14 DAY TRIAL // Firefox 4 Beta 1 is here to give us a taste of things to come. Don’t get too excited about it, it is still a very early release and the final builds are not expected for quite some time to come. But if you’re even the least bit curious about what the Mozilla team has been up to, whether you’re a regular Firefox user or not, you shouldn’t miss this release.
There’s another reason why you’d want to jump on board so early, you can help Mozilla build you the perfect browser with the direct feedback features built into the browser.
“[I]ncluded with the beta is a Feedback Add-on. This puts a big Feedback button on the right hand side of the browser that lets you give quick and easy feedback about something you like or something you don’t. We’ll be reviewing this feedback through the beta process, so please leave comments,” Mozilla’s Christopher Blizzard explained.
“The Add-On also uses Test Pilot to figure out how people use the browser – menus, how people use passwords, etc. But through this beta process we’ll also be using it to measure things like platform performance and other interesting data we need to build a great browser,” he added.
The Feedback Add-on, based on the Test Pilot technology developed by Mozilla Labs was announced last week. It serves a couple of main purposes. The obvious first one, it’s in the name after all, is to provide users with simple ways of sending feedback to Mozilla. With the two simple options, “Firefox made me happy because” and “Firefox made me sad because” users can have their say on the things they like or don’t like about the new Firefox 4.
At this stage of development, direct user feedback is crucial and the more the better. Part of the reason why Mozilla wanted a beta out so soon was to get as much feedback from the community as possible. Firefox 4 is still a long way out and Mozilla plans to release a new beta every few weeks for some time to come.
The Feedback Add-on also serves as a platform to perform Test Pilot studies which focus on how the users interact with the browser. This provides valuable data to the user experience development team and it enables them to see first hand what works and what doesn’t. There are no studies for now, but when they are made available, Firefox 4 Beta users will be given the choice to take part. This is completely optional and the data is anonymized.
If you want to take part in the creation of Firefox 4 and help out the developers,
Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Windows is available for download here. Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Linux is available for download here. Firefox 4 Beta for Mac is available for download here.