Firefox 3 Power user's guide

Posted on 13 Aug 2008 at 11:53

Master the world's fastest growing browser with our in-depth guide to new features, cherry-picked extensions and handy shortcuts.

Having overturned Microsoft's monopoly - a feat many thought impossible - Firefox is without doubt the web browser of the moment. And now with the release of Firefox 3, the open-source browser is poised to gain even more ground on Internet Explorer.

In this feature, we'll introduce you to all the major new features in Firefox 3 (sadly, we don't have space to cover all 14,000 changes from the previous version). We'll provide in-depth advice on how to take advantage of features such as the new bookmark tagging, the modestly titled "Awesome Bar" and improved security features.

Mozilla is making bold performance claims about its new browser, saying it's up to three times faster than its predecessor. We'll be putting Firefox through a series of real-world tests to see if it really should be the browser of choice for power-users.

We're also going to reveal how to get more out of the browser, with our hand-picked selection of 15 Firefox Extensions - all tested and guaranteed to work with Firefox 3. And on p119, we've provided a selection of keyboard shortcuts to give you a manual performance boost.

In an exclusive interview with PC Pro last year, Mozilla Europe president Tristan Nitot claimed the open-source developers had "caught Microsoft asleep at the wheel". Now there's a genuine chance it could overtake IE and claim the number one spot. Only four years ago Firefox had a worldwide market share of only 3.6%, according to Net Applications. By the end of May this year, that market share stood at 18.9%. It's even more popular with PC Pro readers, with a third of the people visiting our website running Firefox.

Over the next few pages we find out why that share looks set to grow further.

New features
Performance
PC Pro's top 15 Firefox extensions