Pop-up blocking

Firefox also includes integrated customizable pop-up blocking. Firefox was given this feature early in beta development, and it was a major comparative selling point of the browser until Internet Explorer gained the capability in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 beta. This blocks pop-ups from all web sites by default, but can be configured to allow individual sites to show pop-ups. It can also be turned off entirely to allow pop-ups from all sites. Firefox's pop-up blocking can be inconvenient at times — it prevents JavaScript-based links opening a new window while a page is loading unless the site is added to a "safe list" found in the options menu.

In many cases it is possible to view the pop-up's URL by clicking the dialogue that appears when one is blocked. This makes it easier to decide if the pop-up should be displayed.

Tabbed Web Browsing

Firefox supports tabbed browsing, which allows users to open multiple pages in the same window. Eliminating the problem of cluttering up your work space with multiple browser windows. 
 
Firefox  Download Manager

An integrated customizable download manager is also included. Downloads can be opened automatically depending on the file type, or saved directly to disk. By default, Firefox downloads all files to a user's desktop on Mac and Windows or to the user's home directory on Linux, but it can be configured to prompt for a specific download location. The download manager currently does not support cross-session resuming (stopping a download and resuming it after closing the browser).Another issue with the download manager is that it fails to close if small files or files already in the cache are downloaded. One advantage of the Firefox download manager is that the user can view the full source URL and destination path of the file being downloaded via the Properties box; Internet Explorer only shows the file name and source domain name.

Live Bookmarks

Powered by RSS or Atom feeds, "Live Bookmarks", another feature of Firefox, allow users to dynamically monitor changes to their favorite news sources. When this feature was first introduced in version 1.0 PR, there were a few worries that Firefox was beginning to include non-essential features and that it was beginning to bloat the browser much like the Mozilla Suite. However, these worries have largely abated.

Instead of treating RSS-feeds as HTML pages like most news aggregators do, they are treated as bookmarks that are updated in real-time with a link to the appropriate source. Live bookmarks are updated automatically, however no browser option exists to prevent or control the automatic Live Bookmark updates. Live Bookmarks may slow down the initial loading of the browser, as well as leave open connections for Live Bookmarks that fail to load properly. The only way to prevent this is to not use Live Bookmarks.

Read our full list of reasons to switch