If you are reading this blog using Internet Explorer, this tip is for you. I urge you to go download Firefox and give it a try.

Does the browser you use really matter? Short answer: Yes. Am I getting paid to write this post? Nope, and since Firefox is completely free, there are no affiliate commissions coming my way. I’m in this strictly to give you a better experience on the web.

I’ll admit to basing some of my Firefox preference on my experience with designing and building websites. Internet Explorer is notorious for displaying web code incorrectly, meaning we HTML-heads have to write clunky code to get our pages to display the same way on different browsers.

But you don’t have to be a web geek like me to appreciate Firefox’s advantages. Here are a few:

• The smart location bar means I almost never have to type a full web address. Typing as few as two letters pops up a list of matching addresses (from my browsing history).
• A built-in password manager asks me if I want to remember passwords you type. I’ll never forget another password!
• One-click bookmarking lets me not only bookmark a site, but add it to a folder and tag it with keywords so I can search and sort my ever-expanding bookmark list.
• Smart security features automatically warn me when I’m about to (accidentally) visit a website that will do nasty things like download viruses onto my hard drive. Then I can stay away!

There are also thousands of Firefox add-ons that let you customize your toolbar, automate repetitive functions, and more — all free. Did I mention that Firefox invented the idea of tabs? If you don’t know how to use tabs, see my previous post on tabbed browsing. Your web experience just got easier.

There’s another reason I believe Firefox is a superior browser: It’s open source. To you, the user, that means it’s free software. No licensing fees, no upgrade fees, no download fees. It also means that new features (and bug fixes) will get introduced quickly, because of the vast community of volunteer software developers around the world that are testing and tweaking.

This Week’s Heart of the Matter: Be conscious about the tools you use, even your web browser. If you have your own reasons to prefer Internet Explorer, I respect that, and more power to you. But if you’ve never thought about it, or think your web experience could be improved, there’s no downside to giving Firefox a try.