Monday, August 25, 2008

The Best Firefox Yet

With more than 15,000 improvements, Firefox 3 is faster, safer and smarter than ever before.

What is organic software?

As software companies go, we’re a little unusual. We use the term ‘organic software’ to sum up the various ways we’re different from the other guys:

Our most well-known product, Firefox, is created by an international movement of thousands, only a small percentage of whom are actual employees.

We’re motivated by our mission of promoting openness, innovation and opportunity on the web rather than business concerns like profits or the price of our stock (guess what: we don’t even have stock).

And as a non-profit, public benefit organisation, we define success in terms of building communities and enriching people’s lives. We believe in the power and potential of the Internet and want to see it thrive for everyone, everywhere.


What is Open Source?

This might sound crazy at first, but bear with us: we believe that the more people who know our “secrets”, the better.

So, we exposed the Firefox source code – the very nuts & bolts of what makes it all work – to the world and encouraged everyone to have a look.

Some people saw things to improve and made the fixes. Others had ideas for new features and made them happen. And others yet took that code, applied their own innovations and built completely new (and amazing) products.

The moral of the story? Being open means good things will happen. Anyone can peek behind our curtains…in fact, there really aren’t any curtains at all.

Why should you care?

We may not be a typical company, but we still know how to focus on the bottom line: making the web better for you.

Being open means the next big idea can come from anyone across the world rather than just relying on a few dozen employees at our company offices. When you look at the situation in those terms, why do it any other way?

All this talk about organic software and open source ultimately means a better browser for you and the 130 million regular Firefox users. It means a higher-quality, more secure product. It means innovation, freedom and supporting an Internet that’s accessible to all.

Tips & Tricks

Whether you’re a beginning, intermediate or advanced user, these shortcuts and suggestions will help you get the most out of Firefox 3.

Beginner

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Zoom In, Zoom Out screenshot

Zoom In, Zoom Out

Tired of tiny text? Want to see an image a little more up close and personal? Now you can easily zoom in and out of Web pages.

Zoom In ctrl + + (mac: ⌘ + +)
Zoom Out ctrl + - (mac: ⌘ + -)


Beginner

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Tab Tricks screenshot

Try These Tab Tricks

If you’re the type of person who likes to have a lot of Web pages open at the same time, you’ll definitely benefit from tabbed browsing. Here are some keyboard shortcuts that will help you master tabs:

Open a new empty tab ctrl + T (mac: ⌘ + T)
Open a link in a new tab
Middle Click on link
Close a tab ctrl + W (mac: ⌘ + W)
Reopen a closed tab ctrl + shift + T (mac: ⌘ + shift + T)

Beginner

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Star icon
Bookmarked site
Bookmarked site
Bookmarked site

Add Bookmarks With a Single Click

Keep better track of the sites you like (and save time) with one-click bookmarking. When you visit a page you’d like to remember, just click on the star icon in the location bar. Firefox will add it to your bookmarks list so you can easily find it again.


Beginner

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  • Security Icon The site provides verified identity information and protects your personal data from online eavesdroppers.
  • Security Icon The site provides basic identity information and protects your personal data from online eavesdroppers.
  • Security Icon The site doesn't provide any identity information.

Know Who You’re Dealing With

A common tactic among Web scammers is to set up fake sites, known as phishing sites, that impersonate your bank, your favourite e-commerce site, etc. Luckily, Firefox makes it easy to determine if sites are what they say they are – just click on the site icon for an instant identity overview.

An attack site or forgery; giving this site your personal information, or even visiting it, may be harmful. Forgery screenshot


Beginner

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Scroll down the page space bar
Scroll up the page shift + space bar
Refresh the page ctrl + R (mac: ⌘ + R)
Back ctrl + ← (mac: ⌘ + ←)
Forwards ctrl + → (mac: ⌘ + →)

Shortcut Your Way to Success

Firefox is full of keyboard shortcuts designed to make your life easier. Here are a few of our favourites:

Move cursor to the location bar ctrl + L (mac: ⌘ + L)
Move cursor to the search box ctrl + K (mac: ⌘ + K)

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