A few days ago Mozilla released the long anticipated FireFox 3 web browser.
I’ve been using the beta version for months and I can assure you that FireFox 3 is a good upgrade with heaps of handy new features. If you’re still using Internet Explorer then now really is the time to download FireFox and experience surfing the net as it should be (if you are still using IE – especially IE8, I’d love to hear why in the comments?)
Here’s a quick run down of some of the cool new features in FF3 (with over 15,000 improvements on FF2, I won’t be listing them all!):
Smart Location Bar
Now this is very cool – it might throw you a little the first few times you use it, but I can assure you it is so handy you’ll wonder how you ever managed to find anything with the old-school address bar. You can start typing anything and the smart location bar will start giving you suggestions on where it thinks you want to go – it bases its info on domain names, page titles, your bookmarks (which you can setup with smart tags) and just about any other info it can get its hands on… makes finding those webpages you visited a week ago but have no idea what the site was called a breeze – I use this one a lot!
Improved Performance
Faster javascript loading, improved memory management, faster page loading, better graphic rendering… faster, faster, faster!
Improved Bookmarks
Not that I use bookmarks as much as before since I rely on the smart location bar most of the time, but bookmarking has been completely overhauled with one-click bookmarks, smart folders, tagging and of course, integration with the smart location bar.
Dynamic folders can be placed in your bookmarks menu or on the toolbar and give you easy access to your favorite sites. One of the cool default folders they’ve already setup for you are your ‘most visited sites’, this will dynamically update and show the websites you visit most frequently… how cool is that?
Customization
There are thousands of ways to customise FF3… really. FF2 users will be familiar with add-ons, well the add-ons manager has been improved, you’ve got look and feel controls and a huge array of variables that you can tweak. Even if you think you’ve tweaked it all, you’ve probably only scratched the surface. Check out Lifehacker’s FF3 Power User Guide for a few hints.
Over 12 million people have downloaded FireFox 3 in the two days since it was released… are you one of them? Let me know what you think of FireFox 3 in the comments – it’s a big thumbs up from me, what say you?
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i now begin to wonder why i’m still using IE lol
everyone else i know is using firefox… i should really give it a try one of these days