What's New in Firefox 3.5?
Performance, Privacy, Location Based Browsing and Media Integration
Jul 9, 2009
Mozilla® released the 3.5 version of its increasingly popular open source browser, Firefox®, on June 30, 2009. With this release Firefox adds a number of new features that make this software an even greater threat to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
In addition to performance enhancements that increase response time, Firefox now comes equipped with features that increase user privacy, permit location based browsing and integrate video and audio data.
Performance Enhancements in Firefox 3.5
According to a recent Mozilla press release, Firefox 3.5 runs twice as fast as Firefox 3.0 and ten times as fast as Firefox 2.0 on “complex websites.” Firefox 3.5 gains this speed increase through its new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, a change from Firefox 3.0’s SpiderMonkey engine.
Private Browsing Mode in Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 protects the privacy of its users during their online sessions with its new "Private Browsing Mode." Though often dismissed as a “porn mode,” private browsing features can prevent sensitive financial data from being captured during banking and bill-paying sessions and personal medical data from being stored during visits to insurance sites.
When users turn on private browsing from the “Tools” menu, Firefox 3.5 stops storing any information about the browsing session on their computers. Specifically, Firefox 3.5 will no longer store data that it usually retains about visited pages, form and search bar entries, passwords, download list entries, cookies, and Web cache files.
Other Privacy Features in Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 further enhances user privacy through its new “Clear Recent History” and “Remove this Site” features. If users forget to turn on private browsing before starting a session, they can still eliminate all history collected from that site. Activated from the “Tools” menu, "Clear Recent History" allows users to further specify the particular time period they want to clear.
Firefox 3.5 users can also click on the context menu command, ‘’Forget About This Site,” to further guard their privacy. This command, available from the context menu of any site listed in the history display, removes all traces of that site from their Firefox 3.5 history.
Location Aware Browsing in Firefox 3.5
Users who want to retrieve quick local information from websites benefit from Firefox 3.5’s “Location Aware Browsing” feature. Websites using Location Aware Browsing alert users by displaying an information bar on their website’s page. This information bar asks users if they agree to use this feature. When users grant their permission, the data they view becomes specific to their geographical locations.
Video and Audio Integration in Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 now integrates Ogg Vorbis and Theora video and audio files directly into its page display. No additional plugins are needed to view these files. Although Firefox 3.5’s video and audio integration shows much promise, its current limitation to these open source formats means that this feature will need to be greatly expanded to be truly useful.
Other New Features in Firefox 3.5
Although Firefox 3.5’s performance, privacy, location based browsing and media integration features include the most comprehensive changes in Mozilla’s browser, other enhancements exist as well, as the following list of additional Firefox 3.5 features indicates:
- Tab Tearing lets tabbed pages open in new windows when their tabs are dragged off the tab bar.
- Recently closed tabs and windows can be restored from the “History” menu.
- Searches made in the Firefox 3.5 address bar can be filtered as bookmark or tags.
- Firefox 3.5’s session restore feature now lets users specify what pages to reload after a crash.
- “Dynamic color profiles” improve the appearance of photographs on Firefox 3.5’s pages.
Even though Firefox 3.5 is not considered a major new release, these expanded features will be welcomed by its many loyal users. As John Lilly, Mozilla’s CEO has stated, “Firefox 3.5 brings together the most innovative Web technologies and delivers them in the most complete and powerful modern browser.”
Credit: Mozilla® and Firefox® are registered trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation.
 |
