web: quick Firefox setup guide

Here's what I set up for friends and family so they can be more productive on the IntarWub.

• Get Firefox at getfirefox.com
• Make it your default browser: during setup there's a checkbox "[ ] Use Firefox as my default web browser", check this.
• Install Adblock Plus and restart Firefox. After it restarts, go to http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions and click Subscribe: EasyList. A filter like this says "skip anything from http://adserv - adsnew - doubleclick - ..., they're all ads." Now visit a site like cnn.com: your browser no longer downloads all the irritating ads on web sites, so browsing becomes much faster!
• Get a Google account. It's not necessary to customize your home page (below), but you're going to want it: gmail is probably better than your current e-mail, Google Docs is awesome (you don't need Microsoft Office), Blogger is pretty good, etc.
  • If you already have a gmail mail address, you have a Google account; otherwise, go to google.com, and on the right click Sign in then click Create an account now
• Now sign in to igoogle.com, make it your default home page in the browser (Tools > Options > Main; and click [Use Current Page]
• Add a few things to your iGoogle home page:
  • my blog (click "Add stuff", click "Add feed or gadget" on the left, enter http://www.skierpage.com/blog/ and add me to your home page.)
  • configure the weather applet
  • add news sites like BBC news
• Set up keywords so you can jump directly to pages without going to a search box; I have keywords for Wikipedia, dictionary definitions, and various Google map shortcuts