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Mozilla The Internet

Mozilla Firefox 3 Features Screencast 293

Posted by timothy from the next-new-now dept.
An anonymous reader points to a mention at MozillaZine of "a screencast by Mozilla developer Mike Beltzner, demonstrating some of the new features in Mozilla Firefox 3, which is due out very soon. Weighing in at under four minutes, the screencast gives a concise overview of why you should be excited about Firefox 3. Due to its visual nature, the screencast shows Firefox's features far more clearly than the many written previews that have been published. A picture really is worth a thousand words."
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Mozilla Firefox 3 Features Screencast More

Mozilla Firefox 3 Features Screencast

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  • I'm really annoyed by the new popup history/bookmars panel. Having the history open in the sidebar by default was fantastic and if you used "Sort by Last Visited" (which you should) then you can type in kittens or whatever and find it, just like the guy did with the 'awesome bar' in the demo.

    • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:5, Informative)

      by maxume ( 22995 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:35PM (#23695685)
      Ctrl+H is shorter than Ctrl+Shift+H, and it opens the history in the sidebar on FF3 here. Of course, I don't remember what FF2 did.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by aussie_a ( 778472 )

        Ctrl+H is shorter than Ctrl+Shift+H, and it opens the history in the sidebar on FF3 here. Of course, I don't remember what FF2 did.
        Crtl+H opens up the history in the sidebar on FF2. Its hardly new.

    • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:4, Interesting)

      by snl2587 ( 1177409 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:44PM (#23695763)

      Having the history open in the sidebar by default was fantastic...

      It does if you go to View->Sidebar->History (or Ctrl+H). It's slightly different to get to it, but roughly the same otherwise.

      Personally, I like the database structure implemented by FF3. Especially the speed of reviewing the history and the "awesome bar".

    • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Splab ( 574204 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @04:21PM (#23696081)
      The awesome bar is pretty fucking annoying to say the least. In the last 8-10 years when I've been surfing I've been typing the first part of the domain I wanted to visit and the auto complete would show it. So if I wanted to go to slashdot I just type s and arrow down and slashdot would be the first link since its my most visited site with S in the beginning. If I wanted to go to sinfest I'd go si and arrow down - this behavior has to change with FF3, now the browser will popup the most visited site with S in it - and that isn't necessarily slashdot.

      Yes this might be a nifty feature for some, but seriously, please stop changing interface behavior! Windows does it all the time and it is driving hordes of supporters nuts. Keep it consistent and let people with special needs enable it - or at least do it the WinZip way; ask the user what he or she wants! (FF3 is default browser with hardy heiron - thats why I'm actually using it, downgrading a package usually leads to nightmares and I just want an OS that isn't in the way of my work - All other OS I got is running FF 2 and is staying that way till I figure out how to make FF3 behave like FF2)

      • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07, 2008 @04:39PM (#23696237)
        in that case you typing "sla" should be good for most of your needs. If you need more reliable method then I suggest you use "keywords." open bookmark manager, right-click on the bookmark and set its keyword. next time you type the keyword and hit enter it will take you to the bookmarked site.

        I have set "/." as the keyword for slashdot. it is a quick one-hand operation. takes a fraction of a second.

        I found the awesome bar annoying for about a week but now I can't live without it. The best part is that you don't have to remember the domain name. You can match by any part of URL or by page title. To me that is awesome.
        • I personally find it incredibly annoying. Why? Because I watch porn.

          You see what I mean, don't you?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by fmoc-86 ( 1279012 )
        If you really care that much, you can use "s" as a keyword for slashdot.org if you have it bookmarked in FF3.

        • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Splab ( 574204 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @05:32PM (#23696553)
          Just like the sibling AC comment you are telling me that I need to change my behavior to adjust for what the FF team think is right. This is just like the Pidgin team telling the world that the behavior all have learned is wrong and the new way is the right way. It's the wrong way around - programs has to help the user optimize his or her work flow, while this is what they wanted with the feature, changing behavior means the user has to relearn everything from scratch - my way of doing it was fast, reliable and worked for me.

          This is by no means a unique incident, someone comes up with some thing they think is nicer, but always forget that they have taught hordes of people to do it the other way - you have to leave in options for going "old school" rather than alienating your most devote supporters - and it shouldn't be buried somewhere in the internals of the system.

          Oh and to the mods, get a life - I'm stating the facts as they are from my point of view, developers needs to keep users work flow in mind when adding features.

          Don't get me wrong I love FF, but the added features has alienated me from it and too much bloating could lead to switching to others like Konquerer/Opera.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by fmoc-86 ( 1279012 )

            Well, I see your point. However, I think one can (and should) adjust behaviour--of course, not for the programmer's sake.

            I mean this in the sense of Bram Molenaar (vim's main author) generic advise: 1) Detect inefficiency 2) Find a quicker way 3) Make it an habit. I think that advise is valuable and to the point.

            In this case, changing behaviour doesn't mean learning *everything* from scratch. But: if you can't find a quicker way, then maybe it's fault of the program. The interface isn't accesible enough

            • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:4, Insightful)

              by Brian Gordon ( 987471 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @08:54PM (#23697597)
              Yes, a seamless FF2 to FF3 is exactly what I'm looking for. Javascript is slooowww in FF2, so slow that I really can't go back because it's noticable. But with FF3 I'm stuck with this funky awesomebar, a screwy theme (for Vista/Server 08), and all sorts of weird changes like the new unified History/Bookmarks organizer. Why can't they just optimize the heck out of the existing codebase, implement new and faster technologies on the backend, and leave the interface alone? Come on, if people want all sorts of crazy URL tracking capabilities, maybe they should use a less lightweight browser like Seamonkey or Opera..

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by pbhj ( 607776 )

        ... I just type s and arrow down and slashdot would be the first link since its my most visited site with S in the beginning. If I wanted to go to sinfest I'd go si and arrow down - this behavior has to change with FF3, now the browser will popup the most visited site with S in it - and that isn't necessarily slashdot.

        I don't think it quite works like that, I thought it "learnt" from your choice (takes a while) now when I press S slashdot comes up, if I want splatterladder I use arrow-down - that's the same behaviour as you had before, perhaps a different number of arrow-downs? It seems that it tries to guess what I'm going to choose (based on most used, bookmarks, freshness?) and makes it come up first.

        I'll admit I didn't like it to start with either, but I've gotten used to it now.

        Perhaps it's not as clever as I thin

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Splab ( 574204 )
          but it is learned behaviour - I don't look at the address bar, slashdot has been s and arrow down for the last 5-6 years for me in all browsers.

          To me it is like someone deciding Dvorak should be the new defacto layout - suddenly I'm back having to look at what the computer is doing rather than expecting it to do as I want.

      • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:4, Insightful)

        by poetmatt ( 793785 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @06:34PM (#23696897) Journal
        Umm you still have this.

        If you went si, unless you have a ton of sites starting with si, it'll still find it that way. This isn't any different than other autocompletes.

        Your difference between 1 and two letters is the same as anywhere else. Honestly, autocomplete tracks most used links too so what's your point? Your comment seems to contradict itself a little on what your problem with how the new awesomebar works, which is same as before in your case really. an AC who got a +4 put dead on your options.

        Firefox 3 in my opinion is huge improvements all around.
        • I have a site that I visit quite frequently that starts with for (forums.tdiclub.com). What comes up first?

          News for nerds. My forums site is 3-4 down on the list.
          • depends on how you type it.

            are you typing "forums", are you typign tdi? There are many ways via firefox's logic to make it show up first. One of which would be to tag it, another would be to bookmark it.

    • Re:Grr sidebar history (Score:4, Insightful)

      by x_MeRLiN_x ( 935994 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @04:43PM (#23696265)
      The Firefox 2.0 history panel is damn near useless to me. It offers the convenient option to sort by date and site, but apparently one would never need to search within those results, because typing in the search box clears that filter.

  • Great! (Score:5, Funny)

    by physman_wiu ( 933339 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:29PM (#23695651)
    I've got like 4,200 bookmarks...I tried organizing them a few times...that was a lesson in futility.

  • Weight in minutes? (Score:5, Funny)

    by clang_jangle ( 975789 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:31PM (#23695667) Journal
    Dagnabbit, I can't find the conversion chart for that one anywhere, and I really want to know what I weigh in minutes.
    • Dagnabbit, I can't find the conversion chart for that one anywhere, and I really want to know what I weigh in minutes.

      It's a sliding scale.

      Time = money.
      Multiply how much your time is worth by the length of the video.
      Weigh that money (in cash, no coins; round off to the nearest paper bill).
      Et voila, le profit!

      My consulting fee is in the mail...

  • Excellent! (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtomicSnarl ( 549626 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:34PM (#23695679) Homepage
    Not only will this let me I better organize my porn links, but I can avoid those Icky Malware sites, too!

    Thank you Team Mozilla! The world is a better place because of your hard work.

    Now, where'd I put my tube of lube...

  • SVG animation (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gr8_phk ( 621180 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:45PM (#23695775)
    Ever since I started using SVG with Firefox 1.5, I've been waiting for animation capability. The SMIL patch is apparently working reasonably well, but it's just not getting applied to 3.0. This is really sad. I appreciate all the bug fixes and performance improvements, but it's really frustrating that plugins always seem to get higher priority than web standards. Just apply the patch guys. Thanks.
  • If I install the RC, will it update itself to the released version, or will that be an uninstall/new install?

  • Good job FireFox Devs! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Toreo asesino ( 951231 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @03:57PM (#23695899) Journal
    I have to say FireFox 3 has some features I can't believe have been missing up until this point. The awesome bar, looks awesome.

    In fact, i find it amazing most areas of browsers haven't been "just searchable" like FireFox 3 is now, having seen how much sense this makes.

    Good job guys, you're setting a high bar for the rest to follow (no doubt).

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by felipekk ( 1007591 )
      But did they fix the Slashdot b

    • Re:Good job FireFox Devs! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @04:22PM (#23696085) Journal
      For me, it's a lot about the little things. When he showed the thing about right-clicking on a downloaded file and being able to go back to the actual download page, that's when I thought "why haven't other browser devs thought of that before".

      IMHO, Firefox 3 isn't a huge advance among web browsers, and actually catches up in some areas with some of the competition -- thinking of the site identification support. And it isn't the dominating browser in the Acid3 test either. But it does a lot of things right, and that with the extensive plugin support not found on any other browser (besides Firefox compatible derivatives). With the resource consumptions fixes (that Safari is in dire need of on Windows, and IE 7 too somewhat), it's really becoming a quite pleasant browser to use.

      I'm a former Opera user, but the thing is that I feel Firefox 3's new Javascript speed enhancements and memory fixes making it so fast (and with the scrolling plugin YASS giving it the final touch of smooth "speed scrolling"), that I can't really switch back at this point. I did with Firefox 2 due to the memory issues, but I doubt I will again until perhaps Opera 10 or something is released.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nxtw ( 866177 )

        I'm a former Opera user, but the thing is that I feel Firefox 3's new Javascript speed enhancements and memory fixes making it so fast (and with the scrolling plugin YASS giving it the final touch of smooth "speed scrolling"), that I can't really switch back at this point. I did with Firefox 2 due to the memory issues, but I doubt I will again until perhaps Opera 10 or something is released.

        Opera 9.5 is coming soon. Test builds [opera.com] are available. I've been using the Opera 9.5 betas for the past few months and

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      I agree completely. I've used IE almost exclusively since IE 3. I'm using the current RC of Firefox 3 and I can't ever see myself going back. It looks great (glad to see that circa 1999 default skin gone), is memory friendly, fast (way faster than IE on Vista), and there are so many cool little features. So many "why didn't anyone think of that before!" features.

      For the first time I think IE is really in trouble of loosing it's dominance. So kudos to the FF developers! This browser rocks!

  • Treadmill Kittens (Score:5, Funny)

    by Evil Closet Monkey ( 761299 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @04:04PM (#23695955) Homepage
    This sneak peak at Firefox wasted an hour of my life, watching treadmill kittens on You Tube!
  • Wow, the summary is totally right for once - watching the screencast makes the features actually seem desirable.

    Normally you just download the software and are sort of pleasantly surprised when you find a new feature, or similarly disappointed when there are none. In this case, it actually makes me /want/ to download FF3 and get to having some of those neat widgets.

    • Re:Wow, actually creates interest (Score:5, Interesting)

      by owlnation ( 858981 ) on Saturday June 07, 2008 @04:29PM (#23696141)

      Wow, the summary is totally right for once - watching the screencast makes the features actually seem desirable.
      Not sure I'd go quite that far... however, I am less concerned about some of the new features now. The name "awesome bar" and the description of what it did had me worried. Originally it looked like a feature for a feature's sake, with a stupid name to boot.

      Now, I admit I am more open minded about the Bar (except the name, that remains stupid). I'm open to seeing how it behaves in practice. If the searchable aspects of it are returning good results then maybe it's useful. If, however, it's like the built-in dictionary in Fx 2 that seems only to recognize words in Webster's 1893 edition, then it may be beyond irritating.

      But, the Site Identity thing -- and it recognizing how may times you've visited a site, looks like a whole bundle of trouble waiting to happen. At best a divorce, and at worst a 1st class ticket to Gitmo when they impound your laptop at an airport check-in and you forgot to clear it.

      I'm also thinking the fact that this changes color might be potentially distracting and irritating. Almost all of the extensions I add to Firefox are about stopping things distracting me on a webpage or browser. I'm not MTV generation, I need to focus when I read, and I only use a browser to read (and for pr0n too obviously, but I don't want distracted then either).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jester99 ( 23135 )
        If you clear your browsing history (ctrl+shift+del), it resets the page visit counts to zero.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pavon ( 30274 )

        But, the Site Identity thing -- and it recognizing how may times you've visited a site, looks like a whole bundle of trouble waiting to happen.

        Uhm, that info has been available for years, they just made the interface a bit more user friendly. If you really don't want the browser to track where you've been you should disable the browser history. If you just want to clear out a specific site after visiting it, bring up the history side-bar with CTRL-H and delete it. If you have old stuff you want to clear out without completely nuking your history, you can search your history in the sidebar.

        Although if you know that you are going to be browsing a s

  • The idiots amongst us (Score:2, Informative)

    by tqft ( 619476 )
    test this stuff for the rest of you

    I haven't had any real problems and flash and gmail work well for me and more importantly my wife who if she can't get her jokes and animations gets cranky with me.

    Those of a DBA bent or with frequent bookmarking habits may want to look at the SQLite extension to manage the SQLlite db.

    When FF3 is released - am upgrading to 3.1 to make life hell for myself for a month or two.

    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008060222 SeaMonkey/2.0a1pre ID:2008060222
  • Holy crap. This guy is talking WAY too fast.
  • I noticed in the screencast that they went to google to see why a site was reported as a malware site. Do they constantly forward stuff to Google to do these checks? That wasn't explained. What do they send and when do they send it? I'd like to be told if they're doing that.
  • I still want my "Find..." dialog back. :(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by WiFiBro ( 784621 )
      ctrl+f for the bar and to start automatically go to menu tools/options
      icon advanced tab general
      accessibility block
      tick the find as you type checkbox.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ewhac ( 5844 )
      Type / (slash), followed by the text you want to search for in the currently displayed page. Press ^G (CTRL-G) to find subsequent occurrences.

      If you're a vi user, this will seem quite natural.

      Schwab

  • The article links to a .swf file, but all it does in my Ubuntu FF3b5 is bring up a screenshot. I have the flash-nonfree plugin installed. I'm obviously missing something, but what?
  • In Firefox 3 (with Linux Mint) when I type a search in the google box, I get my web results as normal.. but there are none of the links at the top that I find handy... For example in FF2 I could type "Sacramento" in the google search, get my results and I would have links at the top.. "News" "Maps" .. so I could click on "Maps" and get the google map.. To do the same thing in FF3 I actually have to go to google first... not a major problem, but I was used to the other way... Is this a Mint thing or a FF3 th
  • Its going to be a wonderful tool to tag the files, folders in the hard drives locally and retrieve them back using the awesome toolbar. Many a times i keep all the files i am working on the desktop, then i organize them into folders, and put a shortcut to the folder on the desktop to retrieve it fast. But firefox 3 might change the way i am going to organize. I always wonder when the browser would become the desktop, this is one step more towards it.
  • It's basically auto-complete, but impossible to disable. Furthermore, isntead of keeping addresses that I actually typed into the address bar, it shows frequented sites. That is stupid. I have a bookmarks folder for a reason, it can be searched. Take away the awesome bar!
  • For the last couple of months I couldn't install updates for my FF add-ons, neither on FF2 nor 3. The download would always hang indefinitely. I never cared enough to investigate this -- until today. It turns out that releases.mozilla.org (the server where the updates are hosted) has an IPv6 address (2001:4f8:0:2::1f), and since my box has one too, FF tries to download the updates via IPv6. Unfortunately, the webserver at 2001:4f8:0:2::1f, when asked to get the update's .xpi file, only sends the header and

  • The new address bar is incredible (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Sunday June 08, 2008 @12:14PM (#23701003) Journal
    That address bar is brilliant.

    I've seen several complaints across the web about it and I simply do not know how.
    I am the first person to complain when something changes un-necessarily (Windows Vista's explorer in classic mode is nothing short of an abortion, a filthy disgusting abortion and I mean every goddamned word of that, you'd be surprised how many little bugs are in it)

    That being said, this firefox bar is virtually flawless, it seems to remember what I normally open based on what I type, how often I go there, how many times I hit the down arrow for another option etc.
    As a hardcore keyboard user, I love it.
    The only flaw is one of the benefits and that's how it hunt and pecks through your bookmarks.
    If you share your machine and say you have bookmarks like 'tranny gets railed by 15 guys' it could be kind of bad if your co-worker jumps on your PC and starts typing in 'tran' for transmission or transformers in the address bar :/

    Baring that though, it truely is gold.
    Oh and it's genuinely and substantially faster.

    Now just fix google browser sync, tabs menu and we're good to go.

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