I love Firefox not because many claim that it is the safest web browser in the world. To me, there is no such thing as safe surfing on the internet. It is just like there is no such thing as a car that is totally safe to drive. You just need to be careful and not do some stupid things while you are at it.

At the same time, many claim that Firefox is the fastest web browser in the world. There is some truth in that statement when running it side by side to the fat Internet Explorer from Microsoft. However, when it is timed against Google Chrome, that opinion might not really hold 100% as some sites are loaded faster on Chrome compared to Firefox.

So, if those are not the reason to fall in love and to be still in love with a fox that is on fire, what is it then?

Well, it is none other than the Add-ons! Those little programs that hop into the back of the fox and make its fire hotter are the answers. Now I am going to share with you what Add-ons I have on my Firefox 3.0.3:

1. Download Statusbar – I use this download management add-on a lot for downloading pictures, plug-ins for my blog as well as some other things that I need to download. I chose this because it does not give me one of those big download windows that pop-up on your face when you are dwonloading something.
2. Downloadhelper – This add-on is primarily used to download YouTube videos to my hard disk so that they can be viewed offline. An FLV player is needed to play those video or you can install a video converter program and get this add-on to convert it to the format that you want automatically.
3. Entrecard Toolbar – I am an Entrecard member and this one helps me to do my daily drop.
4. Extended Statusbar – I like the status bar on Opera web browser and finally I found this. It shows percentage of the page loaded, number of loaded images, bytes downloaded, average download speed and load time. It is more for fun than anything else.
5. FireFTP – FTP program is a must have for those running their own sites. So, instead of installing a separate FTP program, I use this add-on and it has done nothing but wonders so far.
6. Flagfox – It displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website’s server and provides quick access to detailed location and web server information. For example, if your site/blog is on Blogger, then the US flag will appear. If you load this blog, the Malaysian flag will appear.
7. Gspace – Not G-spot! This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (4.1 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host. I have never actually used this so far.
8. Linky – A handy tool if you need to open multiple links on a page into multiple tabs and then you can visit them one by one. You are going to be sure that you would not miss a link.
9. Resurrect Pages – This one performs like magic. Dead pages, broken links, the scourge of the internet. Powerhouse sites like Slashdot and Digg can bring a server to its knees. What do we do when a page is dead but we still want to see it? Call in the clerics, and perform a resurrection ceremony! Or, the easier route, use this extension. I had even managed to copy some entries from my defunct blog at Modblog using this.
10. SeacrhStatus – A quick way to view that PageRank and Alexa rank of the site/blog that you are visiting. It displays the Google PageRank, Alexa rank and Compete ranking anywhere in your browser, along with fast keyword density analyser, keyword/nofollow highlighting, backward/related links, Alexa info and other SEO tools.
11. Tweak Network – I was using Fasterfox on Firefox 2 before and it is still in the experimental stage form Firefox 3. Therefore, I switched to this. With Tweak Network, you can tweak these settings, and you might be able to speed up the loading of web pages. You can also increase the maximum number of simultaneous downloads from a site (the default is only four). Please bear in mind that it can not do anything if the bottleneck is your own internet connection.
12. TwitterFox – I need to see what people that I follow on Twitter are doing and talking about. This is the best tool to do that so that I don’t miss a tweet.
13. Zemanta – An excellent blogging companion for me. Zemanta expands the author’s regular blogging dashboard, populating it on the fly with content suggestions relevant to the current text. It presents images, links, articles, tags in a simple interface. It encourages re-use and linking to other content with as little effort as possible – a single click.

There you go! What about you?

If you are not a Firefox user, you can go here.

Finally I have the chance to play around with the newest open source browser on the block. Google Chrome that I installed last night has been put to some test by loading up some of my favorite sites and blogs. Since I am still not using this web browser fully in place of my trusty Firefox 3, the test was only to see in terms of speed rather than anything else.

Compared to the Firefox 3 there was a slight speed improvement when the same sites were being loaded on Chrome. On average, sites loaded slightly faster than Firefox 3 and obviously, much faster compared to my IE 7. It was fast but not enough to throw out Firefox completely.

By the way, Mozilla is not done yet as they are going to release Firefox 3.1 by end of the year that comes with JavaScript acceleration technology called TraceMonkey. Firefox enhanced with TraceMonkey has managed to beat Google Chrome Beta as reported on Firefox counters Google’s browser speed test.

In summary, Firefox 3 will remain as my main browser for now. I will have to wait for Google Chrome to be out of beta before deciding to change that. I guess when that happens, I will have to pit Chrome against the Firefox 3.1 that will be having almost the same technology as Chrome if not better. One thing for sure, IE 7 will not be needed anymore.

Here is a screen shot of this blog loaded on Chrome.

There you go! Chrome beta is a simple looking web browser and lighter on the resources but Firefox 3 is still my choice for now. It would be an interesting fight between Firefox and Chrome and may be this time IE would really feel the heat.

I am sure by now many have heard or even downloaded and tried the new open source web browser by Google. The Google Chrome is still in its Beta stage but my hands are itchy as usual to try it out and see what the buzz is all about.

This is my problem. New things excite me and many times I have taken the risks of trying them out without considering the consequences such as would it crash my notebook or would it make my other web browsers inoperable. I guess that it the fun side of it. Adventure is what everyone should be looking for, right?

So, as you can see, I am still downloading the installer and while that is being done, I am writing this post…

The part that interest me about Google Chrome is this:

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better . By keeping each tab in an isolated “sandbox”, we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built V8, a more powerful JavaScript engine, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.

Let see whether Google can walk the talk on this one. Anyway, I’ll post about my first experience with this new browser tomorrow. it would be interesting to see how this blog will look like under this new web browser.