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Mozilla releases Firefox 3
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 06:54 PM EST

Mozilla today released Firefox 3, a major update to its free, open source Web browser. According to Mozilla, Firefox 3 is the culmination of three years of efforts from thousands of developers, security experts, localization and support communities, and testers from around the globe.

Available today in approximately 50 languages, "Firefox 3 is two to three times faster than its predecessor and offers more than 15,000 improvements," including the smart location bar, malware protection, and extensive under the hood work to improve the speed and performance of the browser.

“We’re really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together,” said John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, in the press release.

What’s New in Firefox 3:

• User Experience. The new Firefox 3 smart location bar, affectionately known as the “Awesome Bar,” learns as people use it, adapting to user preferences and offering better fitting matches over time. The Firefox 3 Library archives browsing history, bookmarks, and tags, where they can be easily searched and organized. One-click bookmarking and tagging make it easy to remember, search and organize Web sites. The new full-page zoom displays any part of a Web page, up close and readable, in seconds.

• Performance. Firefox 3 is built on top of the Gecko 1.9 platform, resulting in a safer, easier to use and more personal product. Firefox 3 now uses less memory while it’s running, and its redesigned page rendering and layout engine means users see Web pages two to three times faster than Firefox 2.

• Security. Firefox 3 offers new malware and phishing protection helps protect from viruses, worms, trojans and spyware to keep people safe on the Web. Firefox 3’s one-click site ID information allows users to verify that a site is what it claims to be. Mozilla’s open source process leverages the experience of thousands of security experts around the globe.

• Customization. Everyone uses the Web differently, and Firefox 3 lets users customize their browser with more than 5,000 add-ons. Firefox Add-ons allow users to manage tasks like participating in online auctions, uploading digital photos, seeing the weather forecasts, and listening to music, all from the convenience of the browser. The new Add-ons Manager helps users to find and install add-ons directly from the browser.

More information about Mozilla Firefox 3 features here.

Mozilla Firefox 3 is available now for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows as a free download here.


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Jun 17, 08 - 05:59 pm Comment from: feral

ooooh snappy

Jun 17, 08 - 06:13 pm Comment from: freefromdesign

It's fast! Or maybe I just expect it to be fast so I think it is.

Jun 17, 08 - 06:13 pm Comment from: WriterGuy

doing my part as we speak to help Firefox break download records. Not sure why, but doing it just the same...

Jun 17, 08 - 06:15 pm Comment from: eMax

using it to write this comment...

Jun 17, 08 - 06:15 pm Comment from: Ampar

Same here, WriterGuy.

Jun 17, 08 - 06:21 pm Comment from: WriterGuy

Can anyone give me some real-world examples why I should care if my browser is Safari vs. Firefox? Assume I'm not the type of guy to worry about fancy extensions or third-party plug-ins.

Jun 17, 08 - 06:28 pm Comment from: MacLovin

@ WriterGuy: I'd say the most important thing is the speed and security of the browser. I just like Safari because its easy to use, and it works with my other applications better. It shows webpages the way I like. (I'm downloading Firefox 3 as I type this, I haven't used it yet, I don't know wether its any different to Firefox 2) I also think safari in leopard just looks better.

Jun 17, 08 - 06:36 pm Comment from: Wha

Whoah! This new Firefox app is so damn speedy! it even makes MDN seem to load up quickly (which is unworldly LOL!)

Kudos to the Mozilla group! Cheers! Thank you.

I didn't think I'd switch from Safari, but this is too good.

Jun 17, 08 - 06:47 pm Comment from: Ampar

Yeah, FF3 seems to cut through a lot of crap quickly. I'd call it . . . snippier. Snappish?

Jun 17, 08 - 07:02 pm Comment from: UltraVisitor

It's 2 or 3 times faster. And man is it web complaint! The new interface and font rendering engine are cool too.

Jun 17, 08 - 07:11 pm Comment from: WriterGuy

It may be "web compliant," but it's not rendering my iWeb pages correctly! The image frames that are part of our pages are not showing up at all.

My fairly basic iWeb page is also crashing IE on Windows XP. But that's another post...

Jun 17, 08 - 07:18 pm Comment from: pluki7

just started using it... feels nice and... snappy!

Jun 17, 08 - 07:24 pm Comment from: Jes Thinkin

I'm calling it SnappyFox.

Jun 17, 08 - 07:38 pm Comment from: Ampar

"Oh snappy day (oh snappy day)
Oh snappy day (oh snappy day)"

Perfect for hymn or her.

Jun 17, 08 - 08:03 pm Comment from: feral

@writerguy

you're right..iWeb is snapped. no images. very straahnge...
meh...back to bundubashing safari

Jun 17, 08 - 08:07 pm Comment from: whatever

you know that this would never have happened if Apple did not come out with Safari. Competition is good.

Jun 17, 08 - 08:09 pm Comment from: WAY OFF TOPIC

I apologize for this post, but I read MDN everyday and I just thought I needed to share. I saw a zune in the wild today. I travel (fly) once a month or so. I am in many major cities throughout the year. And today a saw my first zune in the wild. Just thought I would share. Now back to firefox 3...

Jun 17, 08 - 08:09 pm Comment from: Walter Chillum

Not coming up as an update when I launch the previous version of Firefox. I made the browser check for updates and nothing. Curious indeed.

Jun 17, 08 - 08:34 pm Comment from: Walter Chillum

It's OK now I did a direct download. It's much faster than the last version. Pop-under blocking is superior to Safari.

Jun 17, 08 - 08:37 pm Comment from: AppleMacMan

I definitely agree with MacLovin. I just find Safari 3 with the latest nightly builds to have a smoother feel and the UI is much better. Although you can apply themes to Firefox, only one theme actually looks native, YummyGrapple and it is a Safari 3 look a like!

I've also added Saft and Inquisitor. The nightly builds of Webkit is extremely fast and very stable. Firefox has always been a long time favorite of mine but after discovering the nightly builds of Webkit I'm hooked on Safari 3 now. 

Jun 17, 08 - 08:38 pm Comment from: Walter Chillum

A Zune in the wild. Does this mean you saw one in the bushes because someone had thrown it away?

Jun 17, 08 - 08:41 pm Comment from: feral

a zune on safari?
shoot it. culling is necessary when the herd gets too big...

Jun 17, 08 - 08:42 pm Comment from: Spark

Very Snappy! I wonder how Safari 4 will compare?

Jun 17, 08 - 08:43 pm Comment from: DogGone

Yup I concur with the iWeb issue. On Safari plays well. On FF nada.

Still this is a .0 release. Bound to be a few bugs. Maybe iWeb pages aren't fully compliant with the web standards.

Good to see FF updated. Hopefully it will reduce IE share by another 10 points.

Jun 17, 08 - 09:05 pm Comment from: Steve

Who cares... It's just crap ware with little support.

Jun 17, 08 - 09:13 pm Comment from: auctoris

@WRITERGUY: Real world example.

I like Safari and would like for it to be my main browser but Firefox is the King. Why should the average person care?


1. Better browser and system performance.

Let's start with memory usage. Even the most up to date versions of Safari eat memory the longer the browser stays open. Supposedly this is a "feature". All browsers do this to some extent but Safari is in a league of its own. I know a coworker that switched to Firefox because, everyday, Safari would take up 300-450MB of RAM. That can seriously effect your overall system performance depending on how much RAM you have installed. Firefox 3 does not have this problem. For the first time ever, I watched the memory *drop* the longer the browser was open. They have obviously worked hard on proper memory management. I saw it at 150MB and when I came back a couple of hours later it was at 103MB. That makes for an overall speed computer.


2. More security features.

Firefox has more built-in security features. The recent brouhaha about PayPal blocking Safari was because Safari currently doesn't have a phishing scam detection system in place. Firefox has had that since version 2.


3. The new smart location bar.

Firefox's new smart location bar (where you type in your Web addresses) has been nicknamed the "Awesome Bar". In Safari, when you start typing an address in the location bar, it will only try to auto-complete the address if it can find the exact letters you have typed at the beginning of a Web address in your bookmarks or history.

"[Firefox's] Smart Location Bar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted according to an algorithm that combines frequency and recency. The Smart Location Bar results also show pages’ favicons, full titles, URLs, and whether you have bookmarked or tagged the site previously."--A Field Guide to Firefox 3

If you had read a story about American Idol that had American Idol as part of the title of the page and now you want to go back to it, then you could just type American Idol in the location bar and it would find the address for it without you having to remember anything about the actual Web site address or domain.

These are just a few off the top of my head. If you want to know more, try looking at A Field Guide to Firefox 3 or the Firefox Homepage under the heading "What's so great about Firefox?"

Jun 17, 08 - 09:38 pm Comment from: Grigori

Opera is still better.

Jun 17, 08 - 10:10 pm Comment from: Steve

??








Run the add-on "NoScript"





??

Jun 17, 08 - 10:19 pm Comment from: HMCIV

Impressive! Looks like Safari.

Jun 17, 08 - 10:56 pm Comment from: JadisOne

So much better. Thanks FF for making it more Mac-like as opposed to being a Windows port. Looks like Safari scared you to making your product better. Gotta love competition.

Jun 18, 08 - 12:44 am Comment from: grognard

Just down loaded FF3 and it does seem to mirror Safari, without being a 'copy' clearly different products, But appears to be very solid at first test.

Welcome back to the browser wars. This time Microsoft 'has no dog in this hunt!'

Safari 3 has a worthy competitor in FF3.

Jun 18, 08 - 01:29 am Comment from: me

@auctoris

I'm sure the "Smart Location Bar" is just a a cheap knock off of the superior find function in Safari.

Why would you want to use third party software when you have more elegant and effective options from Apple themselves?

Jun 18, 08 - 01:36 am Comment from: almux

Safari will also improve by next... no hassle to run around crazily switching each time one has 1-2 better features... And Opera? No way, doesn't read layers properly. I give it a blame!

Jun 18, 08 - 01:37 am Comment from: Micro Me

FF3 is fast, but I've become addicted to Safari Adblock (sure helps to load MDN faster).

Can anybody suggest an easy-install equivalent for FF3?

Ta.

MM

Jun 18, 08 - 02:09 am Comment from: nekogami13

adblock plus Micro me.

Safari cookie handling is crap-all or nothing. Safari is slower than firefox. Safari extensions are not easily installable or all free. Safari's memory handling is not as good as Firefox.

Only advantage Safari has-the look at porn feature without leaving a trace-then again, I can just set Firefox to delete private info on shut down.

Jun 18, 08 - 02:30 am Comment from: panettaa

I have both Safari and FFinstalled but I favor FF slightly more in my every-day-use. They are both great browsers. I wouldnt even touch IE with a 10 meter long stick..

Jun 18, 08 - 02:36 am Comment from: edward

well, I have used this since firefox 3 beta came. honestly it's much faster than safari 3.1. some sites on safari are really delayed, slower. especially, apple store U.S. is just killing me.

Jun 18, 08 - 03:18 am Comment from: Micro Me

Adblock Plus. OK, thanks nekogami13. I'll Google it, and try it.

Jun 18, 08 - 04:22 am Comment from: ken1w

Firefox 3 is excellent. Once I got used to the weird buttons, it even feels "Mac-like." It IS very fast, and it's working great for me so far.

I'm glad Mac OS X has such a long list of choices for good web browsers.

Jun 18, 08 - 05:53 am Comment from: Tommyr

Like the new Firefox! Great job to the team!

Snappier? You're soaking in it!

Jun 18, 08 - 07:25 am Comment from: mike

love it

Jun 18, 08 - 08:19 am Comment from: Kongregate with Me!

FF3 does not play nicely with kongregate.com

Until it does, I shall remain on my Safari.

Jun 18, 08 - 08:33 am Comment from: shen

does it run on my iPhone? no?

what the hell use is it then?

Jun 18, 08 - 08:42 am Comment from: shen

yeah, so i thought i would try it out on the mini.....

this is the fast version? are add-ons a special extra slow category? so far, color me unimpressed......

Jun 18, 08 - 09:16 am Comment from: J. Scott

You could consider me an Apple Fanboy, but honestly Firefox has just raised the bar when it comes to speed. Apple has some catching up to do. I can't believe the speed difference!

Jun 18, 08 - 09:23 am Comment from: autoris

@me

The smart location bar has nothing to do with the find function in Safari. It only has to do with where you actually type in the Web address for the page you want. It only searches *your* bookmarks and history by address, page title, and tag. And it does it right from the address bar where you need the address. I love Apple and I like Safari, but FF3 has a *much* better location/address bar than Safari with this new functionality.

Jun 18, 08 - 09:29 am Comment from: MikeR

"Firefox prevented this site from opening a pop-up window."
Too bad one from msnbc and one from http://www.customerdirectsavings.com/?PromoID=16088 still came through. Sucks that MDN does this.

Jun 18, 08 - 09:37 am Comment from: Auctoris

@MikeR

That's why I run AdBlock Plus and NoScript (Firefox addons). I see NO ads or popups--ever.

Jun 18, 08 - 11:07 am Comment from: Buster

I use both safari and FF about (80:20). Safari because it is easy and fast but it can choke on a couple of sites. FF takes care of that but it was painfully slow.

With FF3, perhaps the ratio of use will change a bit.

Jun 18, 08 - 11:23 am Comment from: krquet

I'm using FF3 to type this, and I already miss my FF2.
I've been using FF for a few years now and it is customised the way I like it. Extra set of buttons, No scripts, Ad/Flash/3rd party frame blocks, download manager and the list goes on.

I downloaded the FF3 this morning and replaced it the FF2 when moved it to my Apps folder. Sure it's snappy, zippy and all GOAT, and I am otherwise impressed. But the only thing that's frustrating me right now is that doggone 'smart' addy bar. Can't get rid of it - not sure how. If you happen to know, help.
See, for many years I have setup in FF option to erase browse history, cookies, cache etc. every time I'd close the browser.
Now - good luck with these smart bars and its brilliant all your history-base belongs to us on your next trip to bloggaland.

Well, I'm downloading FF2 later today.

Jun 18, 08 - 11:41 am Comment from: ragarcia

I don't know why you guys keep saying that FF3 is fast, it seems much slower to me than Safari. I'm testing both on MDN, which as we all know is a slow loading site.

So, either you guys have drank too much Kool-Aid on the speed of FF3 or I just don't know how to install applications anymore.

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