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Firefox 3 Released
June 17 was an exciting day for many people, as it meant the new version of the Firefox web browser was released. Why do people get so excited about a new web browser?
While some of the improvements are code-based and quite technical for the average user, one reason for the popularity is that Firefox is a more secure browser than Internet Explorer. Basically, the code used to create the Firefox browser has less vulnerabilities or bugs that can be exploited by unscrupulous sites or viruses and the like.
Another reason is that Firefox is open-source, meaning that anyone can create their own add-ons and software extensions to be used with the browser. Popular add-ons include ColorTabs, which changes the color of the tabs when in tabbed browsing for visual appeal; Fast Dial, which lets you access your favorite sites through thumbnails; and lots of add-ons for accessing dictionaries; managing news feeds; manage SEO, blogging convenience; and more.
And did I mention that it's free? There is no charge to download or use the browser and at this point there are at least 2000 add-ons that can be downloaded to enhance the usefulness of the browser in just about any way you want or need.
Many people feel the most useful feature of Firefox 3 is what has come to be called "The Awesome Bar." It is a new feature that instantly searches and autocompletes your history and bookmarks when typing in the URL bar. As you type into it, a list of suggested Web destinations based on your browsing history pops up.
Other front-end changes the average user will notice include a redesigned download manager, a plug-in manager, and a password manager, which asks the user if they want to remember the password after the log in attempt rather than before. This is an improvement because users are able to avoid storing an incorrect password. The new Firefox stores more information about user's history and bookmarks, using a completely revamped system to use small, lightweight databases instead of the old, slow HTML bookmarking system. Not only does this increase speed, but is easier to organize and search. The new version also allows users to add their own tags to the stored pages.
The Mac version of Firefox 3 gets a little techy; it supports Growl notifications (which allows you to receive notifications from other applications without switching out of an application you are already using).
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