Though many tech sites, including PCMag, published news of its release over the weekend, Mozilla had only made code available from its FTP servers, a standard practice leading up to a release. But in accordance with Mozilla's recently adopted rapid release schedule, version 6 debuts only 8 weeks after its predecessor and only includes whatever updates are ready for that schedule. Whereas in the past, a new full-number Firefox version meant almost a completely new browser, Mozilla's new approach means there's a lot less in the way of new features with each increase in version.
But that's not to say Firefox 6 brings nothing to the party. In fact, a look at its complete change log reveals a significant total of 1,300 changes and fixes. One that end users may notice include URL highlighting, which, like Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome, shows the domain name in darker font than the rest of a page's address. The other visual change, though not major, is in the "site identity block"—the area to the left of a Web pages address that indicates whether it's a secure. Mouse clicking on this shows if a page is encrypted, verified, who owns it, and who verified it.
Also newly available to users is a site-specific privacy feature. This can be accessed by typing "about:permissions" in the address bar, and it lets users specify which sites are allowed to store passwords, get access to your location, set cookies, open popups, and maintain permanent storage. It's a useful new feature, though Mozilla could have made it more accessible in menus.
As the title of the Mozilla blog post announcing Firefox indicates, developers get far more in Firefox 6. New features include support for server-sent Events with EventSource, which will let Web apps perform server push; support for the latest version of WebSockets, which allows persistent connection with a server; a new JavaScript prototyping tool called Scratchpad; a more usable Web Console; and new choices on the Web Developer Menu for easier access to tools.
The Firefox 6 update adds a couple of operational behaviors from which users can benefit: Firefox Sync—which allows syncing of bookmarks, passwords, history, and more—is now offered when you create a bookmark or go to save a password. And users of Firefox's Panorama tab groups should see faster startup times for the browser.
Firefox 6 is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux from firefox.com. For a deep dive and a comparison with other major browser choices, Internet Explorer 9, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera.
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