It has been an event 34 months in the making, but June 17, 2008, was the official release date of Mozilla’s open source web browser Firefox 3. The company had been holding out on eager Firefox users until it deemed the software ready and as that time nears, excitement is reaching a fever pitch. Mozilla is making the most out of its release date, including world-wide parties and the now infamous attempt at setting a new Guinness World Record for most software downloads in one day.

Officially, Firefox 3 was not to be released until June 17, 2008, but test versions have been available for download for months now. So I decided that I would take the new software for a spin and see if it lived up to its own hype.

One thing that Mozilla is most proud of is the enhanced speed and efficiency of Firefox 3, claiming to be nine times faster than rival Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7, and two to four times faster than previous version Firefox 2. But while I was taking the software for a test drive, I can’t say that I noticed any considerable differences in how fast my pages loaded, or how fast I could download files. That could be, however, that I, like most children of technology, are so accustomed to speed that it has now become expected.

There were a few things I did notice, however. One of the best new features is the enhanced security. Firefox 3 keeps track of all reported malware and phishing sites and prevents the pages from loading when the sites are visited. These blocks can be overridden, but this is a big change from Firefox 2 which used to just warn users of potential threats. Another change is renaming the Bookmark Organizer to the Library. Three new features include Bookmark Stars, which allow you to bookmark a page with a single click, Bookmark Tabs, which allow you to include extra information to go along with your bookmarks, and Smart Bookmark Folders, which are saved searches that automatically update themselves.

Firefox 3 also offers more than 5,000 add-ons to choose from, with easy installation and management. The add-on catalogue is impressive in its size and organization, but upon shopping around I was less than thrilled. Many of the add-ons seemed like fun but with a short novelty life span. However, users know exactly what they’re adding on thanks to the comments section and download count on each add-on page. And while it may seem like a menial change, the larger back button really does make browsing easier. Mozilla’s rationale behind the bigger button is that people tend to go backward more than forward, and as it turns out, I do too.

Firefox 3 also made big changes to the browser’s download manager, making it easier to use. Users will now find a pause and resume button that allows them to control the download, even if it has been unintentionally interrupted. Another change is the detailed display screen, which gives more information about the download and allows the user to revisit the site from which the download came. Managing passwords is also made easier with the introduction of an information box that stores passwords. The box slides down from the top of the screen after the user logged in and can be dismissed at the user’s discretion, instead of the old pop-up box that came up even before the user would be successfully logged in.

Overall, Firefox 3’s test version lives up to my expectations.  Though I don’t utilize all functions to their fullest extent, I feel confident in Mozilla’s ability to produce software that will meet the ever-changing needs of web surfers across the globe. And, with more than one million members of the SpreadFirefox community, from all corners of the earth pledging to download the software tomorrow, I have a feeling I’m not the only one.

Firefox 3 can be downloaded Here

Comments:

Great article!!!

Downloaded the thing and as soon as it went to a website that I gone millions of times it said that it needed a plug in to open the page. Firefox is no good like the other ones always asking for plug ins and it also said that I needed to download the new Flash player why the new flash player is already there so firefox needs alot of work

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