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Search engine with capabilities for looking at information online

Search engine with capabilities for looking at information online

Vote: (526 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Mozilla

Version: 122.0

Works under: Mac

Also available for Windows Android

Vote:

Program license

(526 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Mozilla

122.0

Works under:

Also available for

Mac

Windows Android

Pros

  • Fast and memory-light
  • Syncs passwords and preferences
  • Offers a clean interface
  • A privacy-first browser

Cons

  • Reports of some website compatibility issues

Mozilla Firefox has a few extras to offer that no other web browser can match. Sure, this software can take you anywhere on the internet, and it can do so while loading page content in a matter of seconds, but that's not all. Mozilla Firefox also describes itself as a privacy-first tool. In this age, an age when internet privacy is at risk, it's no longer good enough to be one of the fastest browsers on the planet. You also need a net gateway that'll protect you from rogue advertisements, hackers, id theft, malware, and all those other shadowy threats that inhabit cyberspace.

According to the designers of Mozilla's all-star internet browser, this is the application to install if you're worried about online security issues. Let's face it, the world wide web spies on you. That's not necessarily a bad thing, for most of these trackers are above board data applets. They're the cookies that track your viewing habits and allow vendors to target you with ads. Again, that's not a fundamentally illicit action, websites just have a habit of knowing certain facts about you and your net travels. All the same, it's an annoying, perhaps even creepy part of your browsing experience. Then there are the more shady individuals and groups out there, with their viruses and phishing tools working to steal your identity, access your computer, or infect it with some nasty ransomware. What does this prove? Simple, you need a web browser that's as secure as it is fast and reliable. Mozilla Firefox could just be that application.

Over the last few years, this once celebrated application has fallen off the radar of Windows users. It's now back, and it's back with something of a bang. At least as fast as its competitors, Firefox now flies through speed tests. Benchmarks put the browser in the lead as a fast page loader, so text and media load as soon as an HTML link is clicked. In less than 4.3 seconds, you'll navigate over to a new site, complete with all CSS styling and page content. The program engine keeps the speed consistently high, even when a number of browser tabs are open. Other browsers slow to a crawl when more than 6 tabs are open at the same time. With sidebars, privacy tools, extensions, data breach alerts and anti-tracking capabilities aplenty, Mozilla Firefox really has reinvented itself over the last few years. Indeed, there's even a privacy protection panel in the mix, which tells you exactly how many times the software has blocked a site tracker.

A 30% drop in memory consumption shrinks the browser's resource allocation footprint small so that its clean interface can fly through trackers and content-loaded sites without any slowdown. So far so good, there's speed and privacy built straight into the program's software core, but is that where the improvements and refinements end? Not quite yet, there are a handful of feature-rich extras still to describe. For one thing, Mozilla Firefox now incorporates a powerful syncing feature. To use it, create a Firefox account, then all of your passwords, program preferences, and bookmarks will be stored elsewhere. If your computer hard drive bites the dust, as soon as it's restored, you'll be automatically logging back into your favorite websites as Firefox auto-fills your passwords. That's a blessing for those of us who can never remember a password or username.

Pros

  • Fast and memory-light
  • Syncs passwords and preferences
  • Offers a clean interface
  • A privacy-first browser

Cons

  • Reports of some website compatibility issues