Mozilla web browsers (Firefox and Flock) are my absolute favourites, so, like many of you, I’ve been waiting for Firefox 3.5 to come live. Now that we all had a chance to use Firefox 3.5 for some time, let me share with you which of it’s new and improved features I like best.
1. I know this is not exactly a feature and it doesn’t sound too creative, but for me the number one improvement is speed. Firefox 3.5 uses the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine instead of the SpiderMonkey engine used in Firefox 3. As a result Firefox 3.5 is more than twice as fast as Firefox 3. Take a look at the SunSpider test results (in milliseconds). The test was performed on a Windows XP computer:
An additional improvement is better memory usage – Firefox 3.5 is not as heavy on RAM as the previous version.
2. A great new feature is HTML 5 support. If you are viewing a web page that is coded in HTML 5 and has video or audio in an open-source format like Ogg Vobris and Ogg Theora, Firefox 3.5 will treat that media as part of the page and not Flash content – no plug-ins or software downloads are require. This new feature provides lots of new ways for websites to display rich content.
3. Private Browsing is new for Firefox, but a number of competing browsers had it for a while. So it’s nice to see Firefox catch up there! And no, it’s not only for browsing inappropriate websites! To start a Privet Browsing session you’ll need to either go to the Tools menu, or press Ctrl+Shift+P and do the same to turn it off.
4. Another handy security enhancement is Forget This Site. It’s really useful if you want to wipe a single website out of your history rather than delete the whole lot. To make Firefox forget a website all you need to do is press Ctrl+H – select a site – right-click it and select Forget About This Site.
5. The last feature I mention in this post is by no means less important than the rest – Location-Aware Browsing. Now Firefox can detect websites from your area. As a result, you get more relevant information than ever before. Very useful if you are looking for places near you and not in, say, New-York City, such as restaurants, libraries, or in my case shops that buy second-hand furniture! This feature is optional and Firefox doesn’t share your location without your permission – no need to worry about your privacy.
In my view, these are top 5 new Firefox 3.5 features. What are your favourite Firefox 3.5 features? Please share in your comments!
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I’m happy for you that 3.5 was so fast.
I and most others find it bloated and slow, not to mention about as stable as a retard in a hall of mirrors !
@Venuccio Sorry to hear that. For me it is a lot faster than the previous version and all my add-ons work.
I agree that 3.5 is a lot faster, and so far perfectly stable. Just a pity that some add-on’s don’t work first time, but it is fairly easy to force install, or change the maxversion, and they seem Ok then.
One factor that seemed to be a problem with 3.0 was that it did not always interpret CAPTCHA images correctly so it made it difficult to log on to certain sites. Seems as though this has been put right in 3.5.
GREAT !
Don’t know what Venuccio’s problem is. Firefox has always been rock stable unlike IE7 (you can forget that piece of poop called IE8) and Opera. Mind you the benefits you have listed make no difference to me. I have not noticed any difference in speed with 3.5 over the previous version at all, it feels exactly the same. HTML 5 ? Private browsing seems fairly pointless as I delete everything whenever I shut Firefox. I cannot imagine Forget this Site being of any benefit for hardly anyone. Location Aware browsing appears not to be working on my computer unless I go to a porn site where there is always dubious young ladies in my area but then there was with the previous version.
I love Firefox to bits but apart from the tab bar I cannot see any difference at all. But then there wasn’t a lot to be able to improve on to be fair.
@John L LOL too bad about Location aware browsing! And Forget this site is useful if you are on a friend’s computer, or at work, etc. Well, in theory anyway.
The private browsing is one that I was not aware of. Thanks for the list. I’m glad that firefox is faster now. I have had problems with ff being too slow.
The main default of the 3.5 is its slowness to start. It takes minutes, sometime a lot of them, to start up. It’s very annoying. It’s OK after that, except that it does not use less memory than the 3.0, as advertised. As many as 600 Megs.
I for one am very pleased with the progress Firefox has made. I’ve been a user since early days, and I eagerly look forward to each new release. And once again they don’t disappoint. I love InPrivate for Banking and such, just that tiny bit more security. Also I honestly notice the speed difference, especially on my slightly older machines. and it purrs along at 99MB of RAM with 10 tabs open for me, so I don’t know what is causing other people’s 600+MB woes.
Now if only the rest of the browsers would ratify a solid HTML5 standard, rather than being flimsy on the issue. I for one think they are just too lazy to upgrade their codebase to support some of the best of the new features.
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I suspect Vecuccio is either using the typical “weasel words” when he says “I and most others find it bloated and slow, not to mention about as stable as a retard in a hall of mirrors !” Either that, or he’s just a Windows fanboy who just talks out of his arse without any real evidence or experience to support his bloviations.