Review - Firefox 3 was released yesterday and we have taken the final version on a thorough day 1 test drive. There is a boatload of tiny tweaks, a couple of major new features and a completely overhauled engine at its core are the three major selling points. Our initial take on Firefox 3 final is that that the browser accelerates web browsing and makes your online activities more enjoyable, more secure and more reliable.

Looking back at the history of Firefox, it is immediately apparent how different the launch scenarios of version 1, 2 and 3 were. Firefox now holds almost 20% of the browser market and has established itself as a serious rival for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That may have been especially obvious when Mozilla’s download servers where overwhelmed by download requests today (there were more than 2.9 million downloads within the first 8 hours after launch) and we saw a flood of articles complaining that Mozilla’s servers were unreachable – a circumstance that was largely forgiven during the launches of version 1 and 2.  
 
With Firefox 3, Mozilla takes the browser war to another level and can claim dramatic speed gains and feature optimizations. In fact, the browser turned out to be a well-balanced application, with just enough innovative features to enhance the user experience and many minor tweaks – some of which you will notice most likely only after a few days of using the software. Personally I believe that Firefox 3 is to the browser world what Apple gadgets are to consumer electronics – a sleek, beautifully designed piece of software that connects with you personally, enabling you to concentrate on the task ahead, not on the software itself.

A closer look: Installation and first startup

The new browser comes in a 7.14 MB package, which is a slight increase over Firefox 2.0.0.14 (5.75 MB), but still half the size of Safari 3.1.1 (18.6 MB in Windows XP/Vista versions) or IE7 (14.7 MB in the Windows XP version). The installation sets Firefox as the default browser without asking for a confirmation (you can change this setting in the browser’s preferences later on.) Since Apple's Safari push has triggered a new browser race, browser makers are resorting to more aggressive tactics to push browser onto user computers and Mozilla’s move is just the latest (and not so great) example.

When you load the browser the first time, you are unlikely to notice any big difference to Firefox 2.0 besides the blue "back" and "forward" buttons located on the redesigned button bar. On closer inspection, however, you will notice that the browser now complies with the design guidelines of your operating system. Under Vista, Firefox 3 looks and feels like a Vista application, delivering subtle shading and transparency effects. OS X owners will benefit the most since Firefox has always felt strange as the software was breaking every interface guideline provided by Apple. Firefox 3 finally looks and behaves like a native OS X application and includes even some OS X- specific touches, such as a Cover Flow-like styling in the application’s add-ons manager.

Killer features

In terms of speed, Firefox 3 brings more than you would expect. The boot time is drastically reduced and the performance is noticeably snappier. Opening dozens of tabs does not seem to bring a penalty in performance or responsiveness - unlike Firefox 2 that crawls to a halt if you open too many tabs. We found that flipping between tabs is faster and web pages load faster as well. The most significant speed gain can be seen with Web 2.0 sites and web applications, thanks to an optimized SpiderMonkey technology that is powering Firefox 3's JavaScript engine. Speed and performance is Firefox 3's primary killer feature, no question about it.

If you think speed isn't that important, we are pretty certain that you will change your mind when you try Firefox 3. In the end, it is the latest version of an application that's not loaded with features you don't need and is actually faster than the previous version. Now how often do you see that? The speedy, smooth performance contributes greatly to a more relaxed and streamlined online experience. I haven't done any speed tests but my initial impression is that Firefox 3 is the fastest browser on the market at this time.

I also have to highlight Firefox 3's stability. The browser has not crashed so far on day 1 on two of our PCs. And even when it crashes (you know it is just a matter of time), it retains your browsing sessions, open tabs, preferences, bookmarks and other data securely stored in an internal transactional database. The application is particularly more reliable in a low-memory situation.  Gone are the memory leaks that have plagued previous Firefox releases.

An improved malware protection and phishing filters are stronger and rely on Google's database of known malicious sites. There are redesigned warning pages that warn you when you visit a suspected forgery site, offering a first line of online protection. Another security layer is Extended Validation SSL certificate support (EV), which is built-in IE7. It will show a green button when you reach a site with an integrated EV certificate, which enables you to check the site owner's ID, connection encryption etc. A great new security feature is that the software now notifies your anti-virus software whenever it wraps up the download of an executable file.

With these features, Firefox 3 has finally caught up with IE7 in terms of security. There is now a solid base of security features, especially targeting less experienced users who are easier to lure into online scams and malware downloads. However, I have to admit that I was hoping for more ideas in this area. It turns out that the security improvements have brought Firefox 3 on par with IE7, but not ahead of it.

Read on the next page: What else is new? Missing features and a not so apparent feature you should know about

What else is new?
 
Bookmarks can finally be tagged! It's not just a nice feature, but a game changer for those who wish to organize their bookmarks locally. The way you bookmark a site is ingenious - click once on a star in address bar to bookmark, another click brings up a small window where you can file a bookmark into a folder or tag it.

The new Places Organizer (ex-Bookmark Manager) is useful but it feels as work in progress as there are some design inconsistencies. It will be useful for some users but those who are into social bookmarking are unlikely to revert back to local bookmark management.

The improved zoom isn't getting attention it deserves, but it is a life saver for people who torture their eyes reading small fonts on web pages. Previously, if you enlarged text too much, the layout would fall apart. Now, when you zoom in, the whole page will be enlarged, not just the text. The browser rearranges the complete layout, increases vector shapes (controls, buttons, CSS design elements expressed in percentages) as well as bitmap graphics. The result is stunning and useful, particularly if you have a large monitor or poor sight. It is one of those why-hasn’t-anyone-thought-of-this-before features.

The improved add-ons manager is nice, especially the ability to browse, search and install extensions and themes from within the manager itself, without having to browse. I also enjoy the improved download manager, which can resume downloads, reveal the site a particular file came from and show download statistics in the status bar. But anyone who has used download managers before knows that such a tool can be much more useful even as it is right now. A tool like the good old GetRight download manager would look great within Firefox in our opinion.

Also noteworthy is the “intelligent” address bar that learns from what you are typing. Firefox monitors my entries and organizes websites in a way that is more relevant. All I have to do is start typing a first few letters to trigger a search throughout the content from my bookmarks, tags, history and visited sites. The results are displayed in a redesigned list, with keywords automatically being highlighted. Each entry in a list is prominently described in two lines, making it easier to select what you may be looking for.

Smart searches can be a real time saver but you will have to know the URL syntax to create your own searches on search engines. Smart bookmarks are also a welcome addition, but creating your own smart bookmark could have been made easier for novice users. I would prefer an iTunes-likes approach where even an inexperienced user can create complex smart playlists.

The refreshed password manager shows no more intrusive pop-ups. Instead, a "remember password" notification is now integrated in a more discretely fashion into the top of the page. A sensible change in my opinion, since the password reminder pop-up windows were driving me crazy.

A not so apparent feature you should know about and what is missing

One of the potential show stoppers is the new offline support feature, a technology that enables offline access to your online content and web applications. The browser integrates its own transactional database where it can securely store your online content while you are offline. When you go back online, Firefox 3 can seamlessly synchronize any changes. In theory, you could be able to read and write email messages in Gmail or access your Facebook messages, profile and friend lists while you are offline. However, web developers need to add additional code to their web applications in order to support this feature. Unfortunately, none of them have done this so far (at least as far as we know).

I need to mention that Google has its Gears technology to provide offline functionality to Google Apps applications. For instance, I am actually writing this article within Google Docs while I am offline. When I go online, all documents and changes will be synchronized with the Google Docs cloud. Google Spreadsheets and Presentations are also enhanced with Gears technology. If offline support is taken seriously by Mozilla, then the organizations needs to work more closely with web developers to bring initial support for the browser’s offline functionality. However, we know that this feature is simply a skeleton for the “Prism” technology slated for Firefox 4. But honestly, I really don't really want to wait another release to get that offline functionality. Can we get it a bit earlier? Please?

I am also a bit surprised startled that Mozilla still did not include a feature code-named "Weave" (also slated for Firefox 4). This feature is described to create a set of user preferences and settings and store it in a cloud. This way, you could go to your friend, start Firefox, log in with your profile credentials and the browser would load your complete Firefox environment from the cloud.

Was it worth the wait?

There were high expectations in Firefox 3 - at least among us journalists. As with any software, Firefox 3 delivers on some fronts and disappoints on others. It is a no-brainer, simply because of the speed gains and performance and reliability improvements. Most users should upgrade for the sake of just these three features. These background features will greatly enhance your overall browsing experience.

For feature-hungry users, there are plenty of features to be excited about, like the bookmarking support with tags, the intelligent address bar, smart searches and bookmarks, the session restore, the ability to resume canceled downloads, the full zoom, the streamlined user interface with a platform look-and-feel, the unobtrusive password manager, double and triple-clicking to mark a word or paragraph (finally!), multiple text selection functionality through the CTRL key and many, many other minor features and tweaks.

However, there are drawbacks as well. My main complaint relates to features that require web developers to react and require new code in web sites - such as the ability to register a protocol handler to a certain web applications or offline support for web applications. Offline could have been the killer feature, if Mozilla had secured initial support from popular web applications, such as Facebook, Gmail etc. But if I put this complaint into perspective, Microsoft’s IE8 may be even worse in this respect, especially if we think about the proprietary web slices feature.

I am also a bit disappointed that Mozilla did not implement cloud services for storing bookmark and complete Firefox profiles online. With software-as-a-service becoming a much more important topic these days, a cloud-based Firefox environment would be an extremely useful feature. Hopefully we will see this capability soon. Mozilla is moving too slow in this area.

If you subtract these concerns and criticism from all the features and improvements, you still end up with an outstanding browser that delivers. It is revolutionary in terms of speed and optimization with plenty of evolutionary improvements that will enhance your online experience.

Firefox 3 is the best browser on the market today. Period.