Browser Wars Maxthon Vs Firefox

As i mentioned earlier in my previous article hide browser that “I prefer using maxthon even though i have firefox installed“. Here it is….. I am listing out the features that makes me rate maxthon higher than firefox.

I want all of you after you read this article, take out some time to download maxthon, install it and use it.
I can assure you that the below listed out features will make your browsing much more easier. If you are firefox addict, then you will feel that all these features should be in firefox.

I will list out the features that i compared with the firefox:

NOTE: The features listed below are in the order of my liking

1) Hide Browser:

I feel this feature is very much useful. Using ALT + ~ Key, you can hide the browser, it works as a toggle key. More on this @ Hide Browser at workplace

This feature isn’t available in firefox and there are no plugins/addons available to hide firefox window. But there is a addon/plugin to hide the tab bar for firefox.

Download and Install Hide Tab Bar plugin

2) Super Drag and Drop:

a) You are browsing a site and notice a link and want to open it in other tab/window.

What do you do?
Right click on the link and select open in new tab or open in new window (very slow)

I hate to be slow while browsing. I want to compete my speed with computers speed.

Using this feature, you just have to press left button of your mouse on the link you want to open, hold it don’t release it, just drag it and drop anywhere. ho haaa, the link will be opened in the new tab.

try selecting this IBNLIVE and then drag and drop it.

Isn’t it faster than the old and usual method?

b) You notice a URL in a site which is not a hyperlink but it is as a text.

What do you do?
Select the whole text, copy it and paste it in address bar and hit enter to open the URL.

Using this feature, Just select the text (which is url) don’t release the left button of your mouse. just drag it and drop anywhere. ho haaa, the text which was a url will be opened in the new tab.

try selecting this www.ibnlive.com from maxthon browser and then drag and drop it.

c) You notice a word in the site and want to google the word.

What do you do?
Select the whole text, copy it and paste it in google search box and hit enter.

Using this feature, Just select the text and do the same as above in b). instead of opening this as url it will be googled because this is not a text as it was a url for b)

All the above gr8 a), b) and c) features aren’t available in firefox, but hey i got hold of a addon/plugin that does all the above Drag de Go plugin. But you need to do lot of settings to actually make it start working.

Its waste of time. So, better use maxthon.

3) URL Alias:

This feature is similar to alias of unix/sun solaris where we give short name to a long command.
Lets say you open www.google.co.in and www.ibnlive.com everyday umpteem times. Instead of typing the whole url or selecting from the address bar. You can actually set alias to the URL.
g - gmail.google.com
m - mail.yahoo.com
i - www.ibnlive.com
s - www.google.co.in
After you set it. Browsing becomes a bit easier. Just type i and hit enter. It will open IBNLIVE.com

To set the setting in maxthon. select Options - > Maxthon Options. Select Address bar and go to URL Alias tab
Below is the screenshot:

This feature is awesome and i am sure you will find it very useful if you take pain to add the urls and aliases for it that you visit everyday.

This feature is most wanted for me and for you all too once you start using it. But it isn’t available in firefox.
I searched in addons section of firefox but no luck. I even started to read firefox documentation on how to develop addons so that i come up with my own plugin for firefox similar to the URL Alias of Firefox. But, i am lazy and don’t want to put in lot of time and effort. So, if any one of you are familiar with Firefox Addon development. Do come up with something like this. Hope Mozilla (FIREFOX) listens to this and add this as a in-build feature.

4) URL Key:

This feature is similar to URL Alias mentioned above. Instead of any key assigned to a URL. With this feature you can assign upto 11 URL Keys. From Function key F2 … F12. Each key can be assigned to a site/url.

5) Undo Closed Tabs:

Let me explain about this feature. You have opened some sites in tabs and closed few of the tabs and you want to open again. You can undo the closed tabs to reopen them without actually remembering it or typing the urls. To Undo closed tabs, Click on Edit -> Undo Close and select the closed tab you want to reopen. The alternative is ALT + Z key.

Below is the screenshot to better understand it.

This feature was not available in firefox. But there was a plugin/addon available to Undo Closed Tabs.
I am using this addon because, I am very much used to closing off the tabs under the impression that i can reopen using the feature.

Here is the Addon/Plugin for undo closed tabs in firefox

Recently Closed Tabs Feature is added to FireFox 2 (latest version)

There are still a lot of features that are not in-built in firefox but are built-in maxthon. If i list all features here, the article will become very big.

I want all of you to download, install maxthon and use it. compare it with firefox.

I use both maxthon and firefox at Office and at home. But most of the times, i use maxthon.

Here are the few other sites that compare maxthon and firefox:

• Nauman Leghari compared Firefox with Maxthon in memory point of view. See how less maxthon takes memory compared to firefox

• Watch out Firefox here comes Maxthon

• Check this voting between Maxthon vs Firefox

Do please come up with your views/suggestions by posting a comment.

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