Firefox is now the number 2 web browser currently in use. While Firefox only holds 25% of the market share, it is gaining more and more every day. As Firefox is my favorite browser, I wanted to share a few of my favorite shortcuts. Even if you use a different browser, give some of these a try and see if they work for you.

All of these shortcuts are a combination of keystrokes, so when you read ‘Ctrl + C’, simply press the ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘C’ key.

My Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl + L Go to the address bar.
• Ctrl + K Go to the search bar.
• Alt + left arrow Navigate back one page.
• Alt + right arrow Navigate forward one page.
• Ctrl + R Reload the page.
• Esc Stop the page from loading.
• Ctrl + + Zoom in.
• Ctrl + – Zoom out.
• Ctrl + T Opens a new Tab.
• Ctrl + W Closes current Tab.
• Ctrl + Tab Move to the next Tab.
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab Move back to previous Tab.
• Alt + 1 through 8 Move to the 1st through 8th Tabs.
• Alt + 9 Move to the last Tab that is open.

My Favorite Mouse Shortcuts

• Middle click on link Open that link in a new Tab.
• Middle click on a Tab Close that Tab.
• Ctrl + Scroll up Zoom in.
• Ctrl + Scroll down Zoom out.
• Shift + Scroll up Navigate forward. The number of times you scroll equals the number of pages you scroll through.
• Shift + Scroll down Navigate backward. The number of times you scroll equals the number of pages you scroll through.

This is not the whole list of Firefox shortcuts by any means (the complete list is here). There are many many more, however, these are the shortcuts I tend to use every day. Also keep in mind that there are other shortcuts that do the same thing, for example, backspace will navigate you back one page and shift + backspace will navigate you forward one page. I know this, yet I still always use Alt + left arrow and Alt + right arrow.

3 Extra shortcuts

When typing in a web address, the following shortcuts will auto-complete the address for you. For example, type wlmtips into the address bar and then press

• Ctrl + Enter This will auto-complete .com address. So wlmtips will become wlmtips.com
• Shift + Enter This will auto-complete .net address. So wlmtips will become wlmtips.net
• Ctrl + Shift + Enter This will auto-complete .org address. So wlmtips will become wlmtips.org

Have you ever been reading an email or surfing the net and come across a word you wanted to lookup, but didn’t because it takes too much time?  Even with Dictionary widgets and websites like Dictionary.com it still takes too long to have to copy and paste the word or wait on the internet.

So, I have the solution for you Mac users out there.  This quick little tip will allow you to lookup the definition of any word in any Mac native program (Coco).  The best part is the Dictionary application does NOT need to be open or even running in the background.

All you need to do is hold down Control+Command+D with your mouse hovering over the word you wish to lookup.  You can even continue to hold down the keyboard shortcut and move the mouse from one word to another.  The dictionary description will automatically update for each word.

If you are not sure what programs this will work with, here is a small list: Safari, Mail, TextEdit, Text Wrangler, Comic Life, iWeb and some other native Mac programs.

However, this shortcut will NOT work with programs that are not written in Coco.  So even your favorite programs like Firefox, Thunderbird, Opera, Camino and Flock wont work with this shortcut.

Starting later today (June 17, 2008) Firefox 3 will be available for download.  To celebrate the release of their new browser, Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) is throwing a party.

Join millions of other Firefox fans for Download Day 2008.  On this day Mozilla is hoping to set a Guinness World Record for the most amount of software downloads in 24 hours.  This is a very smart advertising ploy by Mozilla to help spread the word about Firefox.

If you don’t use Firefox, or at least a browser based on Firefox, then you should look at some alternative browsers.

However, if you are Firefox user and haven’t tried FF3 yet, you are in for a pleasant surprise.  I have been using the release candidate for a while and love it.  It seems as if they have fixed everything that was wrong with FF2 as well as included some new features.

Some of these new features include: better performance, smart bookmarks, improved download manager and add-on manager.  Some other notables are better security features such as malware and phishing alerts.

When the Firefox 3 release candidates became available not all Firefox 2 extensions worked with the new version.  In fact, there are a few that still don’t work with Firefox 3.  However, the majority of your favorite extensions have been updated to work with Firefox 3.

With all that being said, Firefox 3 is much better than its predecessor and is a joy to use.  I strongly recommend you check it out (and tell your friends about it too).   Happy downloading!

What do you love/hate about FF3?  Are you just excited about Download Day 2008? Let us hear about it in the comments!

According to a lot of stats I’ve found online, Internet Explorer still holds the largest percentage of users. With Windows having the largest market share, this makes complete sense even though there are plenty of easy and free alternatives. Here are a few alternatives to IE for those looking for something new or those just wanting to play around with new web browser (try one or two, you might actually like them):

Firefox: I know, I know, everyone knows about Firefox (but you’d be surprised how many people don’t know about it). I hear a lot nowadays that Firefox is the IE killer and that it’s safer and so on… I know it’s safer, and I hope it’s the IE killer, because I can’t stand IE, but is it really a better browser? My answer: YES!! And here’s why: extensions. Firefox’s extensions are amazing, and make my web browsing experience much easier. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Ten Reasons to Switch to Firefox

Flock: I’m no expert on Flock, in fact I only installed it last night, but so far so good. As an experienced Firefox user, nothing could have gone smoother. Once installed, it copied all my bookmarks from Firefox with one click. Flock is definitely an experience all social networkers and bloggers should give a try. The My World Home Page is a nice touch allowing me to see my favorite sites, my feeds, and my social networking activity all in one place. Addicted to Facebook or Youtube? One click will give you all the new updates in the sidebar. For bloggers, the blogging tool allows you to write and post articles to your site within the browser! If you are constantly uploading pictures to Flickr or Picasa, you can do this with one click as well. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Flock Browser: Is it Worth the Switch?

Opera: Firefox is based on Opera. In fact, Opera had tabbed browsing and integrated searching before Firefox did. Opera is designed to be a light-weight Internet suite with built-in email, RSS, and chat. It is also known for its mini version which is available for mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs. If you want a browser that won’t slow down your computer, give Opera a try. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Taking a Closer Look at the Opera Browser

Safari: The default web browser for Mac OS X is Safari. However, the newest version is also available for Windows users. Safari’s popularity caused Microsoft to stop developing IE for Mac. Safari is known for being one of the fastest web browsers when it comes to page load times. It also sports all the “standard” features such as pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated search and so on. So, if you are envious of all your Mac friends, download Safari and enjoy a browser that just works. Works on Windows and Mac.

Switch to Safari? – A Look at Safari for Windows

For more information on these browsers, as well as others, check out the following links:

Wikipedia – Browser Comparison
Alternative Browser Alliance – Web Browser List
Dan’s Web Tips – A complete list of browsers, past and present.
Flock vs. Firefox – Which to use

Images taken from the following site:

http://www.whichbrowser.net

Which browser do you use? Is there one that we didn’t include? Let us know in the comments…

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Are you using Ubuntu and want to use the latest versions of Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird? If you don’t want to wait for the Ubuntu repositories to be updated, you can use repositories straight from Mozilla. Check out the Ubuntu wiki for more information on installing the new versions of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. The MozillaTeam also has a wiki page that lists all the Ubuntu packages.

For Hardy users, add the following repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu hardy main universe

For Gutsy users, add the following repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu gutsy main universe

For Feisty users, add the following repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu feisty main universe

For Dapper users, add the following repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu dapper main universe

If you use Gutsy or Hardy, simply install the ‘firefox-3.0‘ package to get the latest testing release of Firefox 3.0. Currently, the latest version is 3.0b3pre. The repositories also contain the latest official release of Thunderbird (2.0.0.12).

If you use an older version of Ubuntu, Feisty or Dapper, the repositories should at least have the latest stable version of Firefox and Thunderbird (2.0.0.12).

Once you have Firefox 3.0 installed, you will need to install Flash.

First make sure you have the Adobe Flash plugin installed, since it is not included with any version of Firefox.

sudo update-flashplugin
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

The flashplugin-nonfree was made before the Firefox3 pre-releases, therefore, the only way to install Flash is to manually add it to the libraries. To do this, we will link the libraries from the default install location. This way, if you upgrade flashplugin-nonfree in the future, it will automaticaly be updated for Firefox 3.0 as well.

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b3/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so

If you receive an error then you are probably using a different version of Firefox 3.0 and you will need to change this command. The best way to find out what this line should read is to navigate to /usr/lib/ and locate the firefox-3.0 folder. This folder name might be slightly different. Once you know the folder name, you can substitute it in the previous command for ‘firefox-3.0b3′. Once you have done this, close Firefox, reopen it and go to Adobe’s test site. This will test to ensure you successfully linked flashplugin-nonfree to Firefox 3.0.

Information on how to install Flash for Firefox 3.0 was taken from the following website.

If you use one of the older versions of Ubuntu and still want to have Firefox 3.0, try some of the following links.

Lifehacker

Linux owns

Mike’s Ubuntu blog

Topical Matt

Ubuntu Forums

Ubuntu Geek

Pictures were taken from the following website respectively:

http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/librarylog/firefox.jpg

http://static.howstuffworks.com

http://newtech.aurum3.com/images/firefox-3.jpg

http://www.basement.org/