Software Salariman: Firefox 3 - Second Impressions

Monday, 23 June 2008

Firefox 3 - Second Impressions

Second impressions after using Firefox 3 for a couple of days:

Smart Location Bar pretty much replaces the Search bar in most situations.
Faster than FF2 when rendering of pages with Javascript controls. Load http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa923541.aspx and select some of the menu links at the top of the page. In FF3, the menus expand immediately while in FF2, they used to take about a second or two.
Identity button is a great shortcut for checking the certificates of secure sites (try http://paypal.com and click on the site's favicon).
UI improvements:
- FF3 is prettier than FF2 in Win XP and Vista. The toolbar buttons are clearer and brighter, and there's less clutter.
- The Find dialog is shorter and less intrusive.
- Password Manager prompt appears on top of page instead of a modal dialog. You can continue browsing or tell the Password Manager to remember your password.
- Buttons with focus now have bright highlighting (FF2 drew a hard-to-see dotted line border around the button's label). Would be nice if all controls were highlighted the same way.

2008-06-24: The OK button in the dialog to open or download files now has focus when the dialog opens. In FF2, the OK button didn't get focus until the dialog lost and regained focus.

Labels: Firefox