Earlier this year, Mozilla formally retired its Test Pilot program and graduated some of those tests into features for the Firefox browser. At that time, it seemed that Mozilla had learned all that it could from the program. Surprisingly, the nonprofit organization has suddenly come out with a new test pilot that ties into Mozilla's thrust in protecting users' privacy.
Mozilla previously put third-party and cross-site tracking on notice and now it is finally flipping the switch. Starting with today's release, Firefox will have its Enhanced Tracking Protection turned on by default. Additionally, it will also be blocking cryptominers by default so that hackers won't be able to make money off your CPU cycles and battery life. Ironically, it won't yet do the same for sites that try to track your computer based on certain "fingerprints".
Firefox is one of the biggest and most popular web browsers around, second or equal to Google Chrome and, for Apple users, Safari. What few people probably know is that the Mozilla Foundation that owns and develops the browsers, among other things, is a non-profit organization that doesn't profit from the massive use of Firefox. As such, it has always been looking for revenue sources, some of which ended up in failure. Its latest attempt will probably be just as controversial, practically asking users how much they will be willing to pay for an ad-free Internet experience and a bit more.
Despite still being one of the big names in the web browser market, Firefox has been struggling to increase its share on mobile, especially on Android. Part of that is Google’s strategy of having Chrome installed on every certified device, a strategy that has been legally questioned in Europe. The other part of that is the perceived stagnation of the mobile app and its slower performance, which Mozilla is addressing by eventually gutting out Firefox for Android and replacing it with Fenix, available now as Firefox Preview on Android.
Given how regularly browser makers like Google and Mozilla release new versions of their software, a sudden new release is almost surprising. Firefox 67.0.3, however, is no simple minor release. Users are urged to make sure they're running this latest version of the browser because while it seems to fix just one thing, it is a critical security fix that could cause users headaches or maybe even lost cryptocurrencies.
Browser makers are going on a cookie diet. After years of allowing site owners to abuse cookies, the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are finally putting their foot down and saying "no". The latter has actually rolled out its "Enhanced Tracking Protection" feature quite a while ago but it will now turn it on by default for all users. Mozilla didn't stop there, though, and is pushing out more privacy-related features for other apps in its Firefox ecosystem.
Web browsers have become bigger than ever in more ways than one. Yes, they have become practically central to the way we use computers but they've also become more complex as they gain new features. Web pages, too, have become more complex and browsers have to adjust to support them. Complexity always has a cost, however, and most of that cost is in performance. With the latest version 67 release of the Firefox browser, Mozilla is promising a faster experience not by trimming off the fat but by "procrastinating on purpose".
What should have probably been an uneventful weekend, or a weekend spent watching Avengers: Endgame, turned out to be a mini-nightmare for the folks at Mozilla. The developers of the Firefox web browser spent the past two days feverishly working to re-enable users' add-ons that suddenly became unusable on Friday night. All because Mozilla forgot that a critical security certificate would be expiring that day and wasn't able to renew it in time.
Web browsers have long offered the convenience of remembering the passwords you need to access websites and syncing them across all devices that the browser is available on. The problem, however, is when you need to log into mobile apps for the services whose passwords you have already stored on your browser. You could opt to migrate to a dedicated password manager or you could, instead, install Mozilla's Firefox Lockbox, its once experimental password manager that is now available for Android users.
Mozilla has revealed a new version of Firefox for iOS that enables iPad owners to better control their browsing experience. The new version brings support for a number of features, including split screen, and improves convenience in other areas, such as offering one-click access to Private Browsing mode. As part of its announcement, Mozilla acknowledged that "iPads aren't just bigger versions of iPhones."
Although it's no longer a Wild, Wild West, World Wide Web is still far from being a peaceful territory. There is no shortage of players who'd do everything to make an easy buck or even legit actors that impose their will on users, even if it means ruining the latter's experience. From autoplaying videos that can scare the daylights out of you to late-loading ads that throw you off your reading groove, the latest Firefox release reins these misbehaving elements in to ensure a pleasurable Web experience for users.
Mozilla has its own free online file-sharing service and it is now available to everyone. Called Firefox Send, the platform originally launched in 2017 as an experimental service under Firefox Test Pilot. Though the latter no longer exists, Firefox Send has blossomed into an end-to-end encrypted file transfer service enabling anyone to send files up to 2.5GB in size.