New Firefox Web browser to be released Tuesday

One News Now ^ | June 12, 2008 | Anick Jesdanun (Associated Press)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

A new version of the Firefox Web browser is scheduled for release Tuesday with improvements in security, speed and design.

Many of the enhancements in Firefox 3 involve bookmarks. The new version lets Web surfers add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. A new "Places" feature lets users quickly access sites they recently bookmarked or tagged and pages they visit frequently but haven't bookmarked.

There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list-similar to what's already available on Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 7 browser.

Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.

Firefox also will start blocking rather than simply warning about sites known to engage in "phishing" scams that try to trick users into revealing passwords and other sensitive information. The new version adds protection from sites known to distribute viruses and other malicious software.

The list of suspicious sites come from Google Inc. and StopBadware.org, a project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities.

Security researchers who need access to problem sites can manually turn the feature off.

Firefox 3 also offers speed and design improvements-the back button is now larger than the forward button, for instance, because people tend to return to a previous page more often, said Mike Schroepfer, the project's vice president of engineering.

Firefox is the No. 2 Web browser behind Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. It comes from Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people, mostly volunteers, collectively develop free products.

Mozilla has been developing Firefox 3 for nearly three years and has been publicly testing it since November for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Its supporters are organizing launch parties around the world next week, and Mozilla is trying to set a world record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.

Microsoft is currently testing Internet Explorer 8, while Opera Software ASA released Opera 9.5 on Thursday.

[LiberConservative]

IE is the best for seamless functionality and compatibility. Firefox is better only if you’re surfing for pron.

[KoRn]

Woohoo!

Firefox is the absolute best browser I have ever used, and I can’t wait for the new version. I haven’t yet tried it because I didn’t want to risk breaking any of my themes or addons.

Mozilla is hoping to break the record for downloads in a single day! I think they will make it easily!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/12/firefox_release_date/

[uptoolate]

Firefox is better only if you’re surfing for pron.

How so? Please do explain.

[uptoolate]

You wouldn’t happen to be a certain 9th circuit appellate judge, would you?

[My hearts in London - Everett]

heeheehee...;~)

[RichardW]

I’ve been using it a week now. Works great.

[peggybac]

I switched to Firefox almost a year ago and won’t go back to IE. The only complaint I have, and I think it is Microsoft, is my Hotmail inbox is harder to read than with IE. But that’s no big deal.

[shorty_harris]

Firefox is the best. I have Adblock Plus, NoScript, and Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer addons installed. Advertisements really bug me, especially flashing ones. With NoScript and AdBlock, I no longer see any advertisements. I can’t use any other browser now, I’ve gotten so spoiled.

[twntaipan]

I’ve been using Firefox 3.0 since beta 2 and it is INFINITELY better on memory management...I’ve had no memory leaks at all.

[river rat]

Has anyone found an easy method to create desktop shortcuts from Firefox?

I haven’t — and still go to IE just to create a damned desktop shortcut..

[bobbyd]

I’ve been using the beta 3 for a couple of weeks now....I like it.

[zeugma]

Firefox is better only if you’re surfing for pron.

---

How so? Please do explain.

I believe that is yet another way to say that IE security sucks.

[papasmurf]

For one thing, Google pays them a bundle for using Google as the default search engine and landing page.

I read a blog on Linux Mint where the guy who put Mint together was begging folks not to change the default from Mint Google, ‘cause it was his main source of income. He said Mozilla wasn’t all too happy about it. LOL

[w1andsodidwe]

the only reason i use IE 7 is for that little magnifier button on the lower left corner

Why is mine on the right?

[MissouriConservative]

I’ve been using the betas of version 3 and the newest “release” and the memory problems have been resolved. They’ve plugged the leaks.

[B Knotts]

Yep. Just tried that...and it does just what you said.

[Turbopilot]

I love Firefox, but I hope the new version is more stable than 2.0.14. I’ve been using it since 1.something back in late 2004, but the latest release has been buggy for me. It hangs regularly for 30+ seconds, and it sometimes crashes or closes itself without any warnings. I never had any problems with any previous versions over a half-dozen computers and have been waiting anxiously for an upgrade that will undo these problems.

[brityank]

... little magnifier button ...

Try this: Virtual Magnifying Glass -- works on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X, and is dialable for power.

[My hearts in London - Everett]

NoScript is a pain in the behind when you also have Stumble. I found it extremely irritating to have to do so much work to view items that came up on pages I stumbled onto!

[brityank]

Any chance you’ve heard of Dealio.com? I got some kind of toolbar stuck on my FF when I picked up the ‘Foxit’ pdf extension. I went and disabled it, but on occasion in getting a 503/504 page I get sent to this damned redirected srch.dealio.com. Pain in the tuchas!

Thanks.