Mozilla released the first public beta of Firefox 4 couple of days ago and it’s looks very cool. Firefox 4 beta spots a new look with loads of features and better HTML 5 support. Here is a quick run down of the new features
- More support for HTML 5 elements
- Tab are on top now by default for all windows users. Linux and OSX users needs to wait for a while to get this feature by default.
- Allows switching of tabs easily with the help of location bar
- Windows 7 users will see Firefox button instead of menu bar at the top
- Crash Protection
- and many more as documented here
I installed Firefox 4 Beta in parallel with Firefox 3.6 and both of them are working without creating any problems(as long as one among them is opened at a time). First glance of the beta looked awesome but the new user interface was very familiar. Seems to be Mozilla derived few of the new user interface enhancements introduced in Firefox 4 from few popular applications.
Tabs on top – from Google Chrome
Google Chrome is the first browser to have tabs on top and now almost all the major web browsers, except IE, have tabs of top. Firefox 4 tabs are as convenient as Google Chrome tabs.
Firefox Button – from Opera Web Browser
Firefox 4 on Windows 7 will have the Firefox button by default instead of menu bar at the top. This feature is borrowed from Opera Web Browser.
Feedback Smiley’s - from MS Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2010 Beta had similar smiles to provide feedback on the product. Have a look at the below image that shows Office 2010 similes which are displayed in system tray and Firefox Smiley’s which are shown in Feedback menu.
What ever may be source/inspiration of new features introduced in the beta, it always fun to use Firefox. It’s the most robust and powerful browser available in the market. As a web developer I love Firefox more than anything else.