Mozilla has released its latest version of the Firefox 3 Web browser with hopes to earn a new Guinness World Record.
Firefox 3 was in development for nearly three years and has been beta testing the new browser since November for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux PCs.
By Ron Berger
Jun 17, 2008 22:25 PM GMT
Firefox 3 made its official launch on Tuesday as Mozilla plans to try and set a new Guinness World Record. The Mozilla Foundation says the new version includes several enhancements and an increase to both security and speed. Firefox 3 will allow Web surfers to add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. A new "Places" feature lets users quickly access sites they recently bookmarked or tagged and pages they visit frequently but haven't bookmarked. There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list — similar to what's already available on Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 7. Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process. Firefox also will start blocking rather than simply warning about sites known to engage in " phishing" scams that try to trick users into revealing passwords and other sensitive information.
The new version adds protection from sites known to distribute viruses and other malicious software. The list of suspicious sites comes from Google Inc and StopBadware.org, a project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities. Security researchers who need access to problem sites can manually turn the feature off. Firefox 3 also offers speed and design improvements and a larger back and forward button. Mike Schroepfer, the project's vice president of engineering, said people tend to return to a previous page more often. Firefox is the No. 2 Web browser behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It comes from Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people, mostly volunteers, collectively develop free products. Its supporters are organizing launch parties around the world next week, and Mozilla is trying to set a world record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.
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