Making the Switch

I think I'm finally ready to make that big life change. The one that seems so daunting. The one that I've agonized over for ages.

I'm switching to Firefox as my default browser.

There are things that I like about Internet Explorer. Most notable is the native ability to customize and combine the toolbars. That ability is, in fact, the primary reason it has taken me so long to make the switch.

Generally, I've used the two standard toolbars plus Google, Yahoo, Dictionary.com, and a long host of direct links. In IE I can put all those things into 2 lines of toolbars, leaving me maximum space in my actual browser window. Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't allow you to put multiple toolbars on one line so including all my standard toolbars would cost me a full 6 lines and irritatingly shrink my browser window to an annoyingly small size. Actually, that reduces to 5 lines since Dictionary.com is included in the google search bar add-on that I've got. But some of google's toolbar functions were previously unavailable without using the entire googlebar. Things like the Blogger button which I've grown to love.

But today, while discussing with a friend the advantages and disadvantages of Firefox (he's a dedicated Firefox user) I started playing with the browser again. Lo and behold! I discoverd that you could drag individual buttons and functions to whichever toolbar you wish. Yahoo's functions are not currently draggable so that toolbar still has to stay, but I put all my searchbar functions as well as my favorite Google/Blogger functions into my bookmark bar. So, having eliminated the need for the search toolbar and the Google toolbar, I'm left with only 3 - main/search/google, bookmarks/links, and Yahoo (which I've also customized by adding a couple of programmable buttons).

This I can live with - especially with the advantages of tabbed browsing.

So today I officially become a Firefox. Bye bye IE.

Get your own Firefox