Browse Happy

When I logged into my blog from Firefox 3.6, WordPress prompted me to upgrade my browser.

The amusing prompt also had a link to a site called BrowseHappy. This site contains info about the latest versions of major browsers viz. Ie, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera and links to download them. A nice initiative by WordPress.

If everybody had the latest browsers, both the users as well as web developers can breate easy.

Why I ditched Firefox and chose Chrome!

I used to love Firefox. I loved the browser’s innovative features. I was even a member of the Spread Firefox community and promoted usage of Firefox among my friends and family. But over the last one year the browser has changed from good to bad. It has changed from one of the most loved browsers to being one of the most hated ones, next only to the universally hated IE.

Whenever I used Firefox, it didn’t take more than 15-20 minutes for the CPU usage to peak, eventually hanging the browser, making me reload the page again. Believe me, with painfully slow internet connections its an awful experience. Gradually the browser began to consume more and more memory and became slower and slower. About a year ago I didn’t have much of a choice other than venting out my feelings, because Chrome was at its infant stages and I surely didn’t want to return to IE.

After a few months, Chrome came along as a light, super-fast and powerful browser with all its extensions and features. The choice was simple. Here are some reasons why I chose Chrome-

Startup time – Chrome is much much faster wrt to the startup time. While it takes about 7-8 seconds on Firefox, its just a fraction of the time on Chrome. Its blazing fast.

Each Tab is a different Process – Some sites contain a lot of JavaScript, CSS and AJAX. In Firefox, when such sites open, it freezes all the other tabs. For a user like me who has lots of tabs open simulatneously it could be really troublesome. Chrome resolves this making making each tab run as a separate process.  This ensures that one tab doesn’t hang the others. Chrome even has its own Task Manager which you can access by Shift+Esc. Also see some stats by typing about:memory on the Omnibox.

Clean and Simple with the Omnibox – The Address bar at the top often called as the Omnibox doubles up as a search box. This conserves much real estate and makes the browser look cooler and convenient.

No Status Bar – Until Chrome, I had been used to the status bar. But just by it not being present in Chrome I realized that it was just an useless addition which I never really needed. This too conserves much real estate.

Application shortcuts – Google Chrome enables me to create shortcuts for most of my frequently used web applications. This too helped me in conserving precious loading time.

I have been using Firefox for so long that I won’t hate it. My loyalties might have changed but I still have feelings and the desire to use Firefox. I would love to see some overhauls and expect the browser to bounce back. I’d be willing to shift to Firefox if they are able to attract me with powerful features.

PS : I’ve just started using Firefox 4 beta 3. I’m yet to reach my conclusion of the latest version. Hoping that it turns out to be good.

4 Ways to Save Orkut Pictures

Orkut is a great social networking site where you get to share your images with your friends. A few months back Orkut had disabled right click on images for security reasons. Whenever I used to add images to my profile there were a few friends who asked me to send me those images even when there are numerous ways for them to save the images themselves. If you are one of them, here are four ways using which you can save Orkut images instead of asking the owner of the pic to do so.

1. Drag the image to a new tab.

This is the simplest way to save an image. All you have to do is to drag the image to a new tab. The image which you get in the new tab can be easily saved by using Ctrl+S.

2. Image Fetcher Add-on

If you are a Firefox user, then you can install the Image Fetcher Add-on for Firefox. On installing this add-on you get a small save button at the nottom left corner of each image. Here you can select the destination folder and then save the image.

3. Firefox Tools

This is also applicable only for Firefox users. You have to click on the Tools menu and select Page Info. (Keyboard Shorcut – Ctrl+I). Here you got to the media tab and then locate the image which you want to save and then click on the Save As button to save it.

4. Print Screen

This is a crude way of saving images. You can capture the screen by cliucking on Print Screen key on your keyboard. This would capture the screen onto your clipboard. Now you can open MS Paint and paste it. Then you can crop the image to get the picture you want and save it.

There are many other ways to save the images which are avaiable. Thats one of the main reasons why you need to think twice before posting content online.

Firefox

Firefox is one of the most popular web browsers, commonly used by computer users in the world. I guess it needs no introduction. Firefox is the best ever browser that I’ve used till now. I’ve been using firefox ever since I actively started using the internet.

Why Firefox is so great..?

Best thing about Firefox is that it is open source. So there are thousands of people modifying the source code to create their own features, add-ons, plug-ins and themes. Firefox has indeed become a common phenomenon. This is because internet browsing has become more personalized. This is possible firefox allows you to install plug-ins and add-ons. Moreover it has been present in the market for a long period now and thanks to that there are a lot of features specifically designed for firefox which aren’t available in other browsers like Chrome.

Firefox is considered to be one of the safest browsers and are recommended by many IT experts. A sophisticated phishing security has been included in Firefox 3. If you don’t want any malware to enter into your PC, then using Firefox is a great choice.

It is the best option available among the web browsers available today. Click here to Download.