Overview of Firefox 4

TipsMake.com - Too many changes in the world of web browsers have taken place since the launch of Firefox 3.0 in June 2008. Google Chrome exploded in the market and regularly updated since its launch. Safari developed version 3 and then to the current version 5.

Although Mozilla has released a number of improvements in Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 which improve performance and set many new features, it seems that they have also begun to feel Firefox is falling behind in the race. . Firefox 4 will help Firefox get back on track, with an updated interface and improved performance.

New interface

The first thing you'll notice is that Firefox 4 has a new interface. Like many modern browsers, Firefox 4 is designed to be as streamlined and as simple as possible. Mozilla designers have done a great job of simplifying browsers while maintaining the inherent flexibility of Firefox.

By default, Firefox 4 has an address bar, a search box, a usual back / forward / reload / home button , tab bar, and an orange "Firefox" icon in the upper left corner. No menu bar by default: If you want you can click the orange button and Firefox will return a menu bar with most - if not all menu items - that you are used to in the Older Firefox version. We may be a bit confused with this button because most new browsers have menu tools on the far right corner of the toolbar, while the Firefox button is in the upper left corner but the main thing It makes you adjust your options more quickly.

If you are someone who is used to using Firefox - or simply like the old version of the layout, you can get back to the old menu bar by clicking the Firefox button, dragging over " Options , "then select " Menu Bar ".

Web battery 'feature' feature

A feature inspired by Chrome in Firefox 4 is the ability to "pin" - pin - the web to the tab bar. To perform this feature you can open any web application (or any Web page) in a new tab, right-click the tab , then select " Pin as App Tab ". The browser automatically adds a tab which has a small icon that replaces the application or web page that you have 'pined' on the left side of the tab bar.

When you close and reopen Firefox, the pinned tabs will still be there. Whenever there is a new update on apps that you have pinned or have a new message in your Gmail inbox - the tab will turn green to notify (again, very similar to Google Chrome).

These plugins are useful if you use multiple Web applications, but these are features that Chrome already has, so it looks like Firefox is playing a catch-up game.

"Don't follow me"

Like IE9, Firefox now has a feature to prevent websites that are capable of tracking what you do online. This is a welcome addition but not without problems. For some it is a very useful feature, but for others it makes no sense. It can be turned off or turned on, with them having no reason to let some websites be browsed up but to prevent other sites. And it's not really popular yet: When you enable tracking protection in Firefox, it uses HTTP headers to display web pages that you don't want to be tracked. A much simpler way is when you visit a website, Firefox sends a message to websites that you don't want to be tracked.

However, the problem is that websites are not required to respect these requirements and therefore drawing these tracking protection features is useless. Mozilla is trying to make this feature an industry standard, so hopefully things will improve in the future.

Speed

Firefox 4 also adds a number of new features designed to improve the performance of displaying web pages. Firefox 4 can take advantage of your graphics card more than Firefox 3.x can, for example, run video. Firefox 4 also has an updated JavaScript engine that improves web application performance and certain elements of the Web.

We haven't done any speed tests with Firefox 4 yet, but we tested JavaScript performance using SunSpider 0.91 standard. Firefox 3.6 completed the test in 1103 milliseconds (ms) on average, the slowest of the current major browsers (Safari, IE9, Chrome, Firefox, Opera). Firefox 4 completed testing in an average of 363 ms - enough to compete with other current browsers (in our test, all browsers achieved average speeds from about 329 to 439 ms).

Of course, your access speed may vary depending on many factors such as hardware, operating system and other factors but undeniably the fact that Firefox 4 is much faster in processing. JavaScript compared to Firefox 3.6.

Sync

Another new feature in Firefox 4 is Firefox Sync, which lets you sync bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and other data with your other computers running Firefox). (This feature was previously available through an extension called Mozilla Weave).

To use Firefox Sync, go to the Options Window (open the Firefox menu and select Options,) then select Sync from the toolbar. From there, you can create a Firefox Sync account. Setting up an account is pretty easy - it will ask you to enter your email address and create a password - but then things will be a little more complicated.

Firefox will give you a " Sync Key " that you will need to write, save to disk or print to keep it safe. You will need this Key to access your Firefox Sync account on your computer or smartphone, and if you lose it, you are out of luck because it cannot be recovered.

Setting up a second device (PC, smartphone, .) working with Firefox Sync also requires you to bypass some security loops. For example, if you have set up a Sync account and want to set up Firefox Sync on your laptop so that it syncs with what you have on the desktop, you will need to go back to your desktop and enter. an authentication code.

If you don't have access to the desktop at that time - for example when traveling with a laptop - you need to enter the Sync Key as mentioned above. If you leave the Key at home, you cannot access the account. This arrangement has something like a double-edged sword, it's safer than a normal password but it can create problems.

However, when all the synchronization process has been set up, you can use it very easily. Everything is handled automatically and runs on the web so you won't have to re-synchronize again.

Tab switch position, more flexible

First, the obvious difference is that the tabs have been moved to a new location, located at the top of the browser. In addition, if you start typing the web address into a tab, Firefox checks to see if it has been opened on another tab, if it does, it allows to switch to that tab instead of opening a new tab. If you don't like the tabs above, you can switch down to the same, simply by clicking View > Toolbars > Tabs on top .

Manage Tab in groups

If each browser session you normally open multiple tabs at a time, it might be a little confusing for you to track tabs. Firefox 4 has a feature called " Panorama " that lets you organize tabs into groups. You can easily transfer a certain tab to any group. To enable this feature, select " Customize " in the toolbar and add the " Tab Groups " button by dragging and dropping the toolbar .

Tab like application

If the open page is frequently accessed by you, right-click the tab and select " Pin as App Tab ", thus creating a small tab (mini-tab) attached to the top of the tab range, automatically loading each time you open Firefox. Mozilla suggests doing this with Web mail, but you can apply it to any kind of website. The example in the picture is 3 mini-tabs: Slashdot , Gmail and Twitter .

Add-on management

The Add-ons window (click Tools > Add-ons ) is not only convenient for you to monitor the extensions you have installed, but also add-ons that may interest you.

Firefox 4 has better support for HTML5. Points received at http://html5test.com increased from 159 (version 3.6) to 264 (version 4). Meanwhile, IE9 and Google Chrome browsers have 135 and 301 respectively.

Worth to upgrade

If you are using Firefox 3.x, there is no reason not to upgrade to version 4.0. However, if you have switched from Firefox to Chrome, Firefox 4 is unlikely to provide enough to draw you back, such as many new features or at least the end-user interface because it is mostly affected. by Chrome. But anyway, it's worth downloading and . try it?