Firefox 8 Beta: Visual Tour
Mozilla now upgrades Firefox every six weeks. Get up to speed on the most significant changes in the beta of Firefox 8.
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Ever since Mozilla first announced that they, like Google Chrome, were moving to a more frequent upgrade cycle for their Firefox Web browser, there has been a lot of controversy and complaints, especially from business users of the browser. But regular users of the browser can be forgiven if they've wondered what all the fuss is about. That's because ever since Firefox has moved the new-every-six-weeks upgrade cycle, noticeable new features in the user interface of the browser have been rarely sighted. But with the new beta of Firefox 8, that looks to change, as this version finally includes a few small but noticeable changes to the browser interface, especially when it comes to managing add-ons, tabs, and adding search capabilities.
Earlier upgrades focused on under-the-hood changes to the browser engine and to standards support. This has often led to problems with add-ons and extensions designed for older versions of the browser. And this has led to many of the complaints from businesses, who often rely on add-ons for additional functionality within the browser. One of the main new focused of Firefox 8 is to improve the notifications for add-ons and give users upfront capabilities to limit problems caused by add-ons, especially third-party ones that a user may not even be aware have been added to their browser.
A new feature in Firefox 8 displays an add-ons window the first time the browser runs after the upgrade. This window shows the add-ons currently installed in Firefox and gives the user the option to disable or remove unwanted or unused add-ons.
Firefox 8 adds Twitter as an option for the default search engine in the browser's integrated search bar.
Now when a search term is entered in the integrated browser search bar, results can be show from live Twitter feeds.
Firefox 8 now uses a more visible animated tab when a user drags and drops tabs to reorder them on the browser's tab bar.
A new feature in Firefox 8 gives users the option to set the browser to not immediately load tabs upon startup. This is welcome both for users who use a tab group on startup and for recovering from crashes.
A new feature in Firefox 8 gives users the option to set the browser to not immediately load tabs upon startup. This is welcome both for users who use a tab group on startup and for recovering from crashes.
Ever since Mozilla first announced that they, like Google Chrome, were moving to a more frequent upgrade cycle for their Firefox Web browser, there has been a lot of controversy and complaints, especially from business users of the browser. But regular users of the browser can be forgiven if they've wondered what all the fuss is about. That's because ever since Firefox has moved the new-every-six-weeks upgrade cycle, noticeable new features in the user interface of the browser have been rarely sighted. But with the new beta of Firefox 8, that looks to change, as this version finally includes a few small but noticeable changes to the browser interface, especially when it comes to managing add-ons, tabs, and adding search capabilities.
Earlier upgrades focused on under-the-hood changes to the browser engine and to standards support. This has often led to problems with add-ons and extensions designed for older versions of the browser. And this has led to many of the complaints from businesses, who often rely on add-ons for additional functionality within the browser. One of the main new focused of Firefox 8 is to improve the notifications for add-ons and give users upfront capabilities to limit problems caused by add-ons, especially third-party ones that a user may not even be aware have been added to their browser.
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