Firefox 3: a first look

Firefox 3 is the latest version of the popular web browser from Mozilla. Andy Shaw, Technical & Reviews Editor at Web User, takes a first look at the improvements and enhancements.

After a shaky start, with servers buckling under the pressure of demand, Firefox 3 is finally available to download.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the interface has changed. We’ve still got the Back, Home and Bookmarks buttons, but it’s a sleeker presentation. If you’re a fan of add-on toolbars there should be little change to their appearance, though you may find that popular services like Google and Del.icio.us require you to download and install new versions. As long as there’s a compatible version available, this should happen automatically the first time you run the browser.

Start typing a web address into the Location Bar and you’ll notice it’s become more intelligent, trying to guess what you’re going to do. Sites from your bookmarks that match what you’re typing should pop up for you to choose from, and it will also search addresses in your History.

You can even type in a single word and it will list any addresses that contain the word, not just those with the word at the beginning. Because of this, the bar has been renamed the Smart Location Bar, though Firefox beta testers also called it the ‘awesome bar’, which suggests how much they’ve enjoyed using it.

You can add bookmarks with a single click by clicking on the star icon in the Location Bar or, if the site’s already bookmarked, the star will light up to tell you so. Double-click the star to get instant access to your bookmarks’ organisation system. You can also tag your bookmarks for organising them without using old-fashioned folders.

Exploring the menus and options, you’ll find that things have been streamlined and improved. Your browsing history and bookmarks are further tied together in the Library and Smart Bookmarks Folder, which allows you to sort all the data your browser collects to help find things more easily. The Add-ons Manager and Download Manager have been smartened up too.

Despite all this, it’s behind the scenes where perhaps the most impressive changes lie. The browser is palpably faster at rendering web pages, and is particularly geared up to improve complex web services like Google Mail and Google Docs. There’s a dramatic improvement over Firefox 2’s oft-reported memory leak, which hogged system resources if it was left open too long; and all the latest web standards are supported, so you should never run into a properly coded website that doesn’t work in the browser.

If you use a lot of add-ons it might be worth checking that they’re all Firefox 3 compatible before you install, but for everyone else, go out and download Firefox 3 straightaway – we doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Download Firefox 3 here.

Take part in a live chat with Web User and Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, on 18 June at 2:30pm GMT at www.webuser.co.uk/firefox3