Firefox 9 Review

Firefox 9 can nearly match Chrome on JavaScript speed, and holds its own when it comes to HTML5 support and a trimmed down interface that gives the Web page center stage. But when compared side-by-side with Chrome, Firefox falls just a bit short in terms of HTML5 support and whiz-bang features like Chrome Instant, which loads pages from your history before you even finish typing their addresses or search terms in the address bar.

A simple 15MB download gets you the Firefox 9 Windows installer. When you run it you’ll lose your old version of Firefox. The latest Firefox is available for Mac (31MB) and Linux (17MB) as well as for Windows 7, Vista, and XP—the last of which even Internet Explorer 9 (Free, 4 stars) can’t claim. You can import bookmarks from any other installed browsers on first run, but setup is nearly as uncomplicated as it is for Chrome. Firefox also now makes it easy to choose a search provider other than Google, but surprisingly, not as easy as Chrome does. Recently, though, Mozilla started offering a Firefox for Bing version, which uses Microsoft’s Web search built in.

It’s more likely that you’ll be updated to Firefox 9 automatically, though, since, starting with version 4, Firefox followed Google Chrome in yet another way: by automatically checking for and downloading each new version, and installing it the next time the browser starts. This has the benefit of keeping the majority of users on the latest version. To give the automatic updater a nudge, choose Help>About from the main Firefox menu dropdown.

The first time you run Firefox, you’ll see the “Select Your Add-ons” dialog. This is so that you can see any add-ons that may have been installed unbeknownst to you by another app you installed. After this first extension approval, the browser will no longer allow third-party app installations to install Firefox extensions without your approval. On another score, previous updates broke a lot of extensions, so it’s good to see this is less of an issue this time around. I didn’t have problems with extension compatibility as long as the extension worked in Firefox 7.

Interface
Firefox’s latest interface brings it in line with the trend of “less is more”—less space taken up by the browser frame and controls and more space for Web pages. The page tabs have moved above the address bar, and, as with Opera 11.60, there’s just a single menu option in the form of the orange Firefox button at top left. You can re-enable the standard menus by hitting the Alt key.

New for Firefox 9 is better integration with Apple’s latest desktop operating system, Mac OS X Lion. Mozilla’s browser now supports the OS’s two- and three-finger swiping gestures for moving between apps and pages in full screen.

The theme design now also matches Lion’s toolbar and icon stylings.

The Home button has moved to the right of the search bar, and a bookmark button appears to the right of that. That bookmark button only appears when you don’t want the bookmark toolbar taking up browser window space. This gives you one-click access to frequently needed Web addresses. But I wish that, like IE’s star button, Firefox also let you see recent page history. You can still call up the full bookmark manager, which lets you do things like importing bookmarks from other browsers, search, and organize.

Firefox is one of the last remaining browsers to still use separate address and search boxes, which is good for those who like to keep those two activities separate. That doesn’t mean, however, that a search won’t work in the address bar, aka the “awesome bar.” That tool, which drops down suggestions from your history and favorites whenever you start typing, was pioneered by Firefox and copied by all other browsers. Another tweak is that when one of its suggested sites is already open in a tab, you can click on a “Switch to tab” link, preventing you from opening more tabs unnecessarily—a useful tweak.

As part of its leading extensibility, Firefox has always been the browser most open to allowing different search providers, including specialized search like shopping, reference, or social. It was one of the first to support the OpenSearch format. The other popular browsers now do so, too, but Firefox can automatically detect search services on a page and let you add them from the search bar. With version 8, the social search category was bolstered by the built in addition of a Twitter search, making it easy to follow trending topics or to find Twitter personalities worth following.

Panorama and Pinned Tabs
With version 4, Firefox brought a revolutionary new way to organize tabs. Dubbed “Panorama,” this feature helps those who like to have lots of tabs open. Just click the Mondrian icon all the way to the top-right of the window, and you’ll see rectangles containing page thumbnails. You can drag tabs between groups, and resize and move the group boxes themselves around. You can even give a name to a tab group to keep organized.

When you click on a page thumbnail in any tab group, that page will maximize in the browser window, and you’ll only see tabs from its group. It takes a bit of a rethinking, as you won’t see all of your pages’ tabs, but a click of the group icon gets you to them. I only wish that Panorama had some automation of the group creation, similar to IE’s color grouping of tabs. And unlike Opera’s nifty stacked-tabs, Firefox’s groups are a click away on their own page, rather than always in front of you.

Firefox Sync
Chrome and Opera have had bookmark and settings syncing for a while, but Firefox does an excellent job at implementing this on-the-go convenience. Not only will Firefox sync bookmarks and settings, but it also opens tabs, history, passwords, and forms. The data is encrypted locally so that no one can intercept those passwords while they’re on their way to Mozilla’s servers. The setup creates a key that you need to enter into the other PCs you want to keep in sync; the process isn’t arduous, but it’s not as simple as Chrome’s sign in. One thing you can’t sync in Firefox that you can in Chrome, though—surprisingly—is extensions. Themes are another, but Chrome can’t sync History or open tabs. IE9 has yet to offer any syncing option. I’m still occasionally amazed to see the same page I was viewing at work 45 minutes ago magically waiting for me on my home copy of Firefox.

Add-ons (aka Extensions)
Firefox has long been praised and adopted for the multitude of customizations it offers through third-party extensions. Though Chrome and the rest now all offer extensions, too, Firefox’s deliver the most in-depth browser modifications. I already mentioned the new protection from app installations adding extensions without your knowledge in the “Install” section above. Since version 4, add-ons (which includes third-party extensions) have been revamped inside and out in Firefox. The Jetpack add-on system is both easier for developers to create extensions and easier for consumers to use them.

Jetpack makes it possible for an extension developer not to require a restart to install the add-on and to make updating less intrusive. Jetpack could save me a lot of frustration when I just want to get browsing. But the no-restart goal still hasn’t been met by the Jetpack team, and the frequent browser updates increase chances for incompatible extensions whose creators haven’t updated their code for every Firefox update.

Interface-wise, in another nod to Chrome, Firefox’s add-ons manager now resides in what looks like a Web page. In its present form, it’s a little harder to simply find the most popular extensions and their ratings, but you can still head to the Mozilla Web page for this. Firefox is still customizable in appearance, too, thanks to Personas and Themes.

Read more about Firefox 9’s performance, and our verdict, on the next page…