Firefox 3 Released

Firefox 3 has been released! Check out all the new features (or see the field guide) and then go download it!

We’re aiming to set a world record with the most software downloads in 24 hours, so if you’re already using a Firefox 3 beta, make sure to download the full version from mozilla.com. Keep in mind that if you’re using Firefox 2, you will not automatically be prompted to upgrade to Firefox 3 yet, so you’ll have to download it yourself.

Categories: mozilla, planet.mozilla.org | Tags: firefox, firefox 3 | No Comments

Firefox on Facebook Walls

Last week, Facebook launched a new tool called Lexicon that measures the number of times a term is mentioned on user, event, and group walls. This is what the results look like for Firefox:

That huge spike at the beginning of April is when Firefox 3 Beta 5 was released. The gaps in the graph are when the term wasn’t mentioned enough to be recorded. Comparing the results of other browsers isn’t too helpful as Safari and Opera are common nouns, and most people would abbreviate Internet Explorer as IE.

Although no actual numbers are given, it’s still cool to be able to visualize a part of the biggest way Firefox is adopted around the world: telling your friends about it.

Categories: mozilla, planet.mozilla.org | Tags: facebook, firefox, mozilla | Comment (1)

Bugzilla QuickSearch + SearchWords

Someone asked me how I was searching Bugzilla from my location bar last week, so I figured there are probably a few others who aren’t familiar with QuickSearch + SearchWords and would benefit greatly from finding out about it, so here’s a post!

The little search box on every page of Bugzilla is useful for more than just typing in bug numbers - it actually has a pretty detailed syntax that can be used to narrow down bug queries faster than using advanced search in many cases. Jesse has a page listing all of the tricks, but I’ll mention a few of the ones I use.

Using a colon in QuickSearch specifies the product or component to search in. For example, :firefox would search bugs in the Firefox product and :mozilla.org searches mozilla.org, addons.mozilla.org, and a number of components in Websites.

QuickSearch defaults to searching only open bugs, but adding “ALL” as the first word of your search will make it search both open and closed bugs. @ will search for bugs assigned to that user. So, “ALL :addons @fligtar” returns all bugs I’ve fixed or am currently assigned to in addons.mozilla.org product.

QuickSearch is great in itself, but combined with SearchWords, it’s even better. (SearchWords is part of Firefox 3, so you only need to install it in Firefox 2.) I have the “bug” keyword associated with the Bugzilla@Mozilla search engine, so typing in “bug :cvs” in the location bar will return all of the open CVS Account requests.

I never bookmark bugs because of this method, even if it means once a day doing Command + T, Command + L, “bug :addons statistics” to find the same bug over and over.

Categories: mozilla, planet.mozilla.org | Tags: add-ons, bugzilla, firefox, mozilla | Comments (6)

Firefox 3 Beta 1

It’s finally here! The first beta of Firefox 3 (Gran Paradiso) was released a few minutes ago. Although I’ve occasionally used Firefox 3 for testing and experimentation purposes, today was the first day I finally made the switch to using it full-time. And I’m glad I did - it’s awesome. I can’t speak for the other platforms, but the difference on Mac is amazing. The visual refresh hasn’t landed yet, but you can see what’s in the works here.

The browser just feels faster, and OMG cocoa widgets and unified toolbar! One of my favorite features that I’m slowly taking advantage of is being able to start typing any part of a url or page title and have the page I was looking for appear right in the URL bar.

So, if you want to try it out, head on over to the download page. And if you’re on Mac, I highly recommend installing the prototype theme of the visual refresh - it’s awesome. (Note: this is still a beta, so bad things could happen, so use at your own risk! But if you’re on Mac, it’s pretty much worth it.)

If you’re looking for information on what’s in Firefox 3, check out the release notes page. I’ve included a short summary from the announcement of the main things below in case you’re not interested in the details.

• Improved security features such as: better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plugins.
• Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista and Mac OS X.
• Richer personalization through: one-click bookmarking, smart search bookmark folders, direct typing in location bar searches your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customization of download actions for file types.
• Improved platform features such as: new graphics and font rendering architecture, native web page form controls, color profile management, and offline application support.
• Performance improvements such as: better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to speed up page rendering, over 300 memory leak fixes, and a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks.

Huge thanks and congrats to everyone that’s been working for so long on Firefox 3 and Gecko 1.9 (27 months!).

Categories: mozilla | Tags: firefox, firefox 3, mozilla | No Comments

Facebook Redesign

Facebook’s Sneak Preview Group has some screenshots of the upcoming redesign. I’ve always been a fan of Facebook’s design; I think it is done very well. It’s one of the main reasons I favor it greatly over MySpace. I was a bit skeptical of this change at first, but I think this new design looks pretty cool. It’s very web 2.0, or something like that.

In other news, Firefox 2.0.0.3 was released tonight. Help -> Check for Updates if you can’t wait!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: facebook, firefox | No Comments

Firefox Flicks

If you’ve never been to Firefox Flicks, I recommend you check it out. It’s got some great user-submitted Firefox commercials - some of them are hilarious. 4 of them (Billy’s Browser, This is Hot, Web for All, and Daredevil) are going to air a bit in Boston and San Francisco on cable networks. See the full press release here.

Also, I don’t think I mentioned it before, but my name is in the Firefox 2 credits. It’s over a minute into them, so I took a screenshot for you because you’re impatient. Yes, you. It’s sorta interesting that I actually know who most of the people in that long list are and met many of them at the summit.

I have some other stuff to talk about, but I’ll make a different post on that later.

Categories: mozilla | Tags: firefox, mozilla | Comment (1)

Firefox, as usual

Did you know that a firefox is actually a type of panda? Take a look, they are extremely cute.

Business Week is running an article about Firefox marketing: Mozilla Goes Mainstream. It’s fairly interesting. You may also be interested to see concept art of the Firefox logo here.

If you ever want to get really mad, read some of the reasons people are uninstalling Firefox. Sigh. Most of them can be answered with one of the following:

• Firefox loads slower than IE because much of IE is built into Windows because… they are both made by Microsoft
• One of the things that makes Firefox great is it’s uncluttered. If you want a feature, there is probably an extension for it. But it’s not likely to be added to the browser itself. If you want a browser that you get lost in, try SeaMonkey.
• That has absolutely nothing to do with Firefox.
• You’re retarded.

I have been working on AMO/Remora in most of my free time, but unfortunately I haven’t had much free time this week. Tomorrow is my last day of work, so after that I should have more time to finally make some substantial progress on the Developer Control Panel.

For more info on Remora development, check out Mike Morgan’s blog post. And contrary to what is stated there, as the author of that logo I can confidently tell you that the fish is not giving birth to those add-ons, it is something else.

Categories: mozilla | Tags: amo, firefox, mozilla | No Comments