Firefox 3 (FF3) launched on June 17 2008 with much excitement and fanfare. On launch day (Download Day!) the Mozilla foundation, creators of Firefox, set a new Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours with more than 8 million downloads. A few weeks later that number nearly quadrupled with over 28 million as of July 2nd. If you don’t have it yet, you can download it here.

That is definitely exciting for Mozilla and family and a big congratulations to them! But what does that mean for the average user and the average busy web developer?

First off, a new browser always presents some differences in how it displays pages, and this one is no different. Many of our clients have already experienced some cross version issues and we’re making sure to stay on top of any new fixes.

1. The Good

When I first downloaded Firefox 3, I didn’t notice any new benefits and didn’t understand what the hoopla was all about. But it didn’t take me long to realize that not only did it live up to its claim of being faster and lighter, but it is one of the fastest browsing experiences I have ever had. The best way to test its speed is to open an application that was previously sluggish (in FF2) such as GMAIL, do a “before and after” test and you’ll notice a huge speed difference. It felt like I just put another 4 GB of RAM in my computer.

Aside from the obvious speed benefits and security enhancements FF3 has a lot of tools for developers to quickly add extensions and toolbar features.

2. The Bad

A) Display Problems

We have all experienced at one time or another the quirky display and layout problems between Internet Explorer and Firefox. With FF3, we now have another browser that we must check for styling, layout and positioning problems. Here’s a sample of a positioning problem with our own site (which has since been fixed):

The search bar is positioned to the right in the older version (FF2) and to the left in the newer version (FF3). These are easy and straightforward CSS fixes, but it does mean there is extra work to be done checking sites in a new browser.

We’re building a library of quirks that will help us ensure this transition is seamless for all of our users. Note that the quirks may not be due to bugs but to FF3’s better implementation of CSS and XHTML standards. The jury is still out on this one.

All of our internal testing now requires cross browser checks for 6 browsers: FF2, FF3, IE6, IE7, Safari and Opera.

B) Crashes
Not sure if it is my computer , but since installing FF3 , I’ve encountered a few crashes. Some sites that I visited crashed pretty hard within a few hours of installation.

At any rate, I’m still a believer and am sure these hiccups will be worked out soon.

3) The Tips
A) Simultaneous Firefox Versions on a Single Computer

If you’re a developer, you may need to simultaneously run both versions of Firefox for some time before ultimately switching to the new version completely. We initially tried to run the 2 versions “out-of-the-box” but every time we clicked on the new desktop shortcut it would execute the new version without trying to access the old version. Here is a helpful tutorial which shows you exactly how to run 2 FF versions simultaneously.

B) URL bar

The old URL predictor bar in the older version (FF2) was simple and useful. Sometimes as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This could well be the case for the new and “improved” URLbar. If you have downloaded the latest version and tried to type in any url address , you’ll notice a lot of new jumbled text that makes the url bar seem cluttered. It is difficult to see the actual target site and degrades the experience. Here’s a way to turn off this new and improved feature.

Re-Cap

All in all, we think that the new Firefox release will definitely help FF increase its penetration into Internet Explorer’s currently dominant browser position. Perhaps the ease of use, speed and new security enhancements will help catapult FF3 past its 20% market share mark. Just watch out though because Microsoft is close behind with its IE8 version coming soon.

Source: Net Applications ( http://marketshare.hitslink.com/ )