Which internet browser should you use in general and for internet marketing in particular? Using the best browser available can make a difference in productivity.

Chrome versus Firefox-the Browser Wars

Until not so long ago most people involved in internet marketing in one form or another, including those learning it, were predominantly using the Firefox browser.

It was heavily recommended in different internet gurus courses and it was an undisputed winner.

It worked very well and had a large number of useful plug ins available for it.

When the Chrome came on the scene it seemed like most people didn’t pay that much attention to it at first. I certainly didn’t pay too much attention even though I downloaded and installed it in order to have an idea of what it was like.

But I continued using Firefox most of the time and exclusively for posting new posts on my blog.

Then one day when I was writing a blog post and adding videos to it something strange and weird happened. Without me doing anything to cause it the browser bar from the top of Firefox appeared inside of my new blog post and I couldn’t get rid of it without deleting the whole post. I tried several times to do everything else but the bar kept on reappearing.

So finally I  tried using the Chrome browser, for the first time, to write a post on my blog and it went smoothly. No unwanted bar appeared and my trust in Chrome started growing just as my trust in Firefox was shaken.

As many of you may know a few weeks ago the Google Bar stopped working on Firefox browser because Google won’t support it anymore there.

It looks like a browser war to me. It may or may not be but the fact is that Firefox’s appeal will suffer because of it.

If I were a lone internet marketer who does no live networking I’d be crushed by events like this.

How Live Internet Marketing Networking Helps 

Luckily, doing a lot of live internet marketing networking with local bloggers and marketers I’m able to handle things much better.

You can find out more about the importance of live internet marketing networking in the many posts I wrote about it on this blog starting with 5 Reasons For IM Networking and Meeting People Live.

Another good post to read is Internet Marketing Event Networking that even includes a short interview I did with one of the best known and most successful internet marketers in the UK, Lee McIntyre.

Choosing the Best Internet Marketing Tools is Easier When Discussed Live

As you will see in the video below, it helps to be able to discuss things with fellow marketers. Choosing a browser, for example, is easier when you talk to others and hear what their experience with different browsers is.

Since that discussion shown in the video above, Firefox 4 is no longer the newest version. The browser is already several versions up at Firefox 7.  Update January 11, 2012: Today I updated to Firefox 9.0.1 after strong and repeated urging from them. As usual something is not working as well as it did in the previous version, in my case it was Firefox 8 (one version up from when I first wrote this post). With the newest version, Firefox 9.0.1 the icons in my bookmarks are not showing. Basic stuff. It makes me wonder why they don’t check things are working before pushing it down people’s throats. Update February 12, 2012: I updated to Firefox 10.0.1. The bookmarks icons now show again.

Update March 09, 2012: I have found a flaw or a bug with Chrome for Mac (I don’t use one for Windows), Firefox for Windows and all major browsers for both systems with the exception of Firefox for Mac. What’s the flaw? When you go to YouTube, the new design that everyone started to be changed to as of March 07, 2012 and click on the Most Popular Videos tab instead of seeing the page with most popular videos you will still see the videos page as before except that the number of uploaded videos will be 37. This number 37 shows on every channel regardless of how many videos they uploaded. I have 352 uploaded videos right now for example. The only browser that works when you click on the Most Popular Videos tab is Firefox for Mac. If you use Chrome for Windows please let me know if it works or not. This may not be just a browser problem but since Firefox for Mac works it is at least partly a Chrome for Mac browser imperfection. Other browsers have the same issue. I wonder how long it will take for YouTube and Google to fix the problem. I did send them a bug report early morning March 08, 2012.

Update March 15, 2012: YouTube and Google have fixed the flaw or bug described in March 09 update above. It’s fixed not only for Chrome but for the other browsers as well. It took them a week. Good job.

The above updates just show that no browser is 100 % perfect. A browser may be perfect temporarily until the next issue with it comes up.

Changing versions so frequently is one of the things that I personally don’t like about Firefox. Sometimes the plug ins stop working when you install the newest version.

And when you happen to have an older computer that doesn’t support the newer Firefox version they keep on bugging you to install it anyway for months or even years.

You may be interested to know that John Chow for example doesn’t use Firefox browser at all anymore.

How about you?

What is your favorite browser, is it Firefox or Chrome? Is there a browser other than the two mentioned that you prefer?

Please comment on these things in the comments section and then tweet and bookmark this post to engage others.

How are you doing with social media like Facebook and Google+ ?

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Authored by Vance Sova

Live Internet Marketing Networking, John Chow Interview Videos

Internet Marketing Networking at its best just happened at Dot Com Pho in Vancouver’s Happy Pho Restaurant. To market on the net you’ll, more likely than not, need a good camera. Panasonic Lumix GF2 and GF3 were covered by John Chow. The Keys to the City Award privileges mused upon and a lot of fun was had.

Rather than write about the virtues of meeting online people at live events which I have done before several times (read 5 Reasons For Internet Marketing Networking and Meet Fellow Bloggers Live if you haven’t read them yet), I decided to show you and write more about what happens at some of them.

The most recent Dot Com Pho in Vancouver with 10 participants included the famous blogger and internet marketer John Chow.

Asking him questions and opinions and picking his brain is a lot of fun not to mention the value of what one learns.

It’s great to see and actually put your hands on some of the tools of the trade he uses. This time it was the Panasonic Lumix GF2 camera which I held in my hands before. But now we talked about the new Lumix GF3 as well.

It turns out that the GF3 is smaller and won’t have the shoe anymore. Thus it is lighter but otherwise the functionality is the same.

Below is the video of John Chow on Lumix GF2 versus Lumix GF3 which I highly recommend you watch to find out the price of the new model as well as how you can trade in the GF2 camera for a hefty credit towards the new one.

Top internet marketers often receive awards and nice privileges for their achievements. There is one award which very few people know much about and that is Keys To the City Award. While most people seem to have heard about it, they don’t seem to know if it gives any privileges to the recipient.

So Far John Chow has not received keys to any city and it remais to be seen if he ever will.

But what does he know and think about it?

Find out in the video below what John Chow’s views are on the Keys To the City Award privileges:

Since we didn’t get a definitive answer from the very interesting conversation with John you can read what I found later just below.

The Keys To The City Award Privileges

The usually oversized and decorative key is given to honor the person who gets it. It’s otherwise completely useless as it doesn’t open any doors.

You don’t get access to anything that you normally don’t have access to without the key. It doesn’t entitle you to a free stay at any hotel, the city hall, the mayors residence or anywhere else.

The award is purely ceremonial and aside from bragging rights, if you should want to use them, doesn’t provide anything tangible.

The Keys to the City Award is a symbolic gift in the form of ornamental or otherwise pretty key presented to people a city wants to give honor to. It is a symbolic and ceremonial gesture (an empty gesture really) of appreciation and welcome.

No privileges are given to the recipient of this award nowadays.

Historically, when cities had walls around them and were heavily guarded and a permission to enter a city was needed, the Keys to the City Award gave significant privileges.

Would you like to be honored by getting a ceremonial key or would you rather be given a key that opens at least one real door?

How about the Panasonic GF2 and GF3 cameras, do you have or would you like to have one?

What camera are you currently using to make videos and for still pictures, do you use different cameras separately or do you use one camera for both videos and regular pictures?

Please answer at least one of these questions and add your related thoughts in the comments section and tweet and bookmark this post to enable others to join the conversation.

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Authored by Vance Sova