Mozilla’s Firefox 3.1 beta 1, now available for public download, is loaded with new features that once again put the Firefox developer community on the cutting edge of browser development.
Code-named Shiretoko, the first test version of Mozilla’s free upgrade to Firefox 3 is being touted as a public-preview release ostensibly intended for the developer community. However, everyday Web surfers will also find much to like about the improvements over Firefox 3 in Web compatibility, performance and speed.
Under the Hood
Under the hood, Firefox 3.1 beta 1 sports a number of improvements that won’t be readily apparent to the casual Internet surfer, but are sure do make a difference in overall performance. The browser is based on the new Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which incorporates a number of changes that collectively act to improve performance and ease of use.
Support is provided for the latest Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) properties for Web pages written in HTML and XHTML. Also on tap is support for a number of esoteric Web technologies of interest to developers, such as JavaScript query selectors, Web worker threads, SVG transforms, and offline applications.
From the user’s perspective, one of the more obvious improvements is search. Conducting searches within the browser’s smart location bar is even easier and more productive. Results can now be restricted to only show the user’s history, bookmarks, tagged Web pages, or smart keywords. Here’s how it works:
Searches are restricted to user history by typing a caret (^) in front of the search term. Or searches can be limited to bookmarks by prefacing with an asterisk (*) or to tagged pages with a plus sign (+).
Firefox developers have also added a new tab-switching shortcut that makes it easy to display a thumbnail overview of all the Web pages currently open in the browser’s tabs….