THE INTERNETS, I HAVE THEM

Ok, so an internet browser is a pretty straightforward choice.

And it is Firefox.

"BUT WAIT!" the crowds cry! "I USE INTERNET EXPLORER!"

Get over it. IE7 just got around to implementing features that were decided upon as standards 5 YEARS ago. YEARS.

Yes, there might be a website or two that don't display things exactly the way you'd rather they be displayed. For every page like that, I'll show you three features that lead to more productivity, and greater ease of use.

Security is the main reason I went to Firefox years ago, but that's a hard sell for most users. Security is invisible for most users. They don't know a system is insecure until it is too late.

But there are now candy options for the average user.

My top 5?

1. Adblock. A plugin that blocks out annoying ads, and leaves pages without blinking, shouting, music playing, obnoxious billboards.
2. Tabbed Browsing. Yes, IE7 now has tabbed browsing, but seeing as Firefox has been doing it for three times as long, they are better at it. Cool features like "Undo close tab" have been worth the cost of admission alone.
3. VideoDownloadHelper. Simply pull down flash videos to save on your harddrive without the annoyance of Keepvid or other malarky.
4. Foxmarks. It syncronizes my bookmarks without a del.ici.ous or anything else required, so if I bookmark a website on any of my computers, it will show up on all of them.
5. Zotero. A SUPER handy research assistant that provides perfect citations for the pages you are on, and makes sure to keep a good log of what research you are doing.

Honorable mention goes to Google Chrome which is neat, but I haven't really had much of a chance to try it out yet.