Review of Mozilla Firefox Browser

Download from: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox
Current Version: 3.6.3

Mozilla Firefox is an extremely capable Browser that is tops on innovation. Yet, the download is just about 8 MB for the latest version, versus over 15 MB for Internet Explorer. Firefox was the first Windows-based Browser that allowed you to save your user login and passwords to sites that required you to log in to them. It was also the first Windows-based Browser to introduce Tabbed Browsing. It is also the first Browser to allow you to re-open recently-closed URLs. This is a feature that all avid users have wished for - haven't you lost count of the number of times you closed a Web Page, only to realize a second later that you had intended to close the Tab adjoining the recently closed one? With Mozilla Firefox, this is history - click on the History MenuItem and look for the SubMenu Recently Closed Tabs!

Until Google launched its own browser Chrome, (Click here to read all about Chrome) Mozilla Firefox rode piggy-back on Google's enormous popularity. You would have seen Google ads recommending that you switch to Firefox! This was because Google was looking at bringing down the market share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox was the best Browser around! However, with the launch of Google Chrome, Google are now promoting their own offspring. Mozilla Firefox will therefore need to innovate quicker and better, to continue gaining market share rapidly - the Google route helped them enormously, but now, they are on their own!

Mozilla Firefox was never too fast to start up, though Versions 3.0 and later did start up significantly faster. Moreover, if you like some of the Mozilla Firefox add-ons and plug-ins and install them, it takes that much longer to load. This isn't as bad as it seems though, because people usually fire up their Browsers and shut it down only when they go away from their Computers. Again, even if you close down Mozilla Firefox completely, starting it up the second time takes a lot less time, for, many of the Mozilla Firefox component files continue to reside in memory!

While this is a standard method adopted by top software vendors to reduce program loading times (you would have noticed the same with Microsoft Office components such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint too), in Mozilla Firefox, it lead to a problem in versions up to and including 3.0.2. Some of the Mozilla Firefox component files were loaded each time the Browser was loaded. And when multiple loading of component files happened, Mozilla Firefox crashed, refusing to start up again, since the Computer's memory was filled with unclosed Mozilla Firefox component files! This is called "Memory Leakage problem". The solution was to manually kill the process (using Control-Alt-Delete keys) - something that is definitely not the recommended thing! Version 3.0.5 has completely corrected this issue, with subsequent versions too showing no traces of the problem.

On the positive side, Firefox has all the useful features (and a few more!) that you would normally want. We would like to add here, the fact that everything has improved under Firefox 3.0: the Startup speed, (and we had cribbed about this for long too!) Security, looks and even the add-ins. Version 3.0.3 onwards is completely free of the memory problem too.

Do check out the Add-ons to Firefox as well - you are very likely to find many that enhance your browsing experience! Firefox is indeed a neat Browser that is easy to fall in love with, for its rich features! It is reasonably beautiful to view and very easy to work with. Despite the time it takes to start up, it could be a very welcome change, if you are fed up with Internet Explorer's drab looks!

WellOiledPC Recommendation on Browsers: Currently, Firefox is the second-most popular Browser worldwide, after Internet Explorer. Although much newer than Internet Explorer, it has grown much faster due to its innovative features. It is recommended for users familiar with Browsers and those who want a little more from their Browser - Firefox has a number of add-ons that users will appreciate! For those new to Browsers too, Firefox offers an easy and secure way to browse the net, with all the features (and more!!) enjoyed by Internet Explorer users

Here is the link that tracks Browser usage and publishes Browser Statistics:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Beginning Version 3, Firefox has added security features. Version 2 supported Norton 360, which stopped you from visiting phished sites (sites that are NOT the sites that they claim to be, but look-alikes - they usually attempt to get your username, password and other information!). Norton 360 continues to work with subsequent versions as well. We believe that it is important for a Browser to incorporate a Third-party Security solution into it, such as the Norton 360 solution. This is because no Browser developer, Mozilla and Microsoft included, have the kind of expertise that Symantec and other Security product vendors have, when it comes to detecting and repairing-removing security threats! Therefore, while the Browser needs to have first-level security built into its code, it should also integrate with third-party security solutions at the second level, so as to provide additional security to users.

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1. External Looks and Feel: Firefox 3.6 does not look different from previous versions, yet loads up web pages much faster. Most of the Plug-ins of Firefox 3.5 work with Firefox 3.6 as well - at least all that we have installed do work, but then, over the years, we have discontinued using all but the most useful of Plug-ins! Plug-ins do cause Firefox to start up a lot slower and hence, we have stopped using frivolous ones...

Private Browsing!: Firefox 3.5 added Private Browsing and that continues in version 3.6 as well. Surprisingly the one pioneering this feature is Microsoft - Private Browsing made its appearance for the first time in Internet Explorer 8 (called InPrivate Browsing by Microsoft), although it was Google Chrome that went to town, claiming that Chrome let you browse privately. Like Internet Explorer 8, you can invoke Private Browsing under Firefox 3.5 by pressing Control+Shift+P.

3. The URL Bar: The URL Bar now states in muted gray text that you may search your Bookmarks and History (for URLs). This could be helpful for those who have not yet discovered this feature - we have covered it in some detail in the two Pink-shaded screenshots, right above.

We have so far discussed superficial features added on to Firefox 3.5. Let us now look under the hood and check out what is really new and useful (or useless!) in Firefox 3.5!

Recent Tabs and now, Recent Windows too!: Firefox 3.5 lets you re-open not only recently closed Tabs, but also entire Windows containing Multiple Tabs! We checked out this feature by opening 6 Tabs under one window. We then opened a second Firefox 3.5 Window and closed the earlier-running copy of Firefox 3.5. Switching back to the second running copy of Firefox 3.5, we went to History, clicked on Recently Closed Windows and chose Restore All Windows. Lo and Behold! Firefox loaded up afresh, with all the 6 Tabs intact! One of the Tabs was our WebMail (based on IMAP) Interface and we had closed it after opening the Inbox. When it re-opened, the Tab opened right where we had closed it! In face, every Tab refreshed to the exact point it was at, when it was abruptly closed! We weren't satisfied... two minutes of admiring this feature and we closed all running copies of Firefox 3.5. We then opened a fresh copy of Firefox 3.5: this time around though, the Recently Closed Windows Menu item was grayed out. The moral of this demonstration is, that you need to have multiple copies of Firefox running (not multiple Tabs, we mean Multiple Windows!), for this feature to work... Although this definitely restricts the feature's usability, we are charmed by the innovation and thinking that has gone into crafting this feature! Well done, it has made up for Firefox being late with the Private Browsing feature! :)

Tabs-to-Windows-to-Tabs Portability: Here is yet another feature that is present in Chrome and Apple Safari for Windows: the ability to convert open Tabs into Windows and vice-versa. To convert an open Tab into a Window, simply grab the Tab and drag it a little away, downwards (dragging it upwards will create a new Menu Item in your Bookmarks Toolbar!) The Tab will now open in it's own new Firefox 3.5 Window! To convert it (or any Window) into a Tab, resize Windows so that both copies of Firefox 3.5 are visible on screen. Next, drag the URL you want to appear as a Tab, into the other copy of Firefox 3.5!

Enhanced URL Search: Firefox 3's URL Bar offered a speedy list of suggestions to complete whatever URL you are typing, by filling in the rest of your URL address text dynamically, with your Bookmarks, Tags and Recent History being the sources. This was a great start, but you would have noticed that some results were completely useless! Now, Firefox 3.5's URL Bar is refined even more: special character filters restrict an automatic URL fill-in! While you may type in, say "well *" for just your bookmarks with the words "well" in them, you may now also type in "well +" to search out items that you have tagged with "well"! (Note - the " in each of these words is only to focus on the word that you are typing - you should not type it in too!) This could benefit people who are in the habit of tagging their Bookmarks, but will do nothing for those who do not! In any case, it is a useful upgrade and may induce many users to begin tagging their Bookmarks, and thus change their browsing habits for the better!

What was Designed is What You See: Web Designers spend hours - even days, making their photographs and digital images look exactly the way they want it to look on the Web. However, on the Web, most colors are rendered in a similar manner, since Browsers are optimized and filtered for quick viewing of digital images. Firefox 3.5 introduces Dynamic Color Profiles for each picture, so that they are rendered exactly as the designer designed them!

New JavaScript Engine: Firefox 3.5 has a brand-new JavaScript engine - TraceMonkey, which replaces its earlier engine, SpiderMonkey. TraceMonkey is supposed to be 20 to 40 times faster. We have not yet measured whether this is true or whether we are being made monkeys, what with all these simians suddenly entering the picture! We suspect the latter though - for, we are yet to notice any significant increase in speed under Firefox 3.5! :)

Localization - aka GeoLocation: If you are a resident of, say, Indonesia and wanted to find the nearest Hospital on a Maps site, you are more likely to get a huge listing of Hospitals in the US! Not helpful at all! Firefox 3.5 is now powered by Google's Wi-Fi Triangulation and your own IP information, so that the chances of you getting a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) containing Indonesian hospitals is more likely.

If you are bothered by this feature and feel it intrudes into your privacy, you can turn it off by tweaking Firefox 3.5's settings, as explained in this article: Click Here to read how to turn off Geolocation!

Video Headaches - Solved?: If you frequent different Video websites, you would have come across sites that do not play Video in your Browser. This is specially true for websites coded in HTML 5, using Video in OpenSource formats such as Ogg, Vorbis and Theora. Firefox approaches the display of videos differently, by treating videos as a part of the page itself and not as a separate Flash component! This is easily the most important new feature in Firefox 3.5, one likely to be adopted by the competition sooner, rather than later!

	Here are the screenshots of the HomePage and MainPage of WellOiledPC, as displayed under Mozilla Firefox
Click for larger image		Click for larger image