I have been using the new [1] Firefox 2 browser for the past couple of days now. Although I am not overly wow’d by some of the new built in features (only because I had similar extensions for it in the old version 1.5), there are some new features that I am thankful for. Here is my take on the new browser…

1) Installation

It upgraded flawlessly, imported all my bookmarks, plugins, extensions and browser settings without any problems. I loved the fact that there was an automatic installation feature that checked for plugin/ extension compatibility, notified me of the ones that had available upgrades and even allowed me to upgrade it before continuing with the installation process. Fortunately only 2 out of my 14 extensions were incompatible. :-)

2) Upgraded tab and Built in session restore feature (i.e. if Windows crashed, you can relaunch Firefox with all tabs intact)

Using the [2] Tab mix plus extension in the the previous 1.5 version, I have seen and used this type of feature before - so it is nothing new to me. I do have to familiarize myself with using it in Firefox 2 as many of the [2] Tab mix plus type features are present in Firefox 2 but located differently in the options menu.

E.g. The [2] Tab mix plus feature of saving different sessions of tabs and choosing which ones you want to load is the Firefox 2’s equivalent of saving the tab sessions as bookmarks. You can then reload tab sessions by choosing the relevant bookmark.

Two things I miss from the [2] Tab mix plus extension is the ability to choose any of the saved tab sessions on starting up Firefox and the ability to put a new tab shortcut on the left side of the tab bar (so that you don’t need to use the standard right click -> New tab function). Currently Firefox 2 only has options to load the last saved tab session, a new window or a blank page.

The close tab button on each tab is a very handy feature and am glad they incorporated it. I like the fact that the close tab feature is only present when you are on the current active tab, thus preventing accidental closing of tabs.

3) Ability to reopen a previously closed tab using the hot keys Ctrl-Shift-T

Being a fast fingered mouse clicker, I often tend to accidentally close tabs. This feature is useful for people like me although I would have liked to have the option to open more than just the previously closed tab.

4) Spell check

THIS is the sole reason why I chose to upgrade to Firefox 2. Common dictionary words are checked, with misspellings identified with a squiggly red line. I now don’t need to type my blog articles in MS Word to take advantage of the spell checker there. The spell check works with every form, comment area, blog and forum you are typing from within Firefox.

One drawback I find with the dictionary is that the spell checker doesn’t recognize some words as MS Word’s dictionary does - it seems to me that it is not as powerful and as smart. The dictionary database certainly needs a little improvement or at least linked to a dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster or another big dictionary provider. However, words can be added into the dictionary and it is way better than not having it at all. Users from other countries can be comforted in the fact that you can install dictionaries for other languages and English versions to suit your country (Canadian English, British English etc.).

Now if only they would incorporate a grammar check and thesaurus like MS Word! ;-)

5) Live titles

A very cool ingenious feature - Live Titles allows Web sites to stream updated data to your bookmarks. You can add the Live Titles functionality to the Merriam-Webster dictionary site, for example, and once you have done so, when you bookmark a page, you can choose the Live Title option to display the word of the day in your bookmark. When you drop down the bookmark menu or open the bookmark side panel, you’ll see the Merriam-Webster logo followed by the word of the day. For news sites such as the BBC’s, you’ll see the latest headline. Think of Live Titles as RSS-like feeds for your otherwise static bookmarks.

6) Suggested search terms from the search engine itself

Firefox 2 now includes suggested search terms from the search engine itself; for instance type fire and Google returns Firefox among other suggestions. Firefox 2 also has the option to add even more search engines that the previous version.

7) Anti phishing

I don’t know how good (or bad) this feature is as I don’t have any benchmarks to compare it to. I’ll just take the word of the many security reviewers out there on the improvement of the mechanism. That is, until someone gets hold of my information and starts using it illegally. Being security related, it will always be a work in progress so it’s hard to comment on.

Final thoughts

I do feel that the session and tab features can be improved upon as it is restrictive and those features seem a little difficult to find and navigate to e.g. maybe add its own separate section in the options menu. I have read in the Mozilla knowledge base that there is a separate “Session” option under the “Tools” menu but it is not present on my browser - did they take it off? Or maybe my version 2.0 didn’t install properly. The spell checker dictionary database also needs a little more work.

Setting aside the minor picky stuff above, my overall impression of Firefox 2 is that it is a well developed, robust browser with good and useful basic features without relying too much on extensions. No one can deny that it is certainly a step up from an already solid browser in Firefox 1.5.

It may be my imagination, but I have also noticed that page and image loads are a lot smoother and faster especially with pages/ blogs filled with a lot of external links.

With it’s aesthetics, it certainly looks mighty fine with the revamped shiny feel and (yes) they made the search bar area bigger without needing a downloaded extension. It would be interesting to test out IE7 when it does get released just to see the similarity/ differences in features and functionality.

For your reference here are my extensions that successfully upgraded (and those that didn’t) from my previous Firefox 1.5 version:

• [2] Tab mix plus (not compatible)
• [7] Copy plain text (not compatible)
• [8] Bookmark duplicate detector (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [9] Firefox extension Backup Extension (FEBE) (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [10] FireFTP (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [11] Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [12] Gmail Space (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [13] GooglePreview (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [14] IE Tab (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [15] Internote (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [16] PDF Download (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [17] SearchWith (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [18] Stumbleupon (compatible; successfully upgraded)
• [19] Trashmail (compatible; successfully upgraded)