Firefox rose from the ashes of the browser wars of old and has since amassed quite a following. As it stands, Firefox has over 15 percent of the browser share, according to the Wikipedia article. It even set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads in a 24hr period with over 8 million. It's time to find out what the fuss is about...

The address bar in Firefox is more than just an address bar. It's not called the "smart location bar" for nothing, you know. In this second installment of our Firefox 101 series, we'll break down just what makes this address bar with benefits special while also looking at the integrated search bar and bookmarks toolbars.

If you have some favorite sites that you like to check daily, Firefox will allow you to save a link as a bookmark for one-click access to local news, weather or your favorite online video shows and tutorials site (hint, hint). Today, we'll discuss how to use the Bookmarks within Firefox.

As it stands, Firefox is a good web browser and a viable alternative to the browsers that are bundled on Mac and Windows PCs. What really sets Firefox apart from other browsers though is the huge library of Add-ons. These are free "extensions" that change Firefox's behavior to better suit individual wants and needs in a web browser. Permit us to demonstrate.

Back in the day, having more than one web site open at a time meant having more than one web browser window open. Firefox popularized "tabbed browsing," having more than one website open in a single web browser session Since Firefox came on the scene, both Internet Explorer and Safari have added this feature. It's now standard equipment in a web browser.

On a text-heavy page, the Find feature in Firefox (plus other browsers and desktop applications) is worth its weight in gold. With this feature you can quickly scan a long document for the terms that are relevant to you. Think of it as a much more powerful version of the index you'd find in a research book.

Firefox allows you to take control of your privacy and security settings. Using the installed default settings gives a fair balance of privacy and security and ease of use. However, it's a good idea to change the settings so they're more in line with your own needs and preferences.

Digging into Firefox's settings a little, we can tell the browser how we want it to behave; this includes which applications Firefox uses to display content as well as how we want websites to appear within Firefox. We can set the default download location for files, change our home page and much more using the Options window in Firefox.

From a user perspective, one of the biggest improvements in Firefox 3 over previous versions of the browser is its download manager. Now, you can pause and resume downloads and even pick up downloads where you left off should a power outage or computer crash cut them off prematurely. Another welcome feature is the built in spell checker that catches comon mispellings... usually.

Firefox offers a good balance of security and convenience. When visiting a web site, for example, your banking site, you can view the security certificate and other information associated with that site. For sites that don't contain quite such personal and personally identifying information, you can opt to have Firefox remember passwords for you. This is convenient but not recommended for things like online banking, sensitive email accounts and so on.

Our ten-part series on the Firefox browser gets in-depth, up close and personal with Mozilla's browser. This browser is available on Windows and Mac platforms as well as Linux and has gained significant market share in the past couple of years. It's time to figure out what the fuss is about!