Firefox 3 is a Must Have on a Mac
Firefox 3 has been released! Will this mean the end of Firefox crashes and slow page loads on a Mac? Well, I can vouch that Firefox 3 is way faster than it’s predecessor, Firefox 2, at loading Web 2.0 intensive pages. Possibly even 2X faster, with speeds rivaling Safari. But I am not a benchmarker, so don’t take my word for it.
There are loads of useful new features in Firefox 3. The most impressive so far is the replacement for the address bar, the new “awesome bar”. Now you can type in keywords right in the bar to get to your favorite sites. You can even assign custom keywords for a particular url, or just remember a portion of the address as it stands. What’s extremely useful about this is that even as you type in a particular keyword for a site where you’ve visited lots of pages, let’s use eBay as an example. All the latest eBay listings you’ve previously visited will pop up right in the pop down menu.
Other new features in Firefox 3 include one click bookmarking, web page zooming (as opposed to just text zooming), a slicker bookmarks manager, stylish interface, better extension and add-on management, a new password manager, and the ability to view web page certificates and verify the identity of websites, while ensuring your connection is encrypted.
The new default theme Firelight is nice, although the back and forward button annoys me a bit, but the interface is more attractive than any other OS. Also, I have noticed complications with some add-ons and websites, so I imagine web developers will have to play a little catch up for the new release, despite the open beta program that has been going on for months. But nothing to completely bring down my web experience has shown up over the past 24 hours. I highly recommend Firefox 3 as the web browser of choice for the Mac. Pickup your new copy of Firefox 3 for free from getfirefox.com.
Thanks for the review! Firefox is my browser of choice and I can’t wait to check it out. S does this eliminate the right top search toolbar? That is what it looks like.
I’m afraid to download FF3 untill I am certain some of the add-ons I depend on will be available. I am enslaved to Yahoo Toolbar/bookmarks and Google toolbar and Google Notebooks.
Do you know if these are compatible?
Plunkitt,
So far, the Google tool bars have worked fine for me. I would be very surprised if the toolbars you mentioned aren’t supported.
You can test this however. Just download and run Firefox 3 from you *local* applications directory. That’s how I was sand boxing the beta releases. It didn’t seem to interfere with my Firefox 2 installation.
Firefox 3 is fast, stable, but… (each browser has its ‘but’ or bug) it doesn’t work fine with hotmail (only works with the basic version) and it has some bugs with some textareas. it has been reported to the firefox team and it’s supposed to be in the making of a solution.
So, my advice… wait
Here are two websites that features several speed increase and appearance hacks for Firefox 3.
http://www.dailygyan.com/2008/06/ultimate-tweaker-guide-to-firefox3.html
http://www.matt-helps.com/firefox_3_turbo_speed_increase_optimization
Why i dont use firefox in mac ….
http://macphobia.com/why-i-dont-use-firefox-in-mac.macphobia
Just one comment I wanted to add on your mention of the “Awesome Bar” - They certainly have made some improvements in regards to allowing your bookmarks to drop down from there, but at the same time I wish it was an optional feature (of which there is an add-on fix). Anyways, the main reason I’m posting is to let you know that the “keyword” feature of the address bar has been around since AT LEAST FF2 if not earlier. I know this because I’ve been using it for at least a couple of years now to store my custom advanced searches in Google (for example I have one that just looks in directories for audio media files of my search term).