Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.5 to Combat IE8

Firefox seems to always be striving to keep up with their big rival, Internet Explorer. With the release of Internet Explorer 8 just 3 weeks ago, Mozilla returned with an updated version of their current browser, now called Firefox 3.5.

The Mozilla Web browser is second most popular in the world, even though Firefox has the market share of about half that of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox 3.5 has adopted a lot of the same features as Internet Explorer is so well known for. A new tab feature allowing you to manage your tabs easier than Firefox 3. Also like Internet Explorer, Firefox 3.5 offers a Private Browsing feature allowing you to conceal all history, cookie, search information, etc. for a particular site like your were never there. You can also manage your history much easier on the new Firefox by offering easy to use select history erase. Probably the most talked about improvement of Firefox 3.5 is its speed. Because Mozilla created a new JavaScript engine, they claim it has improved Firefox’s speed times three from Firefox 3 and times ten from Firefox 2.

Being available for Windows, Mac, and Linux gives Firefox a leg up on Internet Explorer (which is not available for Mac users). The new Safari 4 claimed 11 million downloads after just three days. Today, Firefox 3.5 hit 4.3 million downloads and still rising. That might seem like a huge number but Firefox has seen much bigger before. When Mozilla launched Firefox 3, it received 8 million downloads in the first 24 hours setting a world record.

Mozilla has done a great job at keeping up with its competition, but the new Firefox 3.5 isn’t much different from Firefox 3. Speed, privacy, and tabs are really the only new features worth talking about. Only time will tell if this new version is as great as Mozilla claims.

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