Firefox3146;s Firepower

The search engine makes trawling the Net more enjoyable

INTERNET geeks have a new weapon to launch their assault on the World Wide Web. This one is smarter, faster and fully loaded and is called Firefox3. While regular Firefox users had no reason to complain about the earlier version, Mozilla has made life a little better with the latest offering8212;over 17 million users have downloaded it since the launch earlier this month. But what are the the applications8212;there are hundreds of them to choose from8212;that make Internet Explorer8217;s latest headache so special?

The top five features
PIC LENS: This one takes the cake, though it8217;s not a new feature. Pics Lens transforms image search into a 3D experience8212;it8217;s like taking a stroll through a gallery of the images you searched for, just pull close the ones you like and push back the ones you don8217;t, ala Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Though you8217;d still prefer to search the old fashioned Google way, this is a great tool to play around with. As default it shows you latest video releases in listed sites.

EASY GESTURES: This one is for the proverbial couch8212;er Net8212;potato who doesn8217;t want to move even his mouse. Install the feature and everything you want to do is at the tip of your mouse literally, you don8217;t have to budge an inch. Takes some getting used to though.

FAST DIAL/SPEED DIAL: Have to credit this feature to the Opera browser, which had it at least a year ago. It works like the speed dial of your phone: no need to type the URLs of your favourite site or go to the bookmarks. Just add the links to the slots and click the screens shots for direct access to the sites.

BETTER GMAIL: This one helps tweak Gmail, tells you the nature of attachments without opening the mail and lets you add skins, folders, filter and signatures which Google has not yet thought off. Anyway, since Firefox is promoted by Google, expect these features whenever Gmail goes for an upgrade.

SPLIT BROWSER: Tiles all your tabs to ensure you can have a full throttle surfing experience. Two, 3, 6, 88212;it can tile as many sites as you want.

And the others
IMAGE ZOOM: Want to see a picture in bigger size. Simple. Just right click and zoom.

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WEB MAIL NOTIFIER: Just log in once to you mail account using the application and it will keep you posted every time you open Firefox. Not recommended for multi-user computers.

SXIPPER: Takes charge of your passwords, so that you don8217;t have to log in ever again. Can manage multiple IDs on one site, but again not recommended for multi-user computers and, yes, there could be security issues.
That8217;s not all. There many more add-ons, from the useful to the downright trivial, you can add to the Firefox. Most the country specific features8212;like the BSE, NIFTY scroll8212;for Firefox2 have not yet made their way to the new version, but it8217;s just a matter of time. We, however, found one that helps keep a tab on BSNL/MTNL bandwidth utilisation.
Thanks to the e-quake alert option, you get to know every time a temblor hits the Richter scale8212;today there was a 3.5 in Rat Islands, wherever that is.