With the very recent release of Firefox 3.5, there has been, as with all product launches, mixed reviews. The general impression does seem to be a good one, but Mozilla, Firefox’s creator, had a lot of work to do to bring its browser up to speed with the plethora of other high-quality competitors out there.
The newest version was originally intended to be released in late 2008 as version 3.1, but as the browser’s changes began to increase in complexity, the makers moved the release date back and the new Firefox blossomed into version 3.5.
Let’s have a look at its new features to give everyone a better idea of how it measures up.
Upon reading over the very long list of features in the new Firefox, one will likely discover many new capabilities that they never thought they needed, but would be quite happy to have. For example: the ability to view fonts not already installed on one’s computer. It’s not really necessary, but it’s definitely useful to have.
Among the most popular of these non-necessity-but-rather-pleasant features, is the new addition of HTML 5 video and audio into the browser, which allows WAV and Ogg videos to be played directly from the webpage, without additional components being installed. Mozilla’s hope is that Ogg will become the web’s standard multimedia format. However, while Google has announced plans to support Ogg in its Chrome browser, it remains skeptical of the video quality.
Many are also hailing faster browsing speeds due to the new TraceMonkey JavaScript rendering engine, which is much faster (some say between 20 to 40 times faster) than earlier versions of Firefox. Mozilla says this ability to render JavaScript at such high speeds will open the door for a new class of sophisticated web applications.
The privacy settings are another great new addition – with private browsing mode allowing the user to surf the web incognito, leaving no traces of where he or she has been. This feature brings Firefox up to speed with other web browsers that already offer it – Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome.
Firefox has borrowed many of Chrome’s neat features, which will be a bonus for those 30 percent of internet users who are dedicated Firefoxers. However, despite all these lovely additions, Chrome’s faster speed, usability, and overall aesthetically-pleasing design, still puts it on top.
But it’s a valiant effort. Overall, 3.5 is a big boost for Firefox, which has become known for its poor performance. It’s clear that Mozilla has really brought out the big guns with this one, and has managed to put itself back in the big leagues with Firefox 3.5.
Kaila Krayewski is a freelance journalist with a passion for all things internet. Having worked for nearly two years as the public relations manager for an internation search engine optimization company, and publishing hundreds of articles (how-to, informational, and otherwise) on SEO, she knows a thing or two about the field. Furthermore, having just started up her own website blondetraveler.com, she is doing her best to keep one step ahead of the search engines in order to keep the traffic flowing.
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