Firefox 3.5
Let's review the new features introduced by Firefox 3.5.
Private navigation
This mode allows you to browse without leaving traces, which no cached pages, cookies and other remnants left by visited sites.
The private browsing is activated from the tool menu (Starting private...).
Improved speed
The difference in speed display on some sites is impressive. This is probably the immoderate use of JavaScript on these pages.
Firefox now has a JavaScript compiler, TraceMonkey that multiplies 30 times the execution speed.
Reduced memory consumption
According to a benchmark performed by Dot Net Perls, FF 3.5, consumes less memory than both IE8, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
This test is partially contested by some who believe that other browsers have not been configured to reduce the memory.
HTML 5
The audio and video tags are now implemented.
Native JSON
The data format JSON is recognized natively by Firefox. The advantage is to avoid the use of the eval () fonction which is not safe, or to use additional libraries, which is much slower.
Ajax
Cross-domains requests. This can be done throught the XMLHttpRequest object.
Compatibility with extensions
Most extensions that work with FF 3 still work, even if there is no new version of the extension.
These include:
- Speed Dial.
- Firebug.
- Seo Quake.
This is not the case with Gears for the RC 2.
See also