Firefox has many useful addons and the above five certainly excel in their categories and I fully recommend them to you just as I recommend you get Firefox.

Whenever updated versions of Firefox are available, Firefox automatically downloads them and installs them upon the next time you restart Firefox. These updates include mainly security features that help keep you safe, making Firefox the leading internet browser in safety.

Firefox has themes

Finding an internet browser that suits your style can be hard... But that was before Firefox came into the picture. Firefox has an endless amount of themes that are simple to install. These themes change the Firefox colours, buttons, and other features to fit your style.

Firefox add-ons/extensions help make your life easier

The add-ons/extensions on Firefox are endless. You can get add-ons that will control your media players through a control panel in Firefox. You can get an add-on that displays a screen saver to help protect your screen when you wander off. You can even get an add-on that lets you decide whether to save or open PDF files when you click on them.

Firefox is better for viewing pages

Excluding Microsoft pages, which are rigged to work best on Internet Explorer (made by Microsoft), and to work poorly on other browsers; Firefox is the best browser for viewing websites. I am not sure exactly what is it that makes these sites run better, but Firefox pulls it off.

Firefox restores pages when it closes improperly

We've all experienced losing the pages we were on due to browsers/computers freezing up, power going off, etc. And we have all been ticked off when we lost whatever page we were viewing or working on. If Firefox closes improperly, when it restarts it will prompt you to restore your last session or start a new one.

Firefox lists recently closed tabs

Under the history menu, Firefox has a section that lists recently closed tabs. So if you accidentally close it, there are no worries, as you can easily get back to where you were with 2 simple clicks. Even if you didn't close the tab accidentally, it is great for finding any recent page you looked at.

Firefox has built in search engines

Tired of typing in URL's to search engine sites? Firefox provides a section where you can chose your default search engine/site (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia), and you can type in what you want to search on that site. Whether you want to find info on identity theft on Google, or want to look up the history of the Jaw Harp on Wikipedia, Firefox brings you this convenience. Note: This feature is amazing for dial-up users.

Firefox imports Internet Explorer settings

For Internet Explorer users: When you first install Firefox, it will import your existing Internet Explorer settings, including your Favorites, cookies, stored passwords, and a variety of other data. This saves you a lot of time, and makes switching to Firefox even more convenient.

Firefox has keyboard shortcuts

Firefox and Internet Explorer share many of the same keyboard shortcuts. So if you are used to certain shortcuts on Internet Explorer, than changing to Firefox is certainly going to be convenient and the only difference you will notice is that pages load quicker, there are less errors, and it's a better browsing experience.

Firefox is just plain awesome!

There are so many reasons why Firefox is the best browser to chose, but what tops it off is that the experience itself is unique, and after trying out Firefox for yourself, you too will understand this reason. So if you don't have Firefox yet, what are you waiting for!?! It's free, and it's the best! Happy internet browsing!

1. StumbleUpon

   The StumbleUpon add-on is basically the same as the tool bar you will download on the StumbleUpon homepage. One advantage of downloading the Fire Fox version is you will receive update screens from Fire Fox like you do on every add-on. The StumbleUpon tool bar will do two things for a blogger or freelance writer. The first is, when you sign up for an account you can start submitting your content to the StumbleUpon database which will effectively bring large streams of traffic to your site if used correctly. Another benefit is if you specialize in a certain niche you can select to “Stumble” through content in that niche to get ideas for new content.

2. SeoQuake

   SeoQuake is an add-on more specifically meant for people with their own blog; however it is of some use to freelance writers as well. SeoQuake can be placed in a few ways. You can have it as a tool bar, or a bar that will open just beneath the tabs. This bar can tell you the Google Page Rank of a page, how many times Google has indexed the page, Yahoo Links, Alexa Rating, the Web Archive age of the site, the number of internal links, external links, and the density of keywords. There are a few more options you can select if you want them, but it makes the tool bar a little too big. If you click on any of the above options it will bring you to the page that is feeding it the information. So it will bring you to the Alexa site, or Google search engine showing all the indexed pages. It is very helpful for bloggers to see this information.

3. QuickNote

   QuickNote is a simple note taking pad. What makes this more effective than the wordpad installed on your computer? You can easily pull this up from your browser, and it's easier to take notes with this than a wordpad on your computer. When you would like to take a note you go to Tools > QuickNote and you will have three options depending upon your needs. You can have the QuickNote open in a new tab, open in a side bar (similar to opening favorites in a side bar), or have it open and float above the page like a normal wordpad would. It will automatically open every page you've saved on the QuickNote, so if you close it you can open it just as quickly and continue you where you left off. Great for taking notes on potential ideas, saving links, or just starting your articles.

4. Split Browser

   Split Browser is a very handy add-on for those of you doing research on products. When listing details on products such as specific numbers, or if you're writing an article with another screen open giving you information this is the tool for you. You can effectively combine this add-on with QuickNote if you're a freelance writer by opening QuickNote in a new tab. If you are a blogger simply open your blogs posting area. Then you can split your browser screen so that your typing area is on half the screen while your information is on the other side. Now you can easily write segments and then read on without having to switch screens.

5. Zotero

   Zotero is a quick and automated way to cite your resources accurately. Before you may have used an automated site where you fill out information such as date accessed, website name, author, ect and it gave you correct citation, or you credited the author incorrectly with a simple link to the “original article”. It integrates very easily with Microsoft Word which is what most freelance writers are using anyways. Never again be emailed by an author who thinks you've incorrectly cited their articles.

All of these add-ons are best used by freelance writers and bloggers. They can help you reduce the time you spend writing every day. With the time you save by using these tools you can write more, or be done sooner. I have all of these downloaded and they are spyware free to my knowledge. I'm not responsible for any problems occurring from the result of downloading these.

Web developers aren’t happy with this. Some say that it is even a shame that Microsoft hit the market with a browser in this stage. The release candidate will at first only be available in English, and will detect installed add-ons and toolbars automatically and will temporarily eliminate or automatically update all components of which is known that they can cause stability problems. In September the Arabic, Finnish, German, Japanese, Spanish and French versions will be available and the definitive version of IE7 is planned for the end of this year. For download-information and a changelog, you are in the right place at the meuktracker.