Mozilla releases Firefox 3 to fanfare
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008Excited fans of Mozilla eagerly downloaded the open source company’s new free browser, Firefox 3, yesterday in massive numbers. The company encouraged users to participate in a potentially record-setting “Download Day”, trying to set a Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period. While some server snags were reported, the event seems to have been a great success, though the folks at Guinness World Records will take a few days to confirm the record.
CNN is reporting that Firefox 3 was being downloaded at a rate of 9,000 copies a minute as the festivities began. Firefox has announced that 8,432,439 copies were distributed around the world, and an interactive map on their website shows which countries took advantage of the free browser software. If the map is accurate, nearly every nation on earth has some Firefox fans, including unlikely spots like Madagascar (274 downloads), Greenland (115), Papua New Guinea (51), Uzbekistan (596), and Sierra Leone (6).
The bigger news, however, is not just the popularity of Firefox 3 but also the improved usability. Unlike Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 passes the Acid2 Browser Test, a Web Standards Project measurement that ensures compatibility with CSS 2.0 and HTML web design (IE 8 is expected to pass). New features are being praised by technology journalists and users alike. This CNET review in video form touts the improved loading times for Javascript and the new security system, which shows users a warning for suspicious sites. Other popular upgrades include:
- support for Yahoo! mail instant composition (formerly only available for desktop email clients)
- organization and tagging functionality for Bookmarks
- suggested URLs from Bookmarks folder
- support for Foxmarks synchronization
- ability to save sessions/tabs when closing
- built-in spellchecker
- full zoom on web pages
- new and improved browser add-ons
All these improvements are impressing reviewers. The smart address bar is perhaps the most popular and controversial of all the new features. While some wish it could be turned off, others are impressed with the usability. A reviewer at Inforworld writes, “The address bar has taken on a life of its own. Going far beyond address-matching as you type, Firefox 3 also matches your entered URLs against keywords within the title or tags of the page. It sorts by frequency and recency, and tunes itself as you use it. I’ve found that it gets the right page or link for me just about every time.”
While Firefox is still playing second-fiddle to Internet Explorer in terms of browser popularity, Firefox 3 gives Mozilla a definitive edge in usability. Download Day was an undeniable success which will give Mozilla more visibility in the months to come. Expect to see more and more users join the ranks of the Firefox faithful. It seems that in the so-called “browser wars”, Firefox 3 has just pulled ahead of the pack.
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