Firefox, the third most popular Internet browser, released version 10 today which is now available for download. The browser is quite the step up from Internet Explorer and especially great for power users who rely off of plug-ins.

Previously, their release cycle was a bit lengthy, but thanks to recent changes, they’ve sped up the release process and are delivering new versions on a much quicker basis. Due to Google Chrome increasing in popularity, the browser has dropped in market share, though that doesn’t mean it’s not as popular. There’s still and will continue to be a very dedicated base of users.

Via Betanews:

“Version 10’s headline new feature will appeal to those frustrated with having to wait for browser extensions to be recognized as compatible by new builds: from version 10 onwards, browser extensions will automatically be considered compatible unless specifically marked otherwise. It will also see a minor interface tweak, the loss of the browser forward button, and some new tools that will appeal to developers.”

Most of the changes are bug fixes and minor improvements, as to be expected. For developers, there’s some benefits:

“On the other hand, web developers will be particularly pleased with Firefox 10, thanks to a number of major new tools, all accessible from the Firefox > Web Developer menu. The most notable of these is an Inspect option that allows developers to visually inspect pages with the help of a Highlighter tool that makes checking a page’s CSS and HTML code that much easier. “

Do you use Firefox? If not, what’s your Internet browser of choice?

Firefox 10 Now Available For Download is a post from: The Inquisitr

These three browsers walk into a bar and… I forget the punchline but Internet Explorer sucks.

Chrome and Firefox vs. IE is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mozilla on Wednesday announced a new customized version of their Firefox internet browser that defaults to the Bing search engine rather than Google.

The announcement comes nearly one year after Mozilla said they would begin including Bing and Yahoo search results in Firefox 4 through an option which can be set within the browser itself.

In a statement on their website Mozilla announced:

“Mozilla and Bing are pleased to make available Firefox with Bing, a customized version of Firefox that sets Bing as the default search engine in the search box and AwesomeBar and makes Bing.com the default home page.”

The statement continues:

“Existing Firefox users can also make these changes by installing the Bing Search for Firefox Add-on.”

Firefox is already distributed with nearly 20 versions in different geographies and through various partners including options for Twitter, yahoo, Yandez and United Internet integration.

Also on the horizon is an upcoming version of Firefox for Android which includes a native UR instead of the company’s XUL implementation. The Android change is expected to produce faster startup times.

Will you be switching to the Bing version of  Mozilla Firefox browser if it’s released en masse as a secondary option instead of the Google search?

Mozilla Has Developed A Bing Default Search Engine is a post from: The Inquisitr

…described in the style of Allie Brosh. This is why I had to break up with you for Chrome, Mozilla.

Firefox is a post from: The Inquisitr

It has only been 12 weeks since we received the most recent version of Mozilla’s Firefox browser and now the company has already made available Firefox 5 via the Mozilla ftp server.

With Firefox 5 users receive support for CSS animation and an easier to access do-not-track setting which has been made available at the top of the privacy pane, however most of the previous versions UI remains in place.

While you can grab Firefox 5 right now, you might want to wait until June 21 when the company will officially launch version 5, just in case there are any last minute changes to the browser before it goes viral.

Are you excited for Mozilla Firefox 5?

Firefox 5 Gets Outed Early, Download Available Now is a post from: The Inquisitr

All the major browsers have some sort of “privacy” mode that is suppose to let you browse the web without leaving, or collecting, personally identifying information.

With Google Chrome its called Incognito Mode but it it seems that it is far from being incognito according to Randy Abrams at the ESET security blog. Apparently he decided to test out Chrome’s Incognito Mode only to find out that upon going to a site he had never been to before Facebook was there to greet him.

I have previously blogged here and here about Facebook’s instant personalization, but let me spell it out for you.Facebook “Instant Personalization” destroys Google Chrome’s “Incognito mode”. There is nothing incognito about opening a clean browser with no cookies and going to a website you have never visited before and being called by name with your picture on the web page. Facebook and “Instant Personalization” partner sites deliberately ignores your obvious and explicit instructions NOT to track you.

And apparently it isn’t just Chrome that is getting sidestepped this way as Abrams pointed out in the post:

It is mind-boggling that Microsoft’s Bing ran an end game around the Microsoft Internet Explorer team by also defeating IE9’s “InPrivate Browsing” and poor Mozilla was caught in the crossfire as Microsoft and Facebook sneak around Firefox’s Private browsing feature as well. Apple’s Safari browser’s privacy mode was also hunted down and shot.

Welcome to the “socialization” of the web where your privacy obviously means nothing.

image courtesy of ESET

Chrome’s Incognito Mode – not so much incognito it seems for Facebook is a post from: The Inquisitr

Starting late last year the ICE department within Homeland Security started seizing domains whether they were legal or not. This prompted a couple of developers came up with a clever add-on for Firefox, called MAFIAA Fire, that will redirect users to alternate sites, if set up, of those that have been seized by ICE.

Well, it appears that Homeland Security caught wind of the add-on and went to Mozilla to have the add-on taken offline.

“Recently the US Department of Homeland Security contacted Mozilla and requested that we remove the Mafiaa Fire add-on,” explained Mozilla General Counsel and Vice President of Business Affairs Harvey Anderson. “The ICE Homeland Security Investigations unit alleged that the add-on circumvented a seizure order DHS had obtained against a number of domain names.”

However, where ICE might have expected a swift take down from Mozilla, the legal and business affairs department of the tech company was not planning to honor the request so easily.

“Our approach is to comply with valid court orders, warrants, and legal mandates, but in this case there was no such court order,” Anderson explains.

According to Anderson complying with the request without any additional information would threaten open Internet principles. So, instead of taking the add-on offline they replied to ICE with a set of 11 well-crafted questions.

Interestingly enough, Mozilla never heard from ICE again.

via TorrentFreak

Right on Mozilla, this almost makes me want to actually start using my installed version of Firefox.

I said almost.

Homeland Security wants Add-on pulled, Mozilla says not so fast. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yum. Got any more of those IE9 downloads?

My those IE9 downloads were yummy is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mozilla Developer Calls Out “Sneaky” Plugin Creators, Including Large Tech Firms is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google’s Chrome browser has passed Apple’s Safari out into third place for US browsers, a milestone the newer browser option achieved in the UK last October.

Chrome, which debuted in October 2008, has been steadily gaining on Mozilla’s Firefox as an Internet Explorer alternative. IE now has a 52% market share, with Firefox following at an impressive 28.5% of users. Chrome edged in ahead of Safari in recent StatCounter data, with 8.97% to Safari’s 8.88%. StatCounter pulled the data from 847 million page views in the US.

The breakdown is a bit different among UK users, with about 55% still using IE. Firefox grabs a much larger share of the (steak and kidney?) pie across the pond, with just over 38% of users favoring it. Even the admittedly underrated Opera is trouncing Safari over there, with 4.4% to Safari’s 3.9% share.

Chrome’s rapid rise is impressive in the browser arena- while Firefox has burrowed deep into the market as a place users go when they graduate from IE, it’s had over seven years to get there. Chrome hasn’t even been available for two, and some of that time is beta only, and without options for Mac or Linux.

Have you ditched Firefox to come over the the Google side? What’s your go-to browser? Is anyone still using Flock?

Chrome surpasses Safari in US popularity, now ranked third is a post from: The Inquisitr

So. Facebook has 400 million members and apparently 175 million daily uniques; which is more than the number of members Facebook had in January 2009. The service already serves up more photos that anyone else in the world. In other words the numbers are huge.

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it, especially if you are company being told that you would have access to all those members as long as you have some social media flack to hold your hand.

I have real problems with numbers like this, just as I have always been suspect of the massive numbers always claimed by software companies as being indicative of the number of people actually using the software.

After all does the millions of downloads claimed by Firefox take into account the different versions that already existing Firefox users will automatically download. Do the numbers take into account people like myself who have downloaded just about every version but end up not using it.

No they don’t take any of that into account. All the numbers across the versions are amalgamated to provide a single number to show the world. It doesn’t matter if people like myself never actually use the software because Firefox has it’s number so it’s happy.

Twitter has the same sort of problem but in reverse which causes the company a lot of problems over the perception of adoption of the service. Many sources put the membership of Twitter around the 4 million mark but their traffic numbers don’t match up this. The problem is that the vast majority of Twitter users never go to the actual Twitter site  but rather use third party clients. So really any claims of traffic numbers for Twitter will always be suspect.

So now we have Facebook bragging about having 400 million members but really how many are actual active members?

Facebook can’t use the Twitter excuse of 3rd party clients stealing away pageviews from the Facebook site itself. So if we are to take any stock in the numbers tossed out by Sandberg at Davos that Facebook is crossing the 175 million unique visits per day this means that approximately one third of their claimed userbase is visiting at any one time.

So what are those other 225 million supposed members doing?

Sure it sounds great to be able to say you have 400 million members but really if almost two thirds of your userbase isn’t using the service that large number rings kind of hollow.

This doesn’t change the fact that Facebook is huge but I would imagine if we were to pop the hot air of the number’s balloon we would find the real member count isn’t near what is being trumpeted.

Facebook member numbers and the hot air of the PR balloon is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Nokia N900 ushered in the Maemo operating system and now Mozilla, makers of the super popular Firefox internet browser have announced that the Maemo OS is first to receive the mobile version of their browser.

Firefox 1.0, known as Weave Sync, is currently available for download and allows users to sync their desktop computer with their mobile browser, pulling in bookmarks, tabs, history and passwords.

According to Engadget:

Flash support is still somewhat shaky, and does not come enabled by default, though you’re free to flip the switch and ride the lightning as it were.

Thankfully Mozilla actually responds to crash reports and their browsers always improve with each new release. Browsing on the N900 was already great, Mozilla has just managed to make it even better.

Firefox Mobile Comes To Maemo, Other Mobile OS’s Later is a post from: The Inquisitr

Firefox 3.6 has finally been released after months of beta testing and bug fixes plus a few release candidates.

The new version of the popular web browser offers a host of new abilities, including a 20% increase in pageload times compared to Firefox 3.5. The browser also uses Gecko 1.9.2 web-rendering which adds to startup speed and stability, while offering faster and smoother Javascript controls.

The new version also includes a feature called “Personas” which lets users customize their Firefox setup with single clicks, not requiring a restart, while an auto-complete form function is available and support for the HTML5 platform is also shown off.

Check out the full set of new Firefox 3.6 features here.

It’s a bit surprising that the 3.6 version of the software is already available with release candidates only arriving at the start of this month, but regardless it’s here to stay and can be downloaded from the official Firefox homepage.

Firefox 3.6 Officially Released Today is a post from: The Inquisitr

Coming soon to a mobile phone near you – the Firefox Mobile (otherwise known as Fennec) and with the promise, at least in Mozilla’s eyes, of no more App Stores. This of course is an obvious shot at Apple and its massively successful App Store.

They are basing this on the fact that Firefox Mobile will be launching with the fastest Javascript engine of any mobile browser and the belief that this will encourage developers to develop apps using Javascript and HTML instead of having to develop for each platform. In an interview with PC Pro Jay Sullivan, vice president of mobile at Mozilla said that anyone with knowledge of Javascript and HTML will be able to develop a great app.

Sullivan claims developers are frustrated by the difficulties of writing for multiple mobile platforms. “We look at the problems it creates for small innovators,” he said. “You have to create an iPhone app, an Android app, a Windows Mobile app…”

“As developers get more frustrated with quality assurance, the amount of handsets they have to buy, whether their security updates will get past the iPhone approval process… I think they’ll move to the web.”

Sullivan says it will take time to wean developers away from the app store model, which has been heralded as one of the chief reasons for the iPhone’s success. “In the interim period, apps will be very successful. Over time, the web will win because it always does.”

This of course is dependent on their being a viable ecosystem that will allow developers to make money since this is really the big driving force behind the success of the App Store.

Mozilla promising an app store free mobile future is a post from: The Inquisitr

It was expected that Microsoft would attempt in some fashion to downplay Google’s Chrome Frame plugin that is designed to replace Internet Explorer’s web rendering engine with the one that power’s Google’s own Chrome browser. Of course they didn’t let us down in that fashion calling the plugin as a security threat for users of IE and the Internet. What wasn’t really expected was for Mozilla to come out publically on the same side of the fence as Microsoft.

Google’s reasoning for creating and releasing the plugin is that they just couldn’t get IE to play nice with their upcoming release of Google Wave so rather than wasting valuable time trying they created the Chrome Frame plugin.

While Mozilla agreed with Microsoft about the security issues Mitchell Baker, CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, argues that it could end up being detrimental to the user experience

According to Baker, Chrome Frame’s browser-in-a-browser will confuse users and render some of their familiar tools useless. "Once your browser has fragmented into multiple rendering engines, it’s very hard to manage information across Web sites. Some information will be manageable from the browser you use and some information from Chrome Frame. This defeats one of the most important ways in which a browser can help people manage their [Web] experience."

Source: Computer World – Mozilla slams Google’s Chrome Frame as ‘browser soup’

In addition vice president of Mozilla Mike Shaver had this to say in a cnet interview

Specifically, Shaver said Chrome Frame can disable IE features and muddle users’ understanding of Web security matters. And users of the reviled IE 6 browser, he added, often won’t be able to run Chrome Frame anyway because their computer is locked down to prohibit changes or lacks sufficient power in the first place.

"As a side effect, the user’s understanding of the Web’s security model and the behavior of their browser is seriously hindered by delegating the choice of software to the developers of individual sites they visit. It is a problem that we have seen repeatedly with other stack plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight and Java, and not one that I think we need to see replayed again under the banner of HTML5," he said.

Wow … Mozilla sides with Microsoft over Google’s Chrome Frame plugin is a post from: The Inquisitr

We live in an online world where everything is suppose to be free (thanks for that Mr. Anderson) regardless of the number of hours someone has  put into what they are making available via the web. Whether it be something as simple as a blog post or as involved as writing a plugin for Firefox everyone wants it for free.

There is no denying that Firefox would be as popular today without the incredibly rich add-on developer community that has made the browser the potential Internet Explorer killer it is. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen people write about how important the Firefox add-ons are. So much so that there has been an on-going discussion among developers about how they can monetize their work, because trust me there is a lot of time and effort that goes into creating and maintaining these add-ons.

Well Mozilla obviously has been listening to these conversations and as a result have introduced a pilot program to make a little spare change for their efforts. At this point the pilot program is only including a selected number of developers but if it proves successful they will open it up to all. For those that are involved in the program you will see the following when you go to the add-on’s page

But here’s the thing – not everyone is willing to pay anything for even the most popular add-ons if the poll being run by cnet is any indication. In fact right now more that 50% of the people who have responded to the poll say that they would never pay for a browser add-on.

As someone who has spent over a hundred dollars in the last couple of weeks for something as simple as themes; which it ends up I won’t be using for various reasons, the idea that people aren’t even willing to chip in something like $5 for a Firefox add-on they just can’t live without says only one thing – you’re a bunch of cheap pricks.

Over 50% of Firefox users are cheap pricks is a post from: The Inquisitr

There were, and still are, a lot of naysayers about Microsoft’s recent reworking of its search offering and subsequent launch of Bing. Its impact on the whole search business was never expected to be earth shattering but it has surprised more than a few by gaining percentage points. One can’t be sure if it will continue to grow or not but it showed that the company can indeed shake things up.

As I was reading a post on Technologizer by Harry McCracken about the slipping of Internet Explorer’s market share it got me thinking about the same thing I had written about in the past when it came to search. In a post on my home blog back in January 2007 where I suggested that if Microsoft wanted to make headway in search it was time they started a search skunkworks project.

The idea was of putting together a very small core group of developers and keep the marketing department as far away as possible in the hopes that they could build something new and fresh. While they didn’t go that route with Bing they came pretty close and I think that they should do exactly the same thing when it comes to Internet Explorer.

End of the line

In effect I would suggest that IE8 should be the last Internet Explorer. Any browser from Microsoft that comes after should be a completely new beast with a new name, a whole new frame of mind. I say this because the Internet Explorer name has way too much negative ‘emotional’ baggage that is being carted along version to version. The only reason that IE has any placement on the desktop anymore is because it comes with the operating system.

Other than those wanting to test out each new version so they can write negative posts about it, or diehard IE users looking to upgrade. Hell I was a diehard IE user for years. Sure, I tried out Firefox (never have liked it), Opera, Safari and Chrome. It is the last one that finally got me away from IE and chances are I won’t go back; and I’m not alone. As McCracken points out in his post

But I assume that Microsoft would prefer to not only stop the bleeding but to get IE growing again. The only way that’ll happen is if users of other Windows browsers–Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari–switch to IE in measurable quantities.

What are the chances of that happening? Slim, I think. For Windows users, running anything other than IE represents a conscious decision to use a browser other than the default one their OS came with. Typical users of Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari-for-Windows users all seem to be dedicated fans of their browser of choice. And once you’ve found a browser you’re comfortable with, the incentive to stick with it is high. For all these reasons, any version of IE is going to need to be strikingly different and better to lure expatriates back.

Why a skunkworks project?

One of the biggest problems that Microsoft has created for itself is that because of the ingrained nature of Windows and IE their software has to be backward compatible to the point that it becomes a bloated mess of code. If they were to start fresh it would have to be with the internal understanding that this is a complete fresh start – no dragging any code from IE forward. If they were to do this and word got out I think you would see a lot of corporate businesses become worried because of the in-house investment they have in using IE.

This in turn could exert pressure on Microsoft to re-consider and that would kill any chance of a fresh start. Make no mistake Microsoft has to do something when it comes to a browser. Internet Explorer is becoming an albatross around their neck and will continue to lose ground in the browser world.

So any initial work on a new browser would have to be done very quietly. There are a lot of people who would question whether or not Microsoft could do something like this on the quiet but just look at Windows 7 and Bing to see that they can do it. We might have known Windows 7 was coming but unlike previous versions of the operating system next to nothing was known about it until Sinofsky said so. We might have been hearing something about Kumo, the codename for Bing, but we didn’t find out much about it until they were ready.

Time to send Trident to the bottom of the ocean

Now assuming for the sake of discussion Microsoft did decide to take the plunge and work on a completely new browser. The first thing I would suggest doing is to ditch the Trident rendering engine at least as far as the browser is concerned. They have been using Trident for as long as there has been an IE but I would strongly suggest that they switch to using WebKit as the basis for the browser.

I suggest this for a couple of reasons. As I wrote previously one of these reasons is

If you consider that by moving to the WebKit engine Microsoft would be giving an incredible boost to an open source product as well the number of developers that would begin getting involved in making the engine better is huge. Consider that in this case WebKit would now be the default rendering engine being used in IE, Safari and Chrome – that means a shitload of developers are now available to improve the common engine. It would also leave Firefox out on its own and with it’s mortal enemy IE able to claim open source and compliance rights thereby taking away the major arguing point Firefox has for getting new users.

The effects of this kind of move would be a big public relations plus for the company. Microsoft has already been making moves to be a part of the open source movement but this would be a big step forward that would get a lot of people talking.

And that is one oft he other reasons why a move to using WebKit would be a key idea. The buzz that would surround the company as they launched a totally new browser based on the same open standards as two other major browsers would be immense. McCracken asked in his post what it would take for people to move to a Microsoft browser and stem the flow of people moving to other browsers as well as bring in new users. Well I think some thing like this would definitely fit the bill as an answer to his question.

Wrapping up

Internet Explorer (any version) is a pig with a lot of bad press surrounding it and I don’t believe that IE 8 or any future version of Internet Explorer will do anything to change that perception. I realize that any chance of anything I have suggested coming to fruition is probably never going to happen. It is also obvious that the company is losing market share in the browser world and that is something it can’t afford to let happen. Unfortunately I just don’t see Internet Explorer, now and the road forward, ever being able to turn things around.

First Microsoft shook up its search – next up: Internet Explorer is a post from: The Inquisitr

I have to give big props to the guys over at TheNextWeb.com for finding this gem of a video – oh and the headline it’s actually from the video and their answer wasn’t Google Chrome. It was just – Google.

While the Zee might have been surprised by some of the answers from the people on the street I’m not. the fact that the majority of people thought Google, Yahoo were browsers doesn’t surprise me one bit. Heck there was even one diehard “AOL is the web” guy. Rather than spoil it any further take the 2 – 3 minutes it takes and watch the video. It’s a great way to end a Friday.

Q: What browser do you use? – A: Google [VIDEO] is a post from: The Inquisitr

At some point this had to happen – browser plug-ins with opposite agendas coming into some sort of conflict. Such is the case of the recent updating of the well known NoScript plug-in and the equally well known Adblock Plus plug-in, both for the Firefox browser.

The simmering war of words has been most apparent on the Adblock Plus blog where Wladimir Palant, the author of the plug-in, keeps in touch with the users of the plug-in (I was unable to find a blog for NoScript). It was a recent post that Wladimir first talked about the problem that a lot of plug-in authors face, especially if their work becomes popular as is the case with his; and the NoScript, plug-in has. It is a problem of time versus earning a living.

Many of the most well known plug-ins are still a labor of love with their authors doing all the work in their spare time. The problem is that once you cross the line from being just one of the many available plug-ins to being one of the plug-ins that devoted fans of browsers like Firefox install by default. It is these plug-ins that require more and more of the author’s time. Time that some authors are trying to find ways to get paid for.

In his post Wladimir made it quite obvious that he understands why some authors may go the monetization route but what worried him was the methods that would be used.

So far, getting money for your work ranges from begging for donations over post-install pages with ads (where some go pretty far to make sure these ads are seen) to showing ads in the extension itself. Now I am afraid that we might see another development that we already know from desktop applications: extensions that change your homepage/default search engine or install unrelated extensions if you aren’t careful enough to opt-out.

It wasn’t long after that post that he found himself having to deal with a competing plug-in that in order to monetize itself was making modification to his plug-in, Adblock Plus. From today’s post on the escalating war of words

What followed was a small war — the website would add various tricks to prevent Adblock Plus with EasyList from blocking ads, EasyList kept adjusting filters. Then, a week ago a new NoScript version was released. A few days later I noticed first bug reports — apparently, Adblock Plus “glitches” were observed with this NoScript version, especially around NoScript’s domains (but not only those). When I investigated this issue I couldn’t believe my eyes. NoScript was extended by a piece of obfuscated (!) code to specifically target Adblock Plus and disable parts of its functionality. The issues caused by this manipulation were declared as “compatibility issues” in the NoScript forum, even now I still didn’t see any official admission of crippling Adblock Plus. Clearly, NoScript is moving from the gray area of adware into dark black area of scareware, making money at user’s expense at any cost.

Now Wladimir has added an update to that post letting everyone know that this current battle has been won in that NoScript, through some pushing from the people responsible for the Mozilla Add-ons Policy, has had to stop modifying the Adblock Plus subscription filter. How long this quiet period will last is anyone’s guess but it belies a larger problem in the plug-in landscape; which Wladimir talked about – how do popular plug-in authors justify their time spent on these often complex pieces of code?

There are literally thousands of plug-ins available for just Firefox alone, often doing similar jobs and vying for user attention. Trying to set oneself apart from the pack is a difficult proposition even without having to consider if you want to make any kind of money from your work. Granted a large majority of plug-in authors are firm believers of the Open Source and GPL licensing model; but when you get to the level of popularity experienced by plug-ins like Adblock Plus and NoScript it can be harder to justify all the time spent on the project.

Throw in the fact that many of the users of one plug-in are going to be users of a similar; and to a degree competing, plug-in things might get a little nasty. This might only be one little skirmish but is is also a window onto a larger problem that the plug-in authors may be facing more and more as the popularity of plug-ins increases across the board. At some point people are going to want to find some way to be compensated for their time and warm and fuzzy words of encouragement aren’t going to be enough.

I expect we will see more things like this recent war of words happen more and more on the road forward.

The war of browser plug-ins is a post from: The Inquisitr

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4: What’s New

Despite the impressive number jump, Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is just a stepping stone up in the beta development chain. The release incorporates a handful of fixes and improvements from its predecessor, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3, including better private browsing functionality and a more stable build of the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.

The new beta also adds support for geolocation-based location award browsing and native JSON. It’s said to feature faster content rendering as well.

Full release notes about the changes follow. Visit this page to download the release.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 10 months. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use, and adding new features for users:

This beta is now available in 70 languages – get your local version.

Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.
Better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.

The ability to provide Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation.
Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.

Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.

Support for new web technologies such as: HTML5

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 Is Finally Here is a post from: The Inquisitr