Firefox 1.0's RSS integration is very simple, but it does the job. (Click on image to expand.)

Pros: Mozilla has introduced a new RSS-enabled feature called Live Bookmarks. It's a very simple idea that works with just a tiny bit of additional interface. When you surf to a Web site whose RSS feed is properly implemented to support Live Bookmarks, an orange icon appears on the right side of Firefox's status bar. When you click it, it offers to add the RSS feed. When you accept, it adds the feed to Firefox's Bookmarks. It's a very elegant solution. Kudos to Mozilla's programmers for handling this in such a simple way.

Cons: As it stands, Live Bookmarks is just right for casual use, but it's not ideal for many confirmed RSS users. My concerns about Live Bookmarks are similar to those expressed about the save-tab-set-as-bookmark feature discussed in the Tabbed Browsing section. Live Bookmarks simply throws each new Live Bookmark to the bottom of your bookmarks menu. Again, like the save-tab-set-as-bookmark feature, there's no designated Live Bookmarks folder whose appearance and position are fixed within Firefox's Bookmarks. So if you use this a lot, you're left to the drudgery of organizing Live Bookmarks yourself. There's also a difference in the way Live Bookmarks appear in the Bookmarks sidebar vs. the Bookmarks menu. On the menu, individual Live Bookmarks all display Firefox's orange Live Bookmarks icon. On the Bookmarks sidebar, they don't. They either have no icon, or they have the icon set by the website they came from.

I'd like to urge Mozilla to create a special folder in Firefox's Bookmarks, something akin to the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder, called Live Bookmarks. This folder should have something visually different about it, as should the links it contains (consistently in all parts of the browser). All Live Bookmarks should automatically be placed in this folder. As part of the process of adding a new Live Bookmark, it would be nice if the user were given the option to locate a Live Bookmark in a specific folder within the Live Bookmarks folder, to create a new folder, and to rename the feed.

Downloads Manager

The basic downloads manager is no-frills, but it gets the job done. (Click on image to expand.)

Pros: Firefox's basic downloads manager is a boon, and another feature that improves on what Internet Explorer offers. Microsoft ditzed around with adding a downloads manager in the SP2 version of IE6, but what's there certainly can't be called that.

Like everything else in Firefox, the Downloads tool is minimalist. It can work in either of two ways. In the more basic way, it creates a default download location (the default is your desktop) where all files downloaded through Firefox will appear. The Downloads user interface shows all your download files and offers very basic functionality. It can Open (run) or Remove (delete) files individually, Clean Up (delete them all), and open your designated download folder. Check properties for each individual file to find out basic things like where the file came from on the Internet, where it's stored on your hard drive, and the date of download.

The slightly more advanced way is a radio button you'll find in the Downloads area of the Options dialog labeled "Ask me where to save every file." This is the way I recommend that you work. It lets you create a separate destination folder for the download, and you can rename the file if you want to. It's best to save all program installers you download (at least until they've been superseded by one or two newer versions), and place them in folders that designate their program name and version number.

There is just enough functionality in this tool to make it work for most everyone, and nothing more.

One other thing bears mentioning: the Downloads area of the Options menu is where you'll find Firefox's plug-ins manager, which displays primarily media-oriented browser plug-ins that are installed, such as Acrobat, QuickTime, Flash, and so on. The Plug-Ins tool lets you disable or enable the installed plug-ins, and nothing more. To find plug-ins for Firefox, check out Mozilla's Get Common Plug-ins area.

Cons: There are a few abilities I'd like to see added to Firefox's downloads manager. When working in the "Ask me where to save every file" mode, it'd be great if there were an option to set a default starting point, which you might set to something like C:\Downloads. OK, so this is a nitpick, but some of us download a lot.

More importantly, Firefox's Downloads misses the opportunity to openly capture and display information in the manager window, such as file size, when downloaded, where downloaded from, and where downloaded to. Of course, ideally it would display program version number, but there's no way for it to do that with today's Internet.