Firefox 3.0 First Beta Arrives

It seems like only yesterday when Firefox 2.0 arrived, and here we're already swimming with the first beta of Firefox 3.0. I have been using Firefox 2 as my primary browser for several months and have really grown to love it. So how will Firefox 3 improve on things?

The Firefox development blog post relegates the biggest issue to its last bullet point: Performance improvements, including over 300 memory leak fixes, perennial problems with Firefox since the beginning and an issue that plagues it badly today. (Even after quitting the browser entirely, I'll often find in Task Manager that Firefox is still using 200MB of RAM or more. Crazy.) In my preliminary tests Firefox 3 does seem quite a bit speedier than version 2, though I don't have specific benchmarks to support that. (However, in this beta, at least, Firefox still appears to be a memory hog.)

Many of Firefox 3's new features focus on making the browser easier to use and, more importantly, making it easier to find what you're looking for. Intuitive search features auto-scour your history and bookmarks for visited URLs and even page titles, making it easier to find "lost" pages as you type. Bookmarking is easier to do (just one click) and organization of bookmarks is also improved.

Security improvements have also been promised. Though Firefox has traditionally been less prone to malware than Internet Explorer, it's still had a succession of security patches issued, usually once a month or so. A variety of security enhancements are on tap, including better integration with antivirus software and a malware protection system.

You can see other features planned for Firefox 3 at this blog post.

While Firefox 3 Beta 1 is freely available for download, it's not recommended for general users at this time. There are still plenty of bugs in the system, some pages won't render right, and, most importantly, very few Firefox 2 add-ins work with Firefox 3 at all (not even toolbars).

Additional hands-on perspectives on the browser can be found at CNet, ZDNet, and Ars Technica. Stay tuned for additional news as Firefox 3 inches closer to launch.