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| With around a third of the global market share in web browsers, Mozilla's Firefox remains second only to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which is losing ground all the time. |
Tabs moved above the URL bar – moving the page tabs to this location gives the browser a cleaner look. There was always something distracting about having the tabs beneath the address bar but that has now been rectified.
Ability to sync with other devices – there's nothing more irritating than having to save passwords, favourites and settings across multiple devices. Now, users can set up Firefox Sync, which takes away the need to manage devices separately. The most interesting feature is the ability to sync an open tab. At home and about to dash out to work? Sync your current tab and carry on browsing on the train.
Add-on manager – Firefox add-ons are extremely popular and allow users to customize their browsing experience. They've always been slightly tricky to manage but now the add-on library makes it all much easier.
Improved HTML 5 support – HTML 5 support is the current 'big thing' in web designs terms, as it allows developers to build new functions like drag and drop into their websites.
Improved crash protection – there's nothing more irritating than having a plug-in like Flash or Quicktime crash on you, taking out all the other tabs with it. Improved protection through Firefox 4 now prevents this and you just need to reload the page.
Better video – the new browser uses hardware-accelerated graphics, which means that the computer's processing power is used to render videos and graphics. This is more efficient, more powerful and produces superior results.
Faster browsing – Mozilla says that the new browser is up to six times faster than previous versions. That might be dependant on factors such as hardware and bandwidth but is a strong counter to Google's speedy Chrome browser.
App tabs – app tabs are like mini bookmarks for the pages that you visit most frequently. These app tabs take up hardly any space, which means you can have loads of pages ready to load with a single click.
Panorama – Panorama is a new feature that enables users to group open tabs. With Panorama, pages can be grouped and then opened or closed simultaneously.
Switch between tabs with the URL bar – again, this is a feature for users that have loads of tabs open. Rather than clicking through and finding the one you want, you can simply start to type the address in the URL bar and select it from there.
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