Mozilla Unveils New Firefox 3.5 Browser

If you're not a Mozilla Firefox user already, now's the time to become one. Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is coming to a computer near you today, and it's loaded with better features and faster browsing than ever before.

Users of the Firefox 3.5 test version are comparing the browser to Google's Chrome browser, known for faster searching and better performance than the current Mozilla Firefox. But as it stands right now, users are awaiting one feature in particular on Firefox 3.5: Private Browsing Mode.

Surfers are wondering, just how private is the Private Browsing Mode? What exactly is it privatizing for me? According to Mozilla's site, there are a number of things Private Browsing Mode hides on shared computers.

Even if you're not searching for anything risqué, watching seedy videos, or participating in online chat, you don't necessarily want your fellow computer users spying on your Internet activity. When you search in Private Browsing Mode, Firefox does a number of things for you:

One: Your visited pages will not show up in any search history, in the sidebar or the Smart Location Bar, and visited links will not show up colored as they would with search history turned on.

Two: If you have "Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar" turned off in the current Firefox edition, you'll enjoy the same privacy under Private Browsing Mode. Also, no passwords will be remembered automatically, nor will they be saved anywhere.

Three: Cookies, download history, and cached files will not be saved while the Private Browsing Mode is turned on.

While these are some great features for privatizing data from other users in your family or friends, we should probably take a look at what Private Browsing Mode doesn't do for you. For instance, IP cloaking and encrypting is not a feature. For this option you would need an external program, such as GoTrusted. Private Browsing does not keep your browsing secret from hackers or those who might be spying on your wireless activity, such as at an Internet café. In short, it only protects the information right on your computer, not your IP.

In addition to Private Browsing, Firefox 3.5 is also powered with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. The benefit? It will make future searches super-fast, with better performance overall.

If you're in a foreign country, chances are the new Firefox just might be in your language. According to Mozilla, Firefox 3.5 will be available in over 70 languages.

But one feature I'm hyped about is the restoring of closed windows. How I despise it when I close out a window full of text in a text box, with no way of recovering it. According to Lifehacker, it looks like this is a thing of the past. Granted, of course, that this feature works as it should.

More great features include better video viewing (no longer will the video be treated like a separate piece of HTML chunk with the new HTML 5), and GeoLocation, so when you type in something like "Wal-Mart," you'll pull up a result of Wal-Marts in your area, provided you have this feature turned on.

My biggest hope is that, with the new TraceMonkey engine, Firefox 3.5 won't crash nearly as much as the current one does - it's really getting on my nerves. But overall, it looks like Firefox 3.5 is going to deliver the goods this time.

More information: https://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2009/06/24/updated-firefox-3-5-release-candidate-available-for-download/