Top 4 Features of Firefox 2.0
I installed Firefox 2.0 RC1 last night on my Apple laptop and in the past 10 minutes, three small, yet key features made the switch 100% worth it.
Unlike Firefox 1.0, v2.0 isn't an overhaul of the web browser. It's more of a refinement. The features it introduces aren't earth-shattering, but they are slick. Let's go through what I've used so far:
Lastly, I'm very excited to see if there's a substantial decrease in memory leaks over FF1.0 and FF1.5.
Overall, well done, Mozilla!
Tags: firefox, firefox+2.0, firefox2.0, review
Unlike Firefox 1.0, v2.0 isn't an overhaul of the web browser. It's more of a refinement. The features it introduces aren't earth-shattering, but they are slick. Let's go through what I've used so far:
- The new tab bar. The tab bar is overhauled, making it far more usable for those of us who like to open millions of tabs at once. First, each tab receives its own close button, which is really nice and makes it harder for the accidental double close. Second, the tab bar now has scrolling: if you open more tabs than easily fit onto the screen, you can simply scroll left or right to see those extra tabs. Third, there's also a little drop down menu to quickly jump to an off-screen tab (this behaves exactly like the drop down menu in the back button to quickly go back many steps). This new tab bar was awesome when I just had 25 tabs open. Really easy to navigate and still see what I was looking at with just a glance.
- Spell checking. Seriously, why don't all browsers have spell check for form input? This is an amazing feature, especially now that my browser is my: email client, blogging tool, instant messaging client, etc. Now I have built-in, real-time spell check for Gmail, Blogger, and Meebo. Sweet!
- Feed subscriptions. This is a huge feature. It probably took all of a day or two to implement, but it's huge. When a site has a feed and Firefox recognizes this, you can simply click the feed icon in the address bar to subscribe to that feed... in your favorite feed reader! So I set up Newsgator and then Google Reader to test this out and it works like a charm. Just edit your preferences with which feed reader you'd like to use, and then click away. Sooo much more simple to use than what I used to have to do (copy the URL location, switch tabs to the reader, click the "Add a feed" link, paste the URL location, submit, switch back to the other tab).
- Session Saver. This is the one feature I'm still waiting to test drive. If Firefox ever crashes, it will reopen and restore the tabs you had open previous to the crash. That'll be a huge lifesaver for me, I imagine.
Lastly, I'm very excited to see if there's a substantial decrease in memory leaks over FF1.0 and FF1.5.
Overall, well done, Mozilla!
Tags: firefox, firefox+2.0, firefox2.0, review
4 Comments:
Since you're running a Mac spell check is built into almost every application already.
To turn it on go to a text field, right click and choose the options:
Spelling -> Check Spelling as You Type
Voila, spell checking in all Cocoa text fields.
I definitely see that on a lot of applications, like Safari. But I definitely do NOT see that on Firefox. And, I'm a Firefox fan. Much more so than Safari.
Plus, although I installed on my Apple, I'm awaiting the apt upgrade on my Ubuntu box. :)
Ian
While it's great these are now built into firefox, I must say I've been living with them through extensions.
And then there's the new -- copied over from flock? -- places stuff; also, the auto-completion from history/bookmarks/whatever in the search box is such an obvious improvement...
All of which I have dreamed since firefox 1.0.
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