We spend so much time on the Web, it's only natural that small enhancements in the way we access it will lead to large gains in our yearly productivity. More than 100 million people have downloaded the Firefox browser to help them obtain that productivity. Developed by a small team of core engineers with the help of thousands of external developers, Firefox already has had an impact.

Tabbed browsing is one of the favorite features of Firefox users: You open a second Web page in the same window as the first and switch between them using tabs at the top of the window.

Firefox also has live bookmarks to help you read your favorite blogs and Web news feeds.

Firefox users generally fall into one of two camps: those who want the productivity features, and those who simply would rather use a non-Microsoft product. Firefox delivers on both promises, although Microsoft has promised to deliver tabbed browsing in the next version of Internet Explorer (IE 7), due late next year.

I use both Internet Explorer and Firefox -- depending on my mood, I guess. I find managing bookmarks in Firefox much easier than Internet Explorer Favorites, because Explorer restricts you to a small window, while Firefox gives you a great big display.

Yet, while I love the idea of tabbed browsing, I find that I'm just as quick with multiple windows and the standard alt+tab shortcut key to switch between them. Plus there are a lot of Web sites that play better in Internet Explorer.

If you don't mind an additional application on your desktop, and have a few extra minutes to learn the new browser (because that's all it will take), Firefox is a good addition to your desktop tools. Did I mention it's free? It's available at www.mozilla.org.