Aug
6
2006

Firefox 2.0 Feature Review

Last Wednesday, Mozilla released beta 1 of Firefox 2.0. I’ve yet to download and experiment with it (I’ve taken to waiting for the release candidates—RC1 due in August) but I have enjoyed studying up on the new feature set in Fx2. Here’s a rundown:

Integrated Spellcheck

Firefox will now keep an eye on your work and help you avoid spelling errors while filling out input fields on the web. Of course, I don’t need the feature since I always spell corectly. Also, as Dolan mentioned, the words Mozilla and Firefox are not in the Fx “dictionary.” Interesting…

Session Restore

This feature has been active in my Fx installation since the 1.0.x days through the use of the SessionSaver extension. I’m glad to see that it will now be native to the browser. The basic function is this: when you exit Firefox, a record of your open windows and tabs is made; when you reopen the browser to begin work again, your session is restored exactly the way you left it, even after a browser or system crash. Read on…

Improved RSS Support (Reader and Discovery)

It looks like Mozilla is ramping up the interaction between browser and feed with the goal of making feeds human readable (if browsed directly to) as well as improving Firefox’s feed discovery approach and subscription method. More on feed handling…

Tab Management

Another feature that is being refreshed is tab management. In Fx2, all tabs will contain a close (x) button making it a little easier to close tabs (one less step than the current three alternatives.) Tabs are, of course, still draggable. But they can also be re-opened if closed in error. This undo close tab feature has also been previously supported via an extension. I can tell you from experience, you will use this feature.

Security Enhancements (Anti-phishing)

To me, Firefox’s strongest component is security. For those that want to argue that, go right ahead. I know it’s not 100% secure. Nothing is. But personally, I’ve battled far less spyware, viruses, trojans, and hijack attempts by simply using Firefox rather than IE. The difference is astounding. In my role as a musician/worship leader, I’m often pulling lyrics and chord charts off the web. If any of you have dealt with lyrics sites, you know how dangerous they can be for malware, adware and the like. It’s terrible. But Firefox has always had my back and I’ve only dealt with one or two minor attacks (easily fixed) in the past couple of years. In Fx2, Mozilla is taking security even further by increasing the browser’s awareness of anti-phishing attempts and checking sites against a local blacklist (or Google at the option of the user.)

Improved Search

The built-in search feature of Firefox will gain some attention as well. Improvements will be made to the search bar including the addition of autofill for search queries and easier search engine management. More…