Is Firefox turning into the ultimate nagware?

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Firefox, it must be said, is beginning to get on my Bristols. Like a death by a thousand cuts, the accumulation of minor irritations is pushing me desperately close to permanently decamping to Google Chrome.

From the irritating freeze that seems to temporarily paralyse the address bar about 30 seconds after it has first booted, to the mystery disappearance of the close button when you’ve got nine or more tabs open, to the clumsy implementation of the new Private Browsing mode, to the way the browser refuses to reboot for about 30 seconds after it (increasingly frequently) crashes… Firefox is heading for a fall.

(more…)

Porn collection put people off upgrading to Firefox 3

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Mozilla’s Security team has disclosed a very interesting piece of research which suggests people refused to upgrade to the latest version of Firefox because they were afraid the browser would expose their, ahem, private collection of websites.

In May, the company decided to have one last attempt at persuading the people on Firefox 2 to move up to Firefox 3, by hitting users of the old version with a pop-up that prompted them to upgrade. Those who declined were invited to fill out a questionnaire, asking them to reveal why they didn’t want the latest software.

The number one reason for not upgrading was the new location bar, and the fact that it delved into people’s bookmark collections to suggest sites as they typed. No fewer than 25% of Firefox 3 refuseniks cited this as the reason they wouldn’t upgrade. In fact, almost all of the people who provided feedback had tried Firefox 3, didn’t like what they saw, and headed back to Firefox 2.

(more…)

Firefox 4 looks awfully familiar…

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Firefox 3.5 is still fresh, but Mozilla has been busy mocking up its early concepts for the big move to version 4. Now, these images come with a great big disclaimer that “These are NOT FINAL! THEY ARE ONLY FOR BRAINSTORMING/EXPLORATION!“, but it’s interesting to see which direction Firefox could be taking. Take a look for yourself and form your own opinions, but from where I’m sitting it looks like a certain other browser seems to have had an influence on Mozilla’s designs.

The first design is fairly typical Firefox, with the tabs beneath the address bar (click to enlarge):

The Aero effect looks nice, and it’s a very clean interface, with only minor changes from the Firefox 3.7 concept images which Mozilla recently released. But there’s also a mockup with the tabs – unusually for Firefox – moved above the address bar: (more…)

First look: Firefox 3.5

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Firefox 3.5 is out as a Release Candidate – as close to a final version as you can get without being a final version – so I’ve taken a look to see how it compares to its competitors.

Porn/Private Browsing

Most other browsers already had this feature, and now Firefox does too. With nothing more than a quick Ctrl+Shift+P your tabs will be whisked away and stored safely, leaving you with a fresh window for your… personal research.

When you’re all finished up, the same shortcut will bring back all your previous tabs and send all trace of your secret session into oblivion (it does not erase feelings of guilt). (more…)

The real facts about Internet Explorer 8

Friday, June 19th, 2009

If there’s one thing you could never accuse Microsoft of lacking, it’s good old-fashioned Chutzpah.

The world’s favourite monopolist has launched a new “Get The Facts” campaign for Internet Explorer 8, that seems remarkably short on fact and a bit top-heavy on the codswallop.

You can see Microsoft’s version of the facts running down the left-hand side of the page, where the company has decided to compare Internet Explorer 8 against Firefox and Chrome. Yes, that’s right. Internet Explorer 8 wins in every single category, apart from a couple where it generously shares the honours with its rivals.

We could spend a couple of hours demolishing the argument for almost each and every one of those Microsoft ticks. Then again, we could spend a couple of hours shooting fish in a barrel or stealing sweets from children with only one arm, but we’ve got better things to do, so we’re just going to deal with the most blatant of Microsoft’s whoppers.

(more…)

Download PC Pro’s Firefox Essentials

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Mozilla has just launched a new service called Add-On Collections, that allows you to create hand-picked compendiums of Firefox extensions. Read our news story for the full lowdown on Add-on Collections.

We’ve been playing with the Create a Collection tool and it really is gobsmackingly well designed. Once registered, you merely give your collection a name, a brief description and pick your favourite Add-ons. The Add-ons are, well, added simply by typing the name into the search box and selecting from the drop-down menu that appears as you type.

Once you’ve selected all your Add-ons, you can twiddle with advanced features, such as creating a bespoke URL for your collection and uploading an image.

And so, we present the PC Pro Firefox Essentials – ten brilliant add-ons that have been hand-picked by the PC Pro editorial team.

If you think we’ve missed a brilliant add-on, let us know on comments below and we’ll consider them for future inclusion. Subscribers to our Collection will be alerted whenever we add a new extension.

Alternatively, if you create any fantastic Collections of your own, provide a link in comments so that others can follow.

R.I.P Rick Petnel, Adblock Plus pioneer

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

You may never have heard of him – I know I hadn’t – but virtually every Firefox user owes a huge debt of gratitude to Rick Petnel, the man who built the best filter list for the indispensible Adblock Plus extension. He’s recently passed away after a short illness, and I know that I owe thanks to the man for making my browsing easier for the best part of the last decade.

The filter, dubbed EasyList, quickly became the first entry in the list of recommended filters shown after AdblockPlus is installed, and its success at picking up and blocking dozens of types of advertisement – from the simple banner ad to the more complex flash and java creations that now litter the web – is surely part of the reasons why Firefox is both popular and enjoys a far more favourable reputation than its main rival, Internet Explorer.

If you need further clarification as to Adblock Plus’ popularity, then look no further than Mozilla.org: the extension sits in both Mozilla’s list of recommended software and the leaderboard of most popular add-ons. In fact, it’s the most popular extension out there, downloaded more than 620,000 times per week and with over one thousand five-star reviews.

A blog post over at adblockplus.org mentions that Rick’s list ‘helped improve the browsing experience for millions of people’ and that’s no exaggeration – so next time you’re browsing a site and find that all those pesky adverts have disappeared before you’ve even loaded the page, raise your tea or coffee in a salute to the man who made it all possible.

Search suggestions: a window on the soul of the net

Friday, February 13th, 2009

You know the little search box in the top-right of the Firefox window? Then you doubtless know that as you type search terms into it, Firefox brings up suggestions as to what it thinks you might be looking for.

You’ve probably never given this feature much thought. I hadn’t, until yesterday when I was searching for some obscure technical fact and (perhaps because we’d just been talking about natural language recognition on this week’s podcast) I absent-mindedly started to phrase my search query as a question. I didn’t get far in – just one word in, in fact – before realising this was unnecessary.

But that one word was enough to give Firefox an idea as to what I might be searching for: immediately it brought up the impressively varied suggestions you see above. (more…)

Don’t tell Microsoft, but…

Friday, November 14th, 2008

We’ve got in trouble with Microsoft on a number of occasions, as for some odd reason it’s quite protective about their logos. Something to do with brand identity, I believe, so when we may have taken a liberty or two with the Windows logo in the past it’s always been keen to have a word with us shortly after.

But it probably hasn’t seen this beautiful piece of, well, creativity from CnM – makers of the minibook or, as it’s sometimes called, the CnMbook.

Now this is a fascinating piece of kit that’s being sold for £115 exc VAT by Scan, and for a little more by Maplin. Indeed, if you search around you’ll find it on sale at various online stores. (more…)

The NeverEnding Beta (Google, 2004)

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Remember when Gmail first arrived? Unless you’re unlucky enough to be called John Smith you probably got the username you wanted first time, and without having to add six digits on to the end. Then you experienced the fun of sending invites to your mates so they could join you in your exclusive little club – after all, Gmail was still in beta, they couldn’t have every Tom, Dick and Harry overwhelming it before it hit its stride.

Fast-forward four and half years and guess what? Google Mail, as it’s now known, still has that little BETA label under it, and it shows no sign of buggering off.

Over at the Royal Pingdom they’ve gone through the whole Google catalog and counted the applications that are in beta today. While 22 out of 49 may sound reasonable – Google is always coming up with innovations, after all – when you realise that these include Google Mail, Docs, and Product Search, you have to wonder if Google interprets the word beta in the same way as the rest of us.

(more…)