Firefox 3 is Best of the Betas?

Comments (2) · March 25, 2008 at 12:03 pm · Firefox News

In a comparison with Internet Explorer 8, Safari, and Opera 9.5 I think Firefox 3 so far wins hands down.  To get a better idea of what you can expect though from the next generation of browsers, Cnet has put up a nice round up of all the latest for you to browse through and see what you like and hate about each.

The section on how it compares to the others was the most enlightening of all:

Firefox remains the best browser on the whole, with great features, impressive improvements all-round, a revised bookmarking system and thousands of add-ons to make it easy to perfectly customise.

The improvements in performance are stellar, it’s got some well-integrated features than everyone will use (resumable download manager, tag-ready bookmarking) and it offers, overall, a better, richer Web experience. We’re behind Firefox and we hope that when the final release is out it’ll be just that little bit better to boot.

More great news for the Mozilla crew!  Is there something the other browsers are getting or doing that you wish Firefox 3 would try to do too?

Tags: best, CNet, Firefox-3, Internet-Explorer, opera, roundup

Firefox 3 Solves the Memory Problems?

Comments · March 18, 2008 at 7:05 am · Firefox News

This is a ‘bit of news that might have been missed by some. It looks like Firefox 3 continues to gain praise for having a significant reduction in the amount of memory it uses over Firefox 2.

Over at Ars Technica this is what they are saying:

During intensive browsing with approximately 50 tabs, I have found that Firefox 3 generally consumes less than half of the memory used by Firefox 2.0.0.12. Firefox 3 is also snappier and more responsive when switching between tabs and performing other operations that typically lag in Firefox 2.0.0.12 when the browser is experiencing heavy load.

This is great news for any Firefox fans out there. Over the recent years the memory problems seem to be the big sticking point for a lot of people. Has this mountain of an issue finally been solved?

+ Firefox 3 Goes on a Diet, Eats Less Memory than IE and Opera

Tags: Firefox News, Firefox-3, ie, Memory, opera, performance

Making Video on the Web Easier

Comments (1) · December 11, 2007 at 9:19 am · Firefox News

Want to view, edit, publish video for the Web without worrying about having the right plugin, or doing the right version for the right people depending on the video method they like the most?

Well both Mozilla and the Opera people are getting behind a movement to do just that.

Looks like the solution will be to use some open source technology mixed with a new tag to make embedding video in web pages easier.

Opera and Mozilla officials say the changes to their browsers will offer a new level of ease for Web developers using open-source tools to embed and stream their video. If video encoded in Ogg Theora plays directly in the browser, everyday Internet surfers would not have the burden of downloading extra plug-ins for their browser to play the video.

A lot of other good points are made in this PC World article on the topic. We don’t need a plugin to view images - why should we need one to watch video?

Tags: firefox, Firefox News, ideas, opera, streaming, video, Web

Firefox Phone

Comments (1) · May 10, 2007 at 8:05 am · Firefox News

Will Firefox be moving into the mobile market? Well, I don’t think it will be happening anytime soon. If it does happen eventually though, Opera might become even more of a non-player in the browser market. Found this interesting ‘bit of news over at Download Squad.

Baker says developers are working on a mobile browser, but says it’s a long term goal and nothing users should expect to see anytime soon. While the Minimo project is based on Mozilla, it isn’t an official product and it’s still a few (dozen) steps behind Opera Mobile when it comes to speed and performance.

It might be a lot of promise and “maybe” right now, but if it does happen I have a feeling that the people using Opera’s mobile browser will feel like the ones using the desktop Opera. Lonely.

Related Reading: Download Squad | Interview with Mitchell Baker

Tags: firefox, Firefox News, mobile, mozilla, opera, phone, portable

Split Your Window Up

Comments off · January 15, 2007 at 8:46 am · Firefox Usability

Would you like to split your window up into two, three or four different Web sites? Viewing multiple Web sites at once is something Opera does - why not Firefox? Well now with a little help from an extension you can get this functionality as well.

One of my favorite features in Opera is having the ability to cascade or tile your tabs, which is something that many browsers don’t support. That’s because Opera is built using a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) that allows for these operations to take place. Having this feature always allowed me to view to different websites side-by-side which I find to be extremely useful.

+ Read More About Splitting Up Your Window in Firefox!

Tags: extensions, firefox, help, opera, tiling, views

2 Pane Bookmarks

Comments off · January 11, 2007 at 5:00 am · Bookmark Help

One neat thing that Opera does well is having two viewing panes for the bookmarks. I don’t know if it is better or worse than doing things the normal way - but it is a different way of browsing through things. If you have wanted to do this yourself - but didn’t want to move away from Firefox, have no fear!

All you need to do is pick up the 2 Pane Bookmark extension for Firefox. This extension does it’s best job to bring this functionality from Opera to your browser of choice, Firefox.

+ Download and Install the 2 Pane Bookmark Extension for Firefox!

Tags: Bookmark Help, extensions, favorites, firefox, opera

Firefox 1.5 vs Opera 9

Comments off · June 27, 2006 at 5:05 am · General Posts

The browser wars are getting better and better each and every day. It seems like all of the big three (Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer) keep trying to out perform the next one. Now we have seen dozens of reviews looking at all three. This time around though I want to point you to an article on Firefox 1.5 versus Opera 9. The author makes a lot of valid points, and there is a lot of good non-bias information within.

[Read More About the Firefox 1.5 vs Opera 9 Face Off!]

Tags: browser-wars, browsers, firefox, opera, reviews