirmed that the exploit was extremely dangerous.

Since last Thursday, January 21st, Microsoft has issued security patches for all versions of Internet Explorer, but the damage has already been done. In an interesting public relations stunt, they’re advising consumers to upgrade to Windows Vista or 7 as Aurora remains a bigger threat to computers running Windows 2000 or XP. Vista and Windows 7 have security patches that the other two do not. Microsoft has advised users to ditch the ancient IE 6 that is still installed on many machines.

If Microsoft telling you to give up on IE 6 and upgrade to IE 7 or IE 8 doesn’t phase you, then maybe information security organizations in Germany and France will. Officials from both countries have publicly advised all users to ditch IE 6.

Developers for open source web browsers must be cheering because it’s no longer a question of whether IE sucks or not. The answer is an overwhelming “IE SUCKS”.

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