The Fire Fox 3.5 will be ready for shipment by the end of June. Its not a part of the much touted browser wars between Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 or Apple’s Safari. But it has established itself on its own and hopes it that it will not be trampled in the stampede.
First thing that Fire Fox 3.5 tries to clarify its position is on privacy issues of browsing and Geo location and asserts that it has no intention of spying on you. That having been taken we wonder how effective it is against the intensifying plague of spyware. Otherwise it has taken sufficient care and simplified the procedures for protecting your privacy vis a vis your browsing habits and geo location.
The speed of Fire Fox has been accelerated but it has not yet caught up with the Steroids that Chrome and IE 8 use. It uses HTML 5 and Java Script Notation based “Trace Monkey” which is open sourced and which does not require any additional plug ins or “Flash” for viewing videos. With this it has been able to optimize its performance and is three times faster than Fire Fox 3.5. Earlier, the problem with memory that used to be requested by an application but lay unused, thereby slowing the system down has been sorted out.
A new search Interface has been created for searching book marks, History, tags etc., The place of search and the query itself can be selected and even combined which can then be saved as a new book mark. Tagging is another new feature where a star icon that is provided on the tool bar helps you to save the current page as a book mark and in the folder you want or lets you even create a new folder for that purpose.
The Auto Complete now encompasses book marks, History and tags not just addresses. The colors used in Auto Complete differ for titles and addresses to enable better cognition by providing contrast.
The back and forward buttons have been clubbed together as a new “gadget” as in the rest of the browsers.
Efforts have been made to integrate the browser with the Operating Systems.
The crucial question of whether Fire Fox can stand on its own will be answered in the coming weeks.
