Firefox 1.5 Offers Enhanced Navigation, Usability and RSS Discovery
Mozilla Firefox, with over 100 million downloads and an estimated 45 million users under its belt, has released the latest version of its Firefox browser; Mozilla Firefox 1.5. One year after its finalized Firefox 1.0 version was launched to much fanfare, Firefox 1.5 brings more stability, enhanced support for new image, web, and JavaScript standards and usability enhancements. The rendering engine which powers the Firefox browser has also been updated to support latest technologies. In addition (and possibly more important to the average web user) Firefox 1.5 comes with an updated pop-up blocker and a more progressive auto-update mechanism.
“With dozens of enhancements, Firefox 1.5 will draw many new users to the improved Web experience it affords,” said Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla Corporation. “Firefox is proof of our passion for promoting choice and innovation on the Web and making the Internet accessible and productive. Firefox 1.5 is the easiest browser to install, use, customize, and keep up-to-date and secure.”
MozillaZine reports on the updates to Firefox 1.5 “Firefox 1.5 introduces several new features, including an improved software update system, faster Back / Forward page navigation, a new options to clear private browsing data, drag-and-drop reordering of browser tabs, a redesigned Options/Preferences window and more robust popup blocking. Standards support is also improved, with support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JavaScript 1.6 and additional CSS properties. Accessibility is much improved (including new DHTML accessibility features), security has been enhanced and Mac OS X support has also been improved.”
The improved Back / Forward navigation on Firefox 1.5 uses a new memory feature (as opposed to loading cache), which makes Back and Forward performance much faster. Additionally, according to MozillaZine, going back or forward to a page cached in this way shows the page exactly how it was when you left it.
From a search perspective, Answers.com has been permantently added to the default search engines list in the Firefox browser and RSS discovery has been added. For more information on Firefox 1.5 or to download the new browser update, visit the Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Release Notes from Mozilla.com.
