Solution
In your super-slow URL bar, type in "about:config". This should bring up a message that may scare you that states the following:

Fear not, what I tell you to do won't hurt the browser. It'll will only make it better. Once you click "I'll be careful, I promise", you'll be taken to a page that lists all the configuration parameters that you can modify, and there are a ton. We only care about the 'URL bar' parameters, so in the 'Filter:' text box at the top of the page, type "urlbar" and hit enter. This will bring up only the configuration options for the URL bar:

Next, find the "browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped" parameter, and doubleclick on this row. This will change it's value to true.

That's it. This should speed up the response time on the URL bar, and make you happy, and more importantly, love Firefox all over again.

A great lesson to be learned by this video comes at the 20 minute mark with the discussion on "CSS Sprites". This is a brilliant idea, and extremely simple to implement.

What I like the best is the displaying of fonts. They look crisper and sharper. The load times seem to be quite a bit faster than any of the other browsers as well - something that apple proudly boasts as one of the features:

Safari is the fastest browser running on Windows, based on the industry standard iBench tests, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2. Safari joins iTunes® in delivering Apple’s legendary user experience to both Windows and Mac® users as well as full support of open Internet standards. -- Apple.com

All you windows users out there, I strongly suggest giving it a try. You won't be disappointed

There are countless bugs in Internet Explorer, but here are the main reasons to choose a free alternative.

• Prone to viruses and worms
• Renders pages incorrectly. Web designers then need to spend extra time working so that pages work in Internet Explorer. This puts costs up, and slows the web down.
• Doesn't let people resize certain text sizes. This means those with poor sight cannot read small text on many sites.
• Far slower program than other web browsers
• Far larger program than other web browsers
• Isn't as user-centric as other web browsers. It lacks many handy features such as tabbed browsing and integrated search
• Doesn't support PNG images properly

-- StopIE.com

And check out "ie7.com". Gotta love it.

The Problem

For some odd and seemingly unexplainable reason, IE will display duplicate/repeating characters even though the code does not represent this.

...
      <div id="thumbnails" style="display:none;"></div>
      <div id="story" style="position:relative;float:right;">
         < ;p style="position:relative;float:right;">01.01.01</p>
         < ;h2>Title</h2>
         < ;p>Lorem Ipsum ...</p>
      </div>
   </div>
   <div id="footer">
      <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the main page.">home</a>
      &nbsp;|&nbsp;< br />       <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the about page.">about</a>
      &nbsp;|&nbsp;< br />       <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the photos page.">photos</a>
      &nbsp;|&nbsp;< br />       <a href="http://xxx title="Click here to go to the contact us page.">contact</a>
      &nbsp;||&nbsp;
      <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the site map.">site map</a>
      <br />
      &copy;&nbsp;20 06  <a href="http://www.tricklin.com">tricklin.com</a>
   </div>
   <!-- end 'footer' -->
</div>
<!-- end 'page' -->
...

Looks pretty legit, right? Well it is. Except IE doesn't render it correctly:

.

Why?

Well, after doing a bit of research, here is what I found:

The direct cause is nothing more than ordinary HTML comments, such as, <!-- end left column -->, sandwiched between floats that come in sequence. Apparently, the comments are hard for IE to digest when they occupy those positions, resulting in a kind of "screen diarrhea". HTML comments inside the floats do not cause the bug, nor do comments before or after the float series. Only comments residing between floats cause the bug. -- positioniseverything.net

AND

It turns out that this duplicating characters bug can be triggered by other things than just HTML comments. Phil Baines points out that any elements given the style {display: none} will also induce the bug. In fact, even hidden inputs can do it, and presumably any other elements that don't actually display for some reason. Apparently the act of hiding a source element is the critical trigger for this bug. -- positioniseverything.com

After knowing this, can you guess what I needed to do to the above code? That's correct.

The Solution

...
      </div>
      <div id="story" style="position:relative;float:right;">
         < ;p style="position:relative;float:right;">01.01.01</p>
         < ;h2>Title</h2>
         < ;p>Lorem Ipsum ...</p>
      </div>
      <div id="thumbnails" style="display:none;"></div> « move div here
   <div id="footer">
      <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the main page.">home</a>
      &nbsp;|&nbsp;< br />       <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the about page.">about</a>
      &nbsp;|&nbsp;< br />       <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the photos page.">photos</a>
      &nbsp;|&nbsp;< br />       <a href="http://xxx title="Click here to go to the contact us page.">contact</a>
      &nbsp;||&nbsp;
      <a href="http://xxx" title="Click here to go to the site map.">site map</a>
      <br />
      &copy;&nbsp;20 06  <a href="http://www.tricklin.com">tricklin.com</a>
   </div>
   <!-- end 'footer' -->
</div>
remove this altogether » <!-- end 'page' -->
...

There you have it. Another IE issue that needs a workaround. Hopefully this helps a few people from going insane.

For the last couple days my internet has been shutting down frequently with the "Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" message.
It seems to happen after I switch to pages that have some sort of sound or action on them. For example, it ALWAYS happens when I go to the forgottenfour myspace page, which automatically plays a song.
I think this started right after I downloaded some system updates. Could that be related?
Is there anything you can think of that I should do?

My Reply:

Yeah. Download Firefox and don't look back.

http://www.mozilla.com

His reply after downloading Firefox:

Trick,
Thanks for the advice. I've got the firefox up and going and I can already tell it's better. Should I remove the IE stuff from my computer, or just not use it?

That's one more for the good guys! Only a couple million more to go!

The Mountain View, Calif., search-engine giant is providing its ad publishers with a set of buttons that Web site visitors can use to download Firefox with the Google Toolbar, which is a browser add-in that takes a user directly to Google services, Mozilla said this week. Site operators using the buttons will be paid $1 each time someone installs the browser and toolbar. -- InformationWeek

So, start downloading and make me rich!

(the link is in the at the bottom of the sidebar »)

In Firefox, you can right click on any link, and tell your browser to open this link in a new tab. This feature comes in very handy when you are on a search page containing multiple results. Opening links in a new tab, keeps you on the search page, and you won't lose your place.

Below, I've included some helpful keyboard shortcuts for tabbed browsing:

• Ctrl + t: Opens a new tab in an 'about:blank' page.
• Ctrl + Page Up: Goes to the tab located to the immediate left
• Ctrl + Page Down: Goes to the tab located to the immediate right
• Ctrl + (#): Goes to the tab of the corresponding number on the keyboard. For Example: If you have 3 tabs open, and you enter Ctrl + 2, you will go to the 2nd tab. This is great if you have less than 10 tabs open.

Extensions
As a web developer/designer, I've found Firefox to be the most friendly and comprehensive browser available. Especially with the inclusion of the w eb developer extension. This extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser that contains various web developer tools, such as displaying Form details, resizing your window, validating CSS/HTML, a button to immediately open the source code in a new window, a button to open the javascript console, and much, much more. I highly recommend this extension.

Other great extensions:

• Aa rdvark: Allows cleaning up a page prior to printing it
• Firefox Toolbar: Customizable search toolbar for Firefox that allows you to add/delete any search engine.
• Tabbrow ser Extensions: Add-on package for extending operations of tabbed browsing, for example tabs become reorderable by drag and drop.
• Mouse Gestures: "Mouse Gestures are a fast way to execute commands without using the keyboard, menus or toolbars. Instead, the user holds down a mouse button (usually the right one), moves the mouse in a certain way to form a gesture, then releases the mouse button."

JavaScript Console
This isn't limited to Firefox, however, this console is way more intuitive than anything IE provides. When creating/modifying JavaScript, I will never use IE to test. Internet Exploder never provides any useful information as to why my script isn't working. The JS Console specifically states errors, down to the exact page and line number where the error occurred.

View Selection Source
Highlight some text on this page, then right-click, and notice the option to "View Selection Source". Click on this, and a window will pop-up showing you the source code for only the highlighted content. This is an excellent feature when you have a page with a lot of content, but know specifically for what you are looking.

I Don't Like IE
This is a matter of opinion, but IE does nothing to make my web browsing experience more convenient. It's too bad that when you have a PC, this is the default browser available. Hopefully soon, people will learn about Firefox, and make it their default. Then Microsoft will be forced to take some drastic measures to improve their offering.

These are just a few of the main reasons why I use Firefox as my default browser. There are many more, but I'm tired of writing this post, and need to get back to doing other things. Hopefully this encourages you to at least give it a shot (if you haven't already).