14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has launched Firefox 6, the latest update to the popular web browser. While a pre-release build of Firefox 6 was made available last week, the real, official Firefox 6 has just now been released. Coming six weeks after Firefox 5, the latest update brings several new features, better performance and fixed bugs, but don't expect anything groundbreaking.
Web developers are in for a treat with Firefox 6, as the browser debuts several tools and features aimed squarely at them.
"The new 'Web Developer' menu in Firefox provides easy access to tools that help developers build and debug websites directly in the browser," Mozilla writes.
"Developers will enjoy the new Scratchpad tool, which makes it simple to quickly enter, execute, test and refine JavaScript snippets in Firefox without needing to work in a one-line console," it adds.
"The Web Console is improved with an auto-complete feature and the ability to customize the console’s location to save developers time," Mozilla said providing a run-down of developer-oriented updates.
One change that regular users will notice, is the redesigned site identity block. The UI element, which highlights whether your connecting to a website via an encrypted connection, is now bigger and easier to spot.
The domain of a website is now highlighted making it easier to distinguish in a long URL.
If you're a Panorama user, you'll be glad to know that Firefox 6 now starts up faster, since it only loads Panorama groups that are active and selected.
Under the hood, Firefox 6 re-introduces support for the Websockets protocol which was removed earlier due to some inherent security issues. The protocol has been redesigned and major browsers are supporting it again.
Web developers should also note that Firefox 6 supports the <progress> element, which, as the name implies, provides a visual way of tracking file uploads, data processing, and any other action that is 'in progress.' Firefox for Windows is available for download here. Firefox for Linux is available for download here. Firefox for Mac is available for download here.