New features in Firefox 87

Firefox 87 first launched on March 23, 2021. Following Google's release of Chrome 89, this recent update boasts major improvements to help you get the most out of your browser. Firefox itself. Here are the new features in Firefox 87.

SmartBlock feature when using private mode

Firefox's built-in Enhanced Tracking Protection automatically blocks scripts, images, and content from third-party trackers (including social trackers). like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), advertisers or analytics services. However, this also blocks essential elements of the website from loading, resulting in broken website content in some cases.

Thanks to SmartBlock, you can now be tracked less when using private mode. SmartBlock is a smart tracker blocking mechanism that allows you to enjoy greater privacy and improved performance in Private Browsing and Strict Mode windows.

SmartBlock fixes broken pages by Tracking Protection by providing local redundancy for blocked third-party tracking scripts. Local stand-ins are dummy scripts that Firefox inserts into web pages to replace broken scripts by Tracking Protection.

These dummy scripts mimic the original script, allow the content to load properly, and block trackers found on the page.

HTTP referral link policy

To further protect your online privacy, Firefox 87 now cuts HTTP links by default. According to Mozilla, this is the referral policy stricter, more privacy protection. To prevent websites from accidentally leaking your sensitive data, Firefox will now strip the query string and path information from the referrer header.

Browsers typically send an HTTP referral header to a web page that referred you to it. This can be the full URL in your address bar, including navigation and a secondary resource request. Websites can legally exploit this information to optimize caching, logging, .

Websites may also extract your private user data from the HTTP referral header, such as the last visited page on your referring page, your online account information, among those pages. other. By default, most browsers cut off the HTTP reference header when navigating from HTTPS to HTTP sites is less secure, but send the full URL when navigating between HTTPS sites.

Firefox 87's new referral link policy now cuts off HTTP referral headers for both HTTP and HTTPS sites by default.

The '' Highlight All '' option is now available in the Find in Page feature

This Find in This Page feature allows you to find content on the page by entering a query in the search bar. It now has the Highlight All option. Highlight all the matches that match your query.

You can also set the Find in Page feature to lower case match, match punctuation styles and whole words. To see the new Highlight All option:

1. Open Firefox on the web page.
2. Click the menu button .
3. Select Find in This Page .
4. You should now see the search bar at the bottom of the page.

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Full support for macOS VoiceOver

If you have a Mac computer, you can now access full support for VoiceOver, the screen reader built into macOS, just like Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS users.

Improved features in Firefox 87

The Backspace key has been disabled

Mozilla also introduced important changes to Firefox through a new update, mainly about the Backspace key. When filling out a form, you may lose data by accidentally clicking the Backspace key. It has now been disabled as the navigation shortcut for the back navigation button.

Library menu is changed

Items in the Synced tab , Recent highlights , and Pocket List have been removed from the gallery menu due to not being used often or having alternate access points in the browser.

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The Help menu has been simplified

Similar to the gallery menu, the help menu has also been improved by removing items with an optional access point. For example, entries pointing to Firefox support pages have been removed because you can access them the same through the Get help button .

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Check and update to Firefox 87

You can download the official Firefox browser from the Mozilla website or follow these steps to update your browser to Firefox 87.

1. Open Firefox .

2. Click the menu button .

3. Scroll down to select Options .

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4. Scroll down to select Firefox Updates .

5. If you install automatic updates, your Firefox version will be the latest version.

6. If not, click Check for updates , and then select Install .

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Micah Soto

Update 04 April 2021