My Granny is a pretty tech-savvy gal which has led me to start calling her TechnoGran. She not only can program her own VCR but she was even able to switch over to DVD which she likes because she can see that ‘charming and handsome young Cary Grant’ whenever she wants. Heck, she can even beat me at some video games we play together from time to time.

I couldn’t believe it at first, but recently she asked me to do something for her that led me to the answer. I found out she was cheating! She was going onto the web and reading cheats and strategies on how to play those games so that she could beat me, good old TechnoGran.

It turns out she was using Internet Explorer 6 to do all her surfing and she started running into pages that didn’t look or act right. So she asked me to come over and look at it. Well with the prevalence and popularity of Firefox she had run into some pages that were made specifically for it and did not play well with Internet Explorer 6. So she wanted to know what was happening. Good old Gran was only peripherally aware of the browser wars that are raging across the web and so I had to enlighten her.

When she asked me why she should change to Firefox, aside from getting her latest game cheat site to work properly, I gave her the following list of reasons for it.

It’s like a 78 LP in an 8-track player – Firefox is rapidly becoming the browser of choice for millions. This isn’t just an it’s ‘hip and fashionable’ thing though, Gran asked me if it was like the Charleston but I didn’t really know what she was talking about so I just said yes. I have found that’s the best way to deal with those questions.

The power of Firefox lies in the way it handles pages I told Gran. It’s not just an “everyone is doing it so I should too� thing. It’s a compatibility issue. She said, “Oh I see so it’s like trying to play a 78LP in an 8-track player.� Again I wasn’t really sure what she was talking about so I just agreed with her.