This creates a new, smaller tab at the left of the tab bar.
In fact, it looks and works a lot like a similar feature in Chrome OS: You can right-click on a tab (for say Gmail, Google Calendar, or other often-visited sites you leave open all day) and choose Pin As App Tab. I say "sort of" here, because it's not exactly the same. The biggest is a new feature called App Tabs, which gives Firefox a replacement, of sorts, for the application shortcut functionality in Chrome and IE 9.
Aside from moving the tabs to the top of the window, which I like, Mozilla has improved the tabbed browsing experience in other ways. Yes, you can awkwardly launch searches from the address bar if you want. Unlike other modern browsers, Firefox 4 does not combine the address bar (immaturely called the "Awesome bar") with the search box, but instead leaves them as separate screen-stealing entities. And you can drag toolbar buttons onto the tab bar if you want, too. In fact, this level of customization remains a key strength: It is more customizable than Chrome, and far more customizable than IE. In Firefox's defense, you can at least change the button's location, unlike in IE. The redesigned default toolbar is mostly a success, with attractive buttons and other controls, but I take exception to the IE-like weirdness of moving the Home button way over to the right side of the screen navigation buttons should all be together, on the left. Now, the browser tabs are aligned across the top of the browser window, as they are in Chrome, and the menu bar is hidden by default, though much of that functionality is replaced by a nice new Firefox button we'll get to in a bit. Firefox 4 takes Mozilla's browser in a decidedly new and more attractive direction, in contrast to the ugly mistake that was the previous two versions. What does Firefox 4 bring to the table today? Is it enough to deflect interest in IE 9 and Chrome? What I'm more concerned with, I guess, is the day to day stuff. Firefox has always had excellent web standards support, and that's as expected. In keeping with other recent browser releases-IE 9 and Chrome 10/11-Firefox 4 offers an enhanced JavaScript rendering engine, of course, and better performance, with just enough hardware acceleration to be included in the same conversation as those other browsers.
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Slow product development aside, Firefox 4 is indeed a major reimaging of the Firefox web browser and is much more attractive and usable than previous versions, especially under a modern OS like Windows 7. It's a good idea, one that comes from Chrome, actually, one that Microsoft is itself co-opting for Internet Explorer. And a big part of that strategy involves not focusing on these big bang releases for the foreseeable future. Mozilla, for its part, promises to speed up Firefox development going forward. It should see rapid adoption, sure, but the question is whether Firefiox 4 can reverse the stagnation and get the product on a growth path again.
But Firefox 4 has been years in the making and it enters a market that is no longer quite so friendly. There was a semi-major release, Firefox 3.5, and then a Firefox 3.6 release as well. Since Firefox 3, Mozilla evolved its browser, but perhaps too slowly. And Firefox's seemingly unstoppable usage share climb actually did stop: It's essentially been stagnant for the past year or so. Firefox's position as the browser of choice for technophiles and others in the know has been usurped, in dramatic and unexpected form, by Google Chrome. Back then, I was a diehard Firefox user and advocate, and had been using the product since it was an early alpha browser called Phoenix.Ī lot has changed since then.
The last time I reviewed a major new version of Firefox, it was June 2008 and Mozilla had just delivered Firefox 3.
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