The much-anticipated release of the latest version of the Firefox browser has been hailed as a success.
Launched last week by Mozilla, Firefox 3.0 saw more than eight million downloads in its first 24 hours of availability - a figure that could see Mozilla succeed in its bid to enter the Guinness Book of Records for the record number of downloads.
Among the specifications likely to be of relevance to the web design industry, the browser features an address bar that doubles as a search facility, one-click bookmarking and an instant website identification system that verifies genuine sites and warns of suspicious ones.
Firefox 3.0 also displays information that allows web users to decide whether to continue to a website when there are problems with its SSL certificate, as well as providing website identity data, where available, when users click on the favicon in front of the URL in the address bar.
According to Computerworld.com, the browser has fixed many issues identified in previous versions, such as poor memory handling leading to slower page loading.
Commenting on the launch of Firefox 3.0, Steven Musil of CNET News.com said: "Browsers are growing up from mere gateways into the tool that makes those applications possible.
"In this new era, it's Firefox - the heir to the Netscape legacy - that's going up against the victor of the last era, Internet Explorer."
.jpg)
.gif){kind=small}
