Tektodo

Firefox has come a long way since its humble beginning in 2004. It has come to represent a viable alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and, as a result, has gained over 15% of the browser market. Now, Mozilla (the developer behind Firefox) is hoping to continue this trend of success with the recent release of Firefox 3 Beta 4. While there is a plethora of new features introduced in the latest version of Firefox, I’d like to focus on just five that are sure to catch people’s attention.

1. Default Themes – Firefox has never been known for having a particularly appealing default theme. While it has gotten the job done, it certainly hasn’t been anything to brag about. However, this hasn’t really been an issue, since there are hundreds of third-party themes that can be installed for the browser. However, for Firefox 3, Mozilla has decided to take a change of pace and offer users something a little more appealing. What this means is that Windows users will get a theme that has a Vista-like user interface, Mac users will get a Mac-like user interface and Linux users will get a Linux-like user interface. I am currently using the Mac version of Firefox 3 and actually find the user interface to be much more appealing than Safari’s. Firefox 3 utilizes common grey scheme of Mac applications to great effect, creating a very elegant user experience.
2. Bookmarking – Thanks to Firefox 3, bookmarking is easier than ever. Now, all you have to do to bookmark a site is click on a small star outline located on the right side of the address bar. Clicking this will cause the star to fill in, which indicates that the site is now bookmarked. By double-clicking the star, you can specify the name of the bookmark, the location of the bookmark and, new to Firefox 3, tags you would like the bookmark to be associated with.
3. Add-ons – Firefox 3 has revamped its Add-on menu, allowing you to easily manage all of your extensions and themes, and even download recommended add-ons right from the menu itself.
4. Downloads – Firefox’s download manager has also been greatly improved, with perhaps the best new feature being the ability to pause and resume downloads, even between multiple Firefox sessions. Another neat feature is the ability to see your download progress in the status bar.
5. One-click site info – In terms of security, Firefox 3 is leaps and bounds above Firefox 2. One useful new feature is the ability to get detailed information about the site you are on, such as who owns it, if it is encrypted and if the site is storing cookies on your computer.

Overall, I must say that my experiences with Firefox 3 Beta 4 have been very positive. From its elegant new look to its increased usability, Firefox 3 definitely seems as though it will be a winner when the final version is released later this year. Nevertheless, although I have been very pleased with Firefox 3 Beta 4, I have still encountered my fair share of kinks, as is to be expected with beta software. Although the new add-ons menu is supposed to make managing and installing add-ons easier, I have found that sometimes Firefox will not allow me to install updates for various components, such as the the Proto Firefox theme. There have also been several instances where Firefox randomly crashes. Although these crashes may be a nuisance, they are usually not particularly harmful thanks to Firefox’s handy Session Restore feature.

Due to the recency of Firefox 3 Beta 4′s release, most of my favorite extensions are not yet compatible, although, this is of course no fault of Firefox itself. The extensions that do work, such as Google Notebook, work very well and I have encountered no problems with them. While it is hard to go without my favorite extensions, such as Sage, the new features of Firefox 3 more than make up for the loss.

Despite a few blemishes (and there really are just a few), Firefox 3 excels in almost every way and I am greatly looking forward to reviewing the final version come this summer.

Filed under: Apple, Computers, Mac OS X, Technology | Tagged: Firefox, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Firefox 3 Beta 4, Google Notebook, Internet Explorer, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Mozilla, Safari, Sage, Windows