Firefox Heads for Cell Phones

New browser is faster and ready for HTML upgrade

(NEWSER) - Firefox, once lauded for “speed, stability, and customizability,” seemed lately to have fallen behind the competition—but with version 3.5, out today, it’s back and better than ever, writes Farhad Manjoo for Slate. The new version “adds a much-needed speed boost” alongside bug fixes. And best of all, its use of updated HTML code could “prompt a re-engineering of the Web itself.” More»

Mozilla says new version of browser will boost Web 2.0 development

(NEWSER) - Early tests have found Mozilla's latest version of Firefox is much speedier than earlier versions and it runs rings around its rivals, PC World reports. One blogger found Firefox 3 Beta 4 was nearly twice as fast as Safari and Opera, and the Beta 4 version, and three times faster than Explorer. Mozilla's head of development said the company is tweaking Firefox to make "really heavy-duty applications" run faster. More»

Open source browser may never hit 25% market share

(NEWSER) - The Firefox phenomenon could be running out of steam. February saw the browser’s market share inch down for the third month in a row, according to recently released figures. That still gives the upstart open source browser 24.2% of the market, making it easily the second most popular choice behind Internet Explorer. But Google Chrome is sapping its popularity, the Christian Science Monitor reports. More»

Facing Microsoft, search giant aims to expand market for Chrome

(NEWSER) - Google Chrome, languishing in the browser wars, will get a substantial boost thanks to a deal with Sony—which is shipping new Vaio PCs with Chrome pre-installed. Google is also talking to other computer manufacturers, the FT reports, as it attempts to weaken the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which commands 68% of the field. Google Chrome, despite good reviews from techies, has only a 2% share after a year. More»

(NEWSER) - The No. 1 reason many Firefox users refused to upgrade to the browser’s latest version was fear that it would expose their deep, dark—think "naked"—online secrets, PC Pro reports. Firefox 3’s new address bar suggests your bookmarked sites as you enter URLs, which 25% of people who declined to upgrade cited as their motivation. “A lot of people contacted us to say that they had certain bookmarks they didn’t really want to have displayed,” a Firefox designer says. More»