Mozilla has released Firefox 64 for desktop, giving its users access to better tab organization and a contextual feature recommender (CFR), among other things. The changes make it easier for users to organize the dozens of browser tabs they may have open, as well as discovering Firefox features and add-ons that they may be otherwise unaware of.
They call it the holidays but for some people, those days are even more nerve-wracking than regular days. From the travel accommodations that have to be made to the presents that have to be bought, people are flooded with more information than they would normally get during any other day. And since most of that information is coming from the Web, Mozilla is trying out some new tricks to let Firefox help rather than add to the problem, like keeping track of prices for you or helping you email links to yourself.
They may sound delicious but like their sugary and carb-filled real-world counterparts, browser cookies can be bad for your digital wellbeing. Especially when said cookies come from third-party sites that want to track your every move, even when you ’ve moved away from that site. These tracking cookies leave crumbs that vendors and even hackers can follow to potentially violate your privacy or even influence your mind. Firefox version 63 will finally put a stop to that but only if you tell it to.
Among the major web browser makers, Firefox is still hailed as the most open and most privacy-respecting option around, despite a few hiccups in its history and some problems with performance. Its parent organization, Mozilla, however, doesn’t have the same near limit-less resources as, say, Google or Microsoft or Apple. The not-for-profit organization is always looking for ways to stay afloat, not all of them successful or warmly received. Its latest attempt doesn’t involve ads, fortunately, but does involve users forking a bit of money if they want.
This week a new Google Search easter egg was discovered in the wild, complete with a whole bunch of adventurous paths one might take. To play Google's most recently-discovered in-product game, one must drop in on the English-language interface for Google Search. To find the game, on a desktop computer, in Google Search, search for the terms "text game" or "text adventure."
Everyone should be concerned about keeping their various online identities secure, and today, Firefox made that a little bit easier. Working alongside Have I Been Pwned, today Mozilla launched Firefox Monitor. You can use this to see if your email address has been involved in any security breaches, so in that regard, Firefox Monitor mirrors the functionality of Have I Been Pwned pretty closely.
Virtual reality is all about immersing yourself in a made-up world that looks (in theory) like you’re really in it. The last thing you need is a flat floating rectangle that shatters that illusion. That said, if you ever need to access the Web, that’s exactly the only way. Mozilla, however, says it doesn’t have to be a painful and disconcerting experience. With Firefox Reality now in its version 1.0 stable release, one of the world’s biggest web browsers is taking a step towards blending the 2D web and the immersive web.
For years now, Microsoft has been fighting what really feels like a losing battle against Google and Mozilla, two big players in the internet browser space. Though Microsoft Edge replaced the oft-disparaged Internet Explorer in Windows 10 - and, in fairness, makes its share of improvements - a lot of people out there still prefer to stick with Chrome or Firefox. How do you get those people to give Edge a chance? It's clear Microsoft doesn't know, because it's resorted to using annoying pop-up warnings when users try to install another browser.
Mozilla has always presented Firefox as the champion of open source and privacy on the Web, at least in contrast to the likes of Google Chrome. That doesn’t mean it hadn’t had a few missteps along the way, like its controversial “Sponsored Tiles”. It’s walking on thin ice again with its new “Firefox Advance” Test Pilot experiment that uses a smidgen of machine learning to recommend sites related to what you’ve been browsing. Fortunately, it is, at least for now, still an experiment you don’t even have to use.
Firefox is the latest browser to address autoplaying videos with sound, one of the most annoying parts of visiting certain websites. Chrome already makes it possible to block these autoplaying, noisy videos, and now Firefox will do the same. The feature has arrived in the latest Firefox Nightly build and it'll soon be available to all users.
Mozilla’s Firefox browser may have had a successful run on the desktop but it hasn’t been smooth-sailing when it came to mobile. That’s especially true for iOS where it was only recently that it was able to actually have an actual web browser for iPhones and iPads. In the meantime, it has seemingly fallen by the wayside compared to Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. With its Test Pilot experiments, Mozilla aims to bring some of its desktop features and technologies to smartphones, like passwords on iOS and notes on Android.
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, is working on a new Web browser called Scout. Unlike its current bowser, Scout will be created with accessibility in mind, enabling users to access content using voice commands. The company describes Scout as an exploration at this point, having revealed it at an event today.