Mozilla Firefox 3

Executives from the Mozilla Corporation have been outlining some of the changes being made in the forthcoming Firefox 3 (Minefield) browser.
The browser has been in development for two years, and will have a completely redesigned graphics engine capable of handling much more intricate images, improving image scaling and letting users zoom in and out on the page.

A radical shake-up of the book-marking system for web pages is also planned (SQl Lite). “When you think about it bookmarks have not changed for 10 years,” Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla, told vnunet.com. “There are better ways to organise the plethora of web pages people view today. ” Schroepfer explained that Mozilla is working on an embedded database of web history and bookmarks called SQL Lite.(So much for old school bookmarking)


What is the most likely to be included in Firefox 3 :

• Improved interaction with Add-ons: clearer, more coherent language; less steps to install; more visible way to configure add-ons; alerts when updates are available; a permanent restart Firefox button.
• Support for remote bookmarks, bookmarks and history annotation.
• Files could be handled by web services. (must be something like ‘open with’ google docs)
• Print support to prevent cut paragraphs and true WYSIWYG.
• Much requested MSI installer which will be a much welcomed improvement for IT administrators as it will ease deployment and updating of Firefox across a company.
• In the security front: support for Microsoft CardSpace and OpenID. Smarter credentials handling.
• Airbag, the Google backed open source crash reporting tool will replace currently licensed TalkBack.