Firefox, the starred reasons to check it out

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As I further work my way though the 116* starred items in my Google Reader I thought I'd try and group them together into themed postings. This one is all about the application that I use for everything, the Mozilla Firefox internet web browser ("Firefox")

20 must-have Firefox extensions
These plug-ins give you souped-up functionality, better look and feel, and streamlined development tasks. And some are just plain cool.

I use quite a few of the ones listed but the best way to see what I use is to check my Facebook: Rock Your Firefox app currently listing:
That's a fair list but I couldn't imagine living my life online without del.icio.us Bookmarks, Gmail Manager and meebo. Life would be a lot less easy without the rest. And that's the point of the add-ons, they make life sooo much easier and brings the functionality I want right to the browser. Some might ask why don't I download client software to do the same ... well, in effect that's what I'm doing BUT I look at differently.

These are features I am adding into the one piece of the client software (browser). I get to add in the features I want. Plus, the features are still available online, for instance, my del.icio.us bookmarks are available using any browser and I don't need to have the add-on ... but I can if I want and bring the delicious bookmarking feature closer to me.

On Mozilla and The Evolution of the Browser
Interesting posts recently from two people who have an important role in defining the future of the browser. Firstly, I missed it while I was in transit in the US, but Mozilla developer Alex Faaborg posted the slides of his presentation at the recent Web 2.0 Expo. They are fascinating and show clearly where Mozilla is headed with Firefox 3. The slide below is Alex's representation of the evolution so far: from the browser as book (finding information) in the 90's, to browser as radio in 2005 (subscribe to info), to a vision of the browser as switchboard in 2008 (move information around).
And it's always good to know where it all came from to give a hint at where people are thinking of taking it.

And finally, here's the last of the Firefox specific starred items as at the time of this posting:
* hell, my count of starred items is going up ...

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