The inbuilt download manager in the Firefox web browser is becoming better thanks to Firefox extensions
When the Firefox web browsing software application introduced the inbuilt download manager, the move was heralded as a revolutionary innovation. For a long time, the task of managing downloads was considered as an independent task. Web browsing software applications were not prepared to incorporate the task of management of downloads into the web browsing software application. The funny part was that each and every surfer of the internet relied on web browsing software applications to download files. Now that other download methods like torrent software applications have become popular, the end users are no longer forced to rely solely on web browsing software applications to download stuff from the internet. However, before torrents became popular, the end users had to rely upon web browsing software applications to locate files to be downloaded from the internet.
In such a scenario, the absence of a good download manager built into the web browsing software application caused many problems. The end users had to depend on external download managers to download stuff from the internet.
The most important function that these external download managers performed was that they enabled the end users to resume downloads. Even today, if one is going to use the web browsing software application to download files from the internet, one will be forced to complete the download in one stretch. If one gets disconnected from the internet when the download is in progress, there is no other option but to start the download from the very beginning. Needless to say, this compulsion made it very difficult for end users of web browsing software applications to download big files from the internet. The prospect of restarting a 700 MB download again simply because the connection to the Internet was reset after download of 698 MB is not something that the end users of web browsing software applications relish.
In such a scenario, the decision of the Firefox web browsing software application to introduce a separate download manager window was heralded as a bold new approach.
Of course, the inbuilt download manager in the Firefox web browsing software application is very simple one and does not offer the resume capacity to the end users. However, critics were happy that the Firefox web browsing software application had taken note of the problems faced by the end users. It was relief that the Firefox web browser was the first one to take a step to provide a comprehensive solution to this problem.
While Firefox version 2.0 did not lead to any progress as far as the download manager was concerned, a number of Firefox extensions have enhanced the capability and functionality of the inbuilt download manager in the Firefox web browsing software application. Today, one can install Firefox extensions that the show the status of all downloads in the status bar of the Firefox web browsing software application. This ensures that one does not have to take a break from the browsing the web just to check out the progress of the download.
Further, there is a Firefox extension available that automatically sorts the various downloads on the basis of the format of the file being downloaded and proceeds to save it into different directories. That is to say, one can enjoy the ability to save all word documents being downloaded from the internet into a specific folder and all audio files being downloaded from the internet into another folder automatically with the help of this Firefox extension. The functionality of the basic in built download manager in the Firefox web browsing software application is being enhanced and the download manager is beginning to resemble an external download manager.
There is no doubt that the much vaunted resume capabilities will take a lot of time, the combination of the aggressive approach of the developers of the Firefox web browser with the assistance offered by the creators of various Firefox extensions will surely make it happen.
Technorati Tags: Mozilla, Firefox, Firefox web browser, Firefox end user, Firefox extensions, download Firefox, Firefox 2.0, Firefox downloads, Firefox download manager, Firefox download extensions, Firefox status bar
Tags: Extensions & Plugins, Firefox Browser
