Review: Firefox 3 Beta 1 -- Packed With New Features And Rock SolidReview: Firefox 3 Beta 1 -- Packed With New Features And Rock Solid

Firefox 3 is out in beta and better than ever, with usability enhancements that make the browser simpler and easier to work with.

The new version of Firefox fixes 300 memory leaks, and is based on the Gecko 1.8 Web rendering engine, designed to enhance performance and stability.

While new security features designed to protect against viruses, phishing, and other threats, are getting most of the attention, I'm skeptical that these features will actually do much to secure the Web. The most interesting changes to Firefox 3 are the numerous, small modifications -- and one big one -- that'll make Web browsing quicker and easier.

I tested the browser on three systems, with mixed results. Unfortunately, Firefox 3 Beta 1 is unusable on one of my test machines, a five-year-old Compaq laptop running the latest Windows XP. It ran like a pig, even though Firefox 2 works great.

But Firefox 3 runs great on my workhorse machine, an iMac running Leopard. I've been using it as my main browser for most of a day -- even though Mozilla.org says it should only be used for development and testing. Firefox 3 Beta 1 also ran great on Windows XP on Parallels on the same iMac.

My mixed experience matches other reports. Some people trying out the software find it rock-solid stable, others find it horrendously unstable.

If you're eager to upgrade, make a copy of your profile, so that your bookmarks and settings are safe in case of disaster. Heck, back up your entire hard disk -- you should be doing that regularly anyway.

There Are Places I Remember

The big change in Firefox is a new tool that will make it easier to find pages you've been before. Firefox Places combines the bookmarks and history into a single package.

Firefox Places uses an SQLite database to store its data. Because it's a database, rather than a flat file, the next months will bring us a wealth of extensions that'll allow users to manage their bookmarks and browser history in all sorts of interesting and ways.

For now, Firefox 3 provides a views of bookmarks and history that are fresh and useful.

You can assign text tags to individual bookmarks, in addition to -- or instead of -- assigning them to a bookmark folder.

When you type text into the Firefox address bar, it automatically searches through your bookmarks and history based on keywords, tags, and text in the URL.

In addition to tags, bookmarks also support keywords, which is an old Firefox feature dating back to Version 1. I expect tags and bookmarks will be confusing the some users, since they sound somewhat similar. However, they're different: Tags are words you attach to a bookmark to aid in indexing it and finding it later. Keywords are nicknames you use to launch a bookmark.

Firefox also lets you "star" pages, which saves bookmarks to Places with one click. Starring a page silently adds it to your bookmarks -- the only feedback you get is that the star goes from white to pale yellow.

Click the star again and a small dialogue box pops up allowing you to edit the title and assign a folder, and tags.

I'm still poking around in Places, figuring out how it works. The browser significantly improves the way page-magnification works. Firefox 3 zooms in and out on the whole page, not just the text, as was the case in previous versions of the browser. This is the way Opera has been handling page magnification for many years, and it's nice to see Firefox catch up.

If you change the zoom on a page, Firefox remembers the setting between sessions, and uses the same zoom setting the next time you come back -- not just on that page, but site-wide.

If you close the browser while multiple tabs are open, Firefox asks you whether you want to save the tabs, which will re-open next time you open the browser; or just close the browser, in which case next time you start the browser, you'll start with a fresh session.

On the down side, none of my extensions work in Firefox 3. That's not surprising; the first beta of a new version of Firefox usually breaks extensions, and developers revise them to be compatible in the coming months.

I've been using Firefox 3 as my production browser for most of a day, with only one crash. After the crash, Firefox came back flawlessly and restored my previous session. That's more stability than I expected from Beta 1 software.

I've used the new Firefox to access Google Reader, Gmail, information, a couple of our competitors, and, oh yes, I Can Has Cheezburger and the Internet Movie Database. I've clicked on links from Google Reader to a dozen or so blogs and Web periodicals. They all render flawlessly on Firefox 3.

Firefox Security

Some of the most high-profile features of Firefox 3 are security enhancements. It includes built-in warnings for forged pages, phishing pages, integration with anti-virus software, and warnings when going to a page where the SSL certificate is found to be invalid.

You can click on the favicon for a page and see an information box on who owns the page.

Firefox also integrates with Vista Parental Controls.

While anti-virus integration is great, I'm skeptical whether the rest of the security updates will prove useful. Some perfectly legitimate sites and pages have mis-matched SSL certificates, so those warnings will prove unhelpful. Warnings against fishing and malware distribution will prove to be only as good as the database they're based on, and those sites move around fast.

As for clicking the favicon to find the owner: I tried that out on both information and Google, and found no owner listed.

Ultimately, the only protection against phishing, forged Web pages, downloading malware, and other threats is the technology located between the user's ears. Smart users already know how to protect themselves against these threats: Don't download and install software from unknown sites, and don't give away confidential information on any site you reached by clicking a link you received in e-mail. Dumb users won't heed any amount of warnings and safeguards.

But the database supporting many of the security features isn't yet available. When it is, we'll see how powerful they are.

Until then, Firefox 3 Beta 1 is definitely worth a try. New features significantly enhance usability. The beta is very stable on some machines, and highly unstable on others. Make your backups and give it a spin.