Fire Up Firefox

In the past when mentioning Firefox to patrons, I would flip- flop the words and say and write "Foxfire" instead, I'm not sure why. Ever since we added Firefox to the desktop of the EIN computers, I have not made the mistake and I have confused fewer patrons:)

I had no trouble completing Thing #17 this week. It was pretty easy to locate how to create Tabs in Firefox. Even though it is billed as an alternative to Internet Explorer, I used the same process to find tabs in Firefox that I did in Internet Explorer.

I noticed something interesting about the my process during Thing #17. I remember when I started out using internet browsers, I felt comfortable completing commands and changing things by going through the menus. I gradually learned to rely on right-clicking in certain places as a way to find certain commands quicker than if using the menu. When I began the search for tabs this week, I started out by right-clicking on the Navigation Toolbar and found the option to use tabs. I didn't try going through the "File Menu" to find "New Tab" until much later in the excercise. It took the completion of this excercise to realize that I've adapted to a new way of working with an Internet browser.

On to Thing # 18: I felt a little hesitant about finding and adding an "Add-on" program to the Firefox Browser. If I was going to add an additional application, I wanted it to make a subtle change and have some significance to me. The hard part was reading though the recommended and popular applications and choosing one. Many of the ones I remembered dealt with the media aspects of the Internet, such as pictures and movies. Since I still primarily use the Internet to read text, I chose a program called "Answers 2.3.50". It's hard to explain unless I describe the situation in which I used it. I went to Google and typed in "Don't Fear the Reaper", a song by Blue Oyster Cult that I had going in my head at the time. Then I clicked on the Wikipedia article about the song. After placing the arrow over the phrase "Rolling Stone Magazine," I heald down the "Alt" key at the same time as clicking on the phrase. A pop-up bubble appeared below the phrase and presented a short description about Rolling Stone Magazine. The description included information about its founding and the type of material that you it covers. I can understand why the Answers program is convinient. If one starts to conduct a search on one topic and gets temporarily distracted by a different topic, he or she can use Answers to satisfy their curiosity without loosing focus on their original task.

Even though I enjoyed working with my choice application, I also realized that it is a bonus feature and that I could have conducted my search without it and be okay. I think that it is nice to explore the different programs that people create and share with others and at the same time I don't like the idea of Add-ons because they make use lazier computer users. I would feel better about Add-ons in general if more of them addressesd a subject or feature that has not been touched upon much or at all, then I can see their importance.

Continuing with Add-ons, I tried to think about the types of Add-ons that our patrons would enjoy. I thought of a few features that would eliminate the staff's need to answer certain mundane questions. Typing letters and e-mail messages are popular here, so a dictionary/thesaurus/spelling check feature would be a welcome addition. So would a clock and a calendar similar to the toolbar in Vista. Here are some others:

- an automatic highlighter
- applications for checking stocks or traveling options
- and of course anything to address watching or listening to media or working with photos and social networking sites

I'm sure we can work well without these features, but I'll also admit that it can be facinating to look at the Add-ons and see examples of peoples' creativity.


Lastly, I wanted to share how I applied the use of Firefox to my work this week. I had a patron who had no Internet skills and wanted me to find some information On CD rates. I opend up Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, found the information, printed the page, and copied some of the information into Word. I did not experience anything different about the process than if I decided to conduct the same steps in Internet Explorer. As long as the patron leaves happy with the results and as long as I can use it to help others, I feel comfortable continuing to experiment with Firefox.