Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Featuresz(zt)

ybbest

Firefox 3.5 is a pretty substantial update to the popular open-sourcebrowser, and it's just around the corner. See what features, fixes, andclever new tools are worth getting excited about in the next bigrelease.

UPDATE: A previous version of this list had Taskfox, an integratedversion of Ubiquity, included as a Firefox 3.5 feature. It's still inthe experimental phase, in fact, as readers pointed out, and we regretthe confusion (and false optimism!). This new list includes anadditional item, and the rankings have been shifted slightly.

10. Undo closed window



If you accidentally close a tab you'd meant to keep open, Firefox 3, atleast through extensions like Tab Mix Plus, can bring it back. Update:To clarify, Firefox can resurrect closed tabs without Tab Mix Plus(just hit Ctrl+Shift+T, for example); the extension simply adds morefine-grained control. If you accidentally kill a separate window fullof tabs, though, you've been pretty much out of luck. Firefox 3.5implements a restore feature for both tabs and windows from the Historymenu, which would (hopefully) also restore any text you've typed intothem.

9. Forget this site



Tools like Private Browsing Modes and history wipers are good for whatthey do, but sometimes it would be great to have just one site wipedoff your history—either because it's hogging your quick address barresults, or because you'd rather your coworker be unaware of yourworkday LOLcat browsing. Firefox 3.5's history browser offers aconvenient "Forget this site" option, erasing your browser's memory ofparticular domains. It doesn't cover subdomains, and your networktraffic and Flash memory would still hold some details, but it's ahandy tweak however you cut it.

8. Tab tearing

        Code:
        http://vimeo.com/2262995


Google Chrome (Update: And Safari, as our readers note) somewhat stolethe thunder out from under this feature, but it's still a nice one:Grab a tab and drag it out a bit to create a new browser window fromit. Drag windows into tabs again, and open any tab in a new window fromthe right-click menu, if clicking and dragging isn't your style.

7. Keyword AwesomeBar filters



Firefox 3's AwesomeBar/address bar offers a speedy list of suggestionsto complete whatever you're typing. That's great, but that list comesfrom your page history, bookmarks, and tags, and can be matched by URLor name, leaving some results almost uselessly cluttered. This getsfixed with special character filters in the next Firefox. Restrict asearch by typing "life *" for just your bookmarks with the words "life"in them, or just your tagged "lh" items with "lh +". Anything thatreally makes getting back to importantly web destinations quickly is awelcome upgrade.

6. Smarter session restore



What good is it to bring back all the tabs you just lost to a crash ifthe tab that brought everything down comes back too? Firefox'sdevelopers took a cue from the users and turned the session restorefeature into more of a crash recovery tool, allowing users to selectwhich tabs should come back. If you don't know who's the culprit,here's a hint: It's probably the one with Flash on it.

5. Private browsing mode



The snarky types (i.e. my editor) can call it "**** Mode," but thisfeature, already in a number of competing browsers, has uses beyond theprurient. Beyond obvious situations, like gift buying and sensitiveresearch, logging onto a friend's browser for a quick email check orbill pay is made a lot more secure if you can get to the private mode.Likewise, anonymizing some of your searches and cookie collection onyour own machine isn't a bad idea, and a private mode can do that too.You don't need it all the time, but you might be glad it's available.

4. Color profiles that pop



Different cameras, monitors, and capture devices grab and set colors indifferent ways. On the web, most colors look the same, though, becausethey're filtered and optimized for quick viewing in every browser.Firefox 3.5 introduces dynamic color profiles for each picture, meaningthat whatever the graphic designer or photographer saw when they weredoing their work, you'll see it on their web page.

3. TraceMonkey JavaScript engine



Months ago, Mozilla said its still-in-development JavaScript engine,TraceMonkey, was "20 to 40 times" faster than the SpiderMonkey engineinstalled in Firefox 3. That hasn't shown up in our speed tests, whichthemselves rely on a Mozilla-assembled testing suite, but JavaScripttesting suites are often like drag races—they don't really tell youwhat a browser runs like in a real daily sense, just pure timings. Evenif TraceMonkey is ultimately outpaced by Chrome and/or Safari, itsinnovations push the whole browser market forward and give us all a bitless load time to complain about.

2. Geo-location

If you type post office into a maps site, you probably don't want theheadquarters of the U.S. Post Office, or post office listings from twotowns over. Integrated geo-location, powered by Google's Wi-Fitriangulation and simple IP address information, looks to know roughlywhere you are and help you when you're looking for something local. Youcan disable it if you'd like, but, realistically, signing on from anyIP address reveals a bit about where you are anyways. If a good numberof sites pick it up, geo-location could bring to the browser what a lotof people are already enjoying on their phone.

1. Video superpowers with HTML 5

        Code:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLBLVtIk3A


If you're viewing a page coded in HTML 5 with video in an open-sourceformat like Ogg Vorbis or Theora, Firefox 3.5 treats that video likeit's just part of the page, not a separate little island of Flashcontent. That means instant commenting on videos. It could also meanoffering links from inside a tutorial video that offer more details onwhat's being shown—soldering tips on an iPhone repair guide would bekeen. In general, it's just a promising step forward into a seamlessmelding of video and text on a future web.
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[ 本帖最后由 ybbest 于 2009-8-22 17:10 编辑 ]

好事之徒

I am full-time using chrome now, going back to FF or IE is like switching from broadband back to dialup.

except when sometimes Citrix client doesn't work in chrome ...

ybbest

原帖由 好事之徒 于 2009-8-22 19:37 发表
I am full-time using chrome now, going back to FF or IE is like switching from broadband back to dialup.

except when sometimes Citrix client doesn't work in chrome ...

I guess you are not a web developer.(All the goodies available in fireforx is not available in IE,firebug,yslow,web developer tools bar to name a few).I hate when chrome close the browsers when click the scrolling button in the middle when I have only 1 tab open.

好事之徒

你猜对了 我从来没真正成为过一个web developer ... 日常做的东西都是无色无味无形 一般用户不会知道他们的存在 哈哈

ybbest

nothing...

[ 本帖最后由 ybbest 于 2009-8-23 15:41 编辑 ]

好事之徒

sorry 我原来是写 “我 日 常 做 的 工作是无色无味无形” 但 skykiwi 把前面两字过滤成xxx 所以我只好把主语删掉
想不到引起这样的歧义

我的意思是说 web developer 的工作是end user看得到摸得着的 我的工作是他们根本不知道的

而且bill gates 也不是三十就退休啊

ybbest

原帖由 好事之徒 于 2009-8-23 07:40 发表
sorry 我原来是写 “我 日 常 做 的 工作是无色无味无形” 但 skykiwi 把前面两字过滤成xxx 所以我只好把主语删掉
想不到引起这样的歧义

我的意思是说 web developer 的工作是end user看得到摸得着的 我的工作是 ...

Apologyaccepted,have to learn from you.Haha