Firefox 4 Web Browser

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Introduction:

Firefox has taken one more step ahead in the ‘war of browsers’ with the release of its latest version, i.e. Firefox 4.0. Firefox 4 final version is now available for download for Windows, MAC and Linux operating systems. In this article, we will find out what is the point of view of "raw performance". Anyways, its much faster, more consistent and resolutely turned towards the future with support for HTML5, WebM multimedia format, 3D display and hardware acceleration along with WebGL as powerful as that of Internet Explorer 9.

New GUI:

New visual rendering: more space for Web content!

Other browsers like Google Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer 9 are as alike as two peas! Firefox 4 offers the trend and going in the direction of travel by adopting a streamlined graphical interface by default. The aim is simple, to maximize the navigation space. All the bars like Menu Bar, Navigation Bar, personal bar, etc are still accessible via a right click mouse on top of the window. Also note that we can access the complete Menu Bar by just tapping Alt Key anytime.

An orange button:

In Firefox 4, you will find a new button in Orange color named as “Firefox” at the top left corner of the window. It actually integrates all essential features of the browser (except Mac OS X where the management is different). Its probably same as in Opera that appears in red but here it is the original formatting as it is orange! All this is in line with the new interface, rather than having multiple bulky menus all brought together into one. It integrates opening a new tab, incognito Start, Print Options, Full Screen, access to the download manager, add-ons, history and bookmarks. When we start private browsing, this orange button turns into purple color, which creatively allows the user to better distinguish current browsing.

Accelerated Home and Restore Session:

With the new Firefox 4, this new home page "about: Home" has everything. Suddenly, the cold start of the browser is always instantaneous. As in the previous versions, if you close your browser with all your open tabs, all same pages will appear the next time when you open it. To recover your last open tabs, simply click on "Restore previous session". Here's a clever way not to mobilize resources and not to slow down the launch for small configurations. Of course the classic boot options are still present like show my home page, show a blank page, or View the latest windows and tabs.

Integrated tabs above the address bar:

Here it is little different from the previous Firefox versions. The tab bar is now positioned above the address bar. The new tabs are better integrated to allow more space navigation. If that does not suits, you can change it to the previous version by simply unchecking “Tabs on Top” from the Menu Bar.

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Tabs and extensions:

Active tabs and Panorama feature:

It is not always painless to locate a tab when there are dozen or more tabs are open. But in Firefox 4, it integrates the Panorama functionality. Panorama lets you drag and drop your tabs into manageable groups that you can organize, name and arrange in a fun and visual way. This is with a little inverted triangle which is visible when you click a small down arrow situated at the top right of the browser, just above the home page and bookmarks icon. By clicking this arrow or the triangle, all of your active tabs shows up all together, just click the one you want to go. This is also accessible directly by using the key combination (Ctrl + Shift + E). Note, you can also change the size of the preview thumbnails, enlarge or reduce the Panorama window.

Pin Tab / Tab Release:

In case you are browsing on a particular website but do not want to come as far as invade your navigation frame by staying in the personal bar. Hence, there is something new called as “Pin Tab”. Just right click on any of the open tab and click on “Pin as App Tab”. A separate tab icon will appear before the first tab and it will remain open for ever. You can add as many tabs as necessary. To get rid of this mini-favorite, just right click the same and click on “Unpin Tab”.

Add-ons Manager in full page:

The search for updates is now done in the background and not by restarting the browser. The Add-ons Manager has been redesigned that allows you discover and install add-ons without ever leaving browser. The support of the programming interface can now install JetPack specific extensions, HTML, CSS or JavaScript without needing to restart the browser Browse ratings, recommendations, descriptions and pictures of the add-ons in action to help you make your selection. By opening the Add-on Manager, we directly see the improvement. This now runs in a separate tab like Opera and Chrome (and not in a new window or pop-up) and is much clearer and more convenient to. You can also view, manage and disable third-party plugins in few simple clicks, checking and auto-updating any of your installed add-ons every time you open the Manager pane.

Synchronization and Navigation Options:

Firefox Sync for synchronization:

Just like Opera has Opera Link, we get Firefox Sync with this latest version. Now there is no longer requirement to add the Firefox Browser Sync 4 extension to do the job. Sync flawlessly connects your desktop and mobile Firefoxes, so you can access your browsing history, passwords, and bookmarks and yet open tabs no matter which device you use. It is considered natively by the browser. Once you are done with creating an account for free , go to Menu Options and click on Sync, and start syncing your bookmarks, history, tabs, passwords, preferences and systems that will be encrypted and stored on Firefox servers. Also, it is possible to see the tabs open on other computers (icon view "List All Tabs" tab of the other computers).

Navigation Options: Auto Scroll / Scroll soft:

Go to Tools, Options, Advanced, General tab, Browsing section. By default, the automatic scrolling is activated. This feature allows recall, scroll down the page by clicking the middle button / scroll wheel), while the mouse up or down. However, this feature does not suit everyone. For added convenience, the user can also opt for smooth scrolling. With that, the display will not drop abruptly; you can see the page scroll. Use the mouse wheel or hotkey, you'll find the comfort it brings, to read long text documents, for example!

Navigation Options: Hardware Acceleration & Do Not Track:

Under Tools, Options, Advanced, General tab and Browsing section, it can be seen that the hardware acceleration feature is enabled. It is to practice super-fast graphics acceleration of video and Web content with a fresh layers-based graphics system that seize benefit of Direct2D and Direct3D on Windows and OpenGL on Mac. If you face some problems with any website, simply uncheck "Use hardware graphics acceleration if available".

You will find one more new option there named as “Tell Websites I do not want to be tracked”. There are many websites that track your online behavior and sell that data to advertisers. This option is to indicate the web sites not to track. While performing, an http header is sent to the sites, indicating that the user does not wish to trace their online activity. That is an option that should be useful to fight against, among other targeted advertising. This keeps your browsing habits private.

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Conclusion:

Efforts are focused on the near future with hardware acceleration and HTML5:

The latest Firefox 4 is very satisfactory and will probably satisfy its users in any case. But the question is, is it going to suit all those users of Google Chrome, Opera 11 or Internet Explorer 9? That’s a different story! Indeed, in terms of performance and compatibility features, here the emphasis has been placed on HTML5 support and hardware acceleration, that put them them down if compared in the competition. However, apart from testing, you will clearly feel that the navigation is much faster than 3.6.15 version. Other innovations are already well known to most and go in the direction of success. I don’t think that can be found in any other browsers. This jumble of positioning tabs at the top of the window, the Panorama function, the adoption of the single menu button (at the same Opera), integration of the synchronizing tool, Sync Firefox.

Among the most original features, it will be noted above, the ability to pin the frequently visited tab (creating a static favicon to the tabs), the new home page loaded locally for faster startup, the module manager (catalog, extensions, plugins and appearance), restart the installation without extensions, HTML, CSS or JavaScript and the Do Not Track are the unique features that can be found only in Firefox 4. Regarding the old extension, a check is performed on startup, if they are compatible, they have their place, if they are not, Firefox will uninstall. The great strength of Firefox 4 is still based on its rich library expansion and already well advanced stage of development for the new version. We believe the browsing experience with IE9, Chrome and Opera 11 is much more dynamic and more efficient than Firefox 4. These competing browsers take it seriously a candle and may even give it much of a headache.