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Firefox

Just browsing

Friday, May 25th, 2012

Way back when the internet was still in it’s baby shoes, the only options for web browsers were Internet Explorer and Netscape. Thankfully things have changed and today you can choose a web browser according to your own needs – whatever they might be. We made some notes so you can have more time to surf the net.

Nowadays most browsers are more than adequate. The leaders in the race, Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, are all packed with handy functionalities and on par with new developments. In the end it all depends on what you prefer.

The most important requirement is probably speed and here it seems as if Google Chrome is taking the lead. With “Chrome Instant” you see the pages you are looking for even before you’ve finished typing the address or title. An application that thinks ahead – literally! Chrome is  the only browser with a built-in Flash-player and pdf reader. It also handles HTML5 the best of all browsers and with it’s new hardware acelaration it’s increasingly becoming the popular choice.

However Google Chrome is not the only fast browser. Internet Explorer 9 gave Microsoft’s fading browser a much needed need boost, with JavaScript speed comparable to Chrome, and even started its own performance improving trend—graphics hardware acceleration. IE9’s Javascript is comparable with Chrome and maybe IE9’s greatest advantages is it’s integration with Windows 7. You can also permanently “pin” websites on your taskbar – a handy extra if you don’t like using bookmarks. Just remember you need at least Windows 7 or Vista to run Internet Explorer 9.

Do you want to synchronise all your bookmarks, settings and internet history seamlessly? Them Firefox is for you. It can even sync with it’s own mobile Android version. Firefox also has the most innovative way of organising  a lot of tabs with it’s panorama grouping function. Firefox’s startup speed, memory usage and security has improved quite a bit over time and can keep up with any of the other browsers.

If you want to have a look at the detailed statistics of each browser’s performance,  read more here.

SOURCE: www.lifehacker.com

Need for speed?

Friday, May 25th, 2012

We always need more time and want to do everything faster. To find something fast on the internet is just one way to save time.

Here are a few fast ways to make sure you get the most out of your browser’s functionality.

1. Use a fast browser

Fairly obvious isn’t it? In a previous article we looked at the various browsers and their performance. By now you know that all browsers are faster than others and Google Chrome is currently winning the race when it comes to speed.

2. Disable Flash

Flash websites are all over the web and extremely popular.  Although they look impressive, they also slow down your browsing experience considerably. Rather turn off Flash by default and reactivate it when you really want to see the Flash animations. Some browsers require an add-on to block Flash. For Chrome, you need the extension Flashblock. There’s also a Flashblock extension for Firefox. Internet Explorer has a built-in tool you can access by clicking Tools | Manage Add-ons.

3. Get rid of all those toolbars

More  toolbars, slower speed. As simple as that. And do you really need all those toolbars? Some toolbars  take up computer memory while others are eating away on your bandwidth and sending and receiving data in the background. (and you thought they were just sitting there doing nothing!)

4.  Use tabs, not windows

Too many tabs can cause problems, but they’re very handy when it comes to browsing efficiency. How do tabs speed up your experience? The first is all about organization. With multiple tabs in a single window, it becomes quite a bit faster to locate the page you need to work on. You don’t have to maximize a window, discover that it’s not the right one, minimize it, maximize a new window… until you find the correct one. A single window open with multiple tabs is far easier to search. This is not the only way tabs can help you. Browsers like Chrome treat each tab as an individual process (instead of a child process of a parent). So when a Web site causes a tab to crash, you can close that one tab and not lose all the other tabs. This behavior is not a standard at the moment, so you’ll need to switch over to the Chrome browser to take advantage of it.

SOURCE: http://www.techrepublic.com/


 

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