Firefox
rolls out more heavy artillery in new browser wars
by
Alan Zisman (c) 2008 First published in
Business
in Vancouver August 12-18, 2008; issue 981
High Tech Office column
A decade or so ago, web browser development was hot and heavy, with a
new version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator
seemingly released every month or so.
After beating Netscape, though, Microsoft seemed to go to sleep and
abandoned browser development for six years. Netscape’s code was turned
over to
the open source Mozilla Foundation, which used it to help develop the
Firefox
browser. Gaining over 20% browser share in Canada (and over 50% share
in some European countries), Firefox’s growing popularity rekindled the
browser
wars.
Forced to play catch-up to Firefox, Microsoft released Internet
Explorer 7, and
recently began a quiet public beta program for a next-generation IE 8,
promising
improved security and compliance with web standards – ironically
causing problems
for financial and other websites designed to work with earlier IE
versions.
Minority-taste browser Opera released a new version in June. Version
9.5 offers
increased speed, protection from online malware and phishing websites,
and the
ability to sync bookmarks between desktop and mobile phone versions.
And Apple, after being criticized by Windows users for sneaking in its
Safari
browser along with iTunes music player updates, improved that browser’s
speed
and performance and fixed a major security hole in Safari’s Windows
version.
Bigger news, though, is the latest version of Firefox (3.0). Its eight
million
downloads within 24 hours of release set a Guinness-certifiable world
record. First
glance reveals a slightly updated user interface, but a host of more
subtle changes
promising a faster, smoother and more intuitive browsing experience.
With versions for Windows (2000 and later), Mac OS X and Linux, Firefox
3 loads
pages faster. It also requires less system resources than previous
versions and
fixes the memory of older versions. (Note: it still takes longer to
start up than
Internet Explorer, though after that it’s faster overall.)
Its most changed feature, though, is that old standby, the address bar.
Every
browser has a space near the top where users type the web address. More
recent
browsers offer auto-complete: start to type www.biv.com, and your
browser may
display similar web addresses that you went to previously. Firefox 3’s
address bar
is smarter; fans have taken to calling it the Awesome Bar. Besides
typing in a web
address, you can just type in a few words describing what you want. You
will then
see a list of potential choices based on your browsing history. If
there’s one
obvious destination, you will be taken right there. Awesome!
Downloads can be paused and resumed later, even if you’ve closed and
restarted
Firefox in the meantime. Viruses are checked automatically.
As with previous versions of Firefox, the browser’s look and
capabilities can be
altered with downloadable themes and add-ons. Note that add-ons for
earlier
Firefox versions may require updating to work with the new version. If
you rely on
a given add-on, make sure it’s compatible before upgrading to Firefox
3.
Webmail users can set Firefox to point e-mail links to a webmail
account. Using a
blacklist compiled by Google, Firefox 3 blocks access not only to
phishing sites (as
do both Firefox 2 and IE 7), but it also blocks sites known to
distribute viruses and
spyware. Clicking on the small “favicon” icon that appears to the left
in the address
bar provides information about a website’s identity – useful if you
have suspicions
about a site’s validity.
Many recent security attacks have been aimed at web browsers. According
to mid-
June data, these have been able to succeed because roughly 40% of users
are
operating online with older, less secure browser versions. Users who’ve
opted for
an alternative browser are most likely to keep it up to date: 92% of
Firefox and
90% of Opera users were running the latest version of their chosen
browser,
compared with 70% of Apple Safari users and only 52% of Internet
Explorer users.
You wouldn’t want to be caught using a stale-dated (and less secure)
browser
version online, would you? •