When I first installed the Rock Your Firefox app, I wasn't too sure what it was for. But I soon discovered its main purpose is to be a community list of Firefox add-ons, where you can share your favorite add-ons with other Facebook users. Likewise you can see which Firefox add-ons your friends are using. A social network for Firefox add-on users, basically.

A commenter on the Rock Your Firefox homepage asked how this is different from browsing the Mozilla Add-ons site. Paul Kim, marketing director at Mozilla, replied that the main difference is that the Facebook app enables you to "find recommended add-ons from your friends on Facebook who use Firefox, and in turn letting your FB friends know the add-ons you think are useful."

This has its uses, because I have to admit that I'm curious what add-ons my friends use. For example I was able to click on Jay Meattle's FB profile and see that he is using the following two Firefox add-ons:

The main problem with this app? It doesn't display your existing add-ons. It only shows add-ons you add using Rock Your Firefox. There needs to be an automatic way for the app to detect existing add-ons and add them to your profile.

Also, it must be asked: why did Mozilla decide to create this social network on Facebook and not add their own social network functionality onto the Firefox Add-ons website? The 34 Million Facebook users was certainly a factor. And in a way it demonstrates how Facebook is becoming like a 'social network add-on' for other web apps and platforms. Why re-invent the social networking wheel when you can plug into Facebook?

According to Mozilla's Justin Scott, 861 add-ons make up 95% of the total usage, while the other 5% are distributed among close to 5000 add-ons. 94% of the top add-ons are currently compatible with Firefox 3.0.

According to Mozilla's compatibility dashboard, as of today, only about 28% of the top 861 extensions are compatible with the latest builds of Firefox 3.1.

Getting to 95%

Currently, Mozilla's evangelism team is trying to reach out to all Firefox developers to make sure that everybody is ready by the time Firefox 3.1 is released. The release date for Firefox 3.1 is currently a moving target, but the second beta version should be available to the public by the end of this month, which might be followed by a third beta before the final version is released.

Some extensions, of course, are abandoned by their developers over time, so it might not be possible for Mozilla to get to the 95% mark for Firefox 3.1, but given the importance of Firefox and the extension ecosystem around it, it is good to see them reach out to developers proactively. For developers, getting ready for 3.1 should also be a priority, as Firefox users tend to update their browser very quickly after a new version is released.

For more information about the transition to Firefox 3.1 for extension developers, have a look at Mozilla's 'Add-on Compatability Center,' which will soon also feature additional tools for developers.

The moment has arrived, Mozilla has pushed the go-live button on Firefox 2. The new final 2.0 version of the browser is now available for everyone to download.

Read/WriteWeb has been actively covering the launch, most recently with a pre-launch interview with Chris Beard - Mozilla Vice President of Products. We've also reviewed the product and have additional notes on how Mozilla plans to market Firefox 2. Digg and Slashdot have additional commentary.

For a look at the competition, you may also want to check out our comparative review of Internet Explorer 7.

And the R/WW coverage doesn't stop there! We have a couple of other in-depth articles coming soon, one about Firefox add-ons and a special one on a yet-to-be-disclosed topic ;-)

(click image for full screenshot)

While Google has advertised Firefox on its homepage before, it was a co-promotion of Firefox with the Google Toolbar. This current advertisement is for Firefox alone. But what does "Optimized for Google" mean??! The Firefox 2.0 browser already comes with Google as its default search, but this advertisement implies there are more default Google services integrated into Firefox. Is it just Google Toolbar, or does it include other things?

Update 2: Some interesting reactions already in the comments. Emre Sokullu says this validates R/WW's previous GoogleOS coverage - i.e. Google is taking steps against the upcoming Vista rollout, by promoting Firefox. Also John Milan notes:

"I can't imagine how its any different than Netscape of old. They started with great internet mindshare, but never could overcome Microsoft's OS advantage."

Finally, as Emre also pointed out, it's noteworthy that Google never puts advertisements on its homepage. Leaving aside the close relationship between the two organizations, this definitely counts as an advertisement...

A number of analysts expect Firefox to capture a 20% market share this month and if the downloads for Firefox 3 are any indication, Mozilla might indeed be getting close to this. Here on ReadWriteWeb, more than 50% of our readers already use Firefox.

While quite a few extensions didn't yet work with Firefox 3 when it was released, most developers have made their plugins compatible with Firefox by now.

Microsoft is expected to release the next beta of its Internet Explorer by August 2008, though the time for the final release isn't quite clear yet. Last month, Opera also upgraded its browser to version 9.5, which garnered a number of favorable reviews.

Do we all have our personal blind spots when it comes to security?

More Noise to Signal

My first impression of Firefox 3 Beta was, "This doesn't seem very different." After playing with a while, though, I started to notice a few changes -- mainly for the better. First on that list, Firefox 3 is fast. The release notes cite "major architectural changes" that have increased speed, and promise things will only get faster with each beta.

Pages definitely loaded much faster in 3.01b than they do in the current non-beta release of Firefox (2.0.0.9), to the point where I was actually surprised when some often slow-loading pages jumped right up. For me, the improved speed is probably the most noticeable change while using Firefox 3 for regular web browsing, and is certainly a welcome one. Other changes that caught my eye include the rewritten download manager that lets you resume downloads (hooray!), integration with anti-virus software and built in malware detection, the ability to save tabs when restarting the browser (no need to force quit to do that anymore), single click bookmarking, and a simplified password manager.

In the end, I've switched back to Firefox 2.0.0.9 because none of the plugins I use on a regular basis work yet in Firefox 3. Eventually, though, the faster page loading and file download resuming will make the switch worthwhile. Here's hoping they fix those memory issues while they're at it. There is much more on Firefox 3 Beta on Techmeme.

Firefox is safe, standards compliant, extensible...and not made by Microsoft. That's what most people like about it and the number of fans is growing. Can you guess what percentage of ReadWriteWeb visitors came here using Firefox last month?

We know that because 27% of our fabulously sophisticated readers came here using IE last month. That makes it the second most popular browser among our readers after Firefox at 55%. Our readers came in on 188 different browsers in October.

Innovation in browsers is continuing fast and furious. Just today "private browsing" was added to an official Firefox build and that's sure to be appealing to mainstream users and early adopters.

Congratulations are due to the Mozilla team and community. A web filled with Firefox users is a better web for us all.

Compared to Safari and Google Chrome, Firefox's JavaScript engine (TraceMonkey) is still a bit slower, though in day-to-day use, most users aren't likely to notice any real differences.

Obviously, this is a beta product and you will inevitably run into some problems (here is a list of known issues), but in our own tests with Windows 7 and on OSX, beta 4 felt very fast and, maybe more importantly, extremely stable. You should, however, be aware that a lot of plugins and extensions like Greasemonkey will not work in beta 4 yet, though usually it only takes a few days before developers update their programs.

Net Applications has been tracking the uptake of Firefox 3 since yesterday morning, and it is now at around 4.5% -- not bad for its first 24 hours. Firefox on the whole is closing in on 20% market share and is higher among tech savvy crowds (over 50% on this blog, for example). That 4.5% of Firefox web browser users are already using version 3 indicates that about 25% of its user base has upgraded overnight -- that's very impressive.

If you're still on the fence about upgrading, check out the pair of great overviews of FF3 from Lifehacker here and here.

Are you using Firefox 3? Do you plan to upgrade? Let us know in the comments and vote in our poll below.

Despite what that error message says, it's not really the network connection that has been interrupted - they've been overloaded.

So, if you're just dying to get your hands on a new browser today, may I suggest a couple of alternatives instead?

• Flock 2.0 is now out and it's built on Firefox 3's code base.

• Opera 9.5 is new, too, and pretty slick.

UPDATE #1: getfirefox.com is pointing to Firefox 2 again. The Download Day page is displaying this:

UPDATE #2: Bwana McCall has posted direct download links. Here they are:

• Mac OS X

• Linux

• Windows

UPDATE #3: You can track the number of downloads Firefox 3 has had on Wakoopa's site here.]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/get_firefoxif_you_can.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/get_firefoxif_you_can.php Products Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:31:18 -0800 Sarah Perez Mozilla has been announcing Release Candidates for Firefox 3 consistently for the past month. In fact, Firefox 3 RC 3 was just released earlier today. One could guess that the time for an official release was right around the corner, but we wouldn't have guessed it'd be this soon. Only hours after RC3, and after 34 months of development, the company has announced that Firefox 3 will be officially released next Tuesday, June 17th.

If you haven't given any of the Firefox 3 RC's a shot, I can personally tell you that it's fast! Stability and performance has been consistently better than Firefox 2 with each RC. Memory usage has been down significantly over long periods of time compared to Firefox 2 where memory continued to rise with prolonged use. Features and fixes for Firefox 3 include:

• Updated address bar with integrated bookmarking functionality
• Standard themes that are consistent with the native UI of your Operating System (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Revamped bookmark manager
• New Icons
• One-click site information
• Secure add-on updates
• Vista Parental Controls
• Revamped password management
• Full page zoom
• Scrolling Tabs
• One-click bookmarking
• Tags for bookmarks
• tons more!

Memory Usage Still a Problem

While the memory issue has improved compared to Firefox 2, browsers such as Opera and Safari are handling sites that are loaded with AJAX, videos, music, and other heavy hitters much better than Firefox 3. Josh Catone noted the following when reviewing Firefox 3 RC1:

"Unfortunately, one issue that still exists in Firefox is memory leaks. According to the release notes, developers plugged "over 300 individual memory leaks," but still after just a few minutes of browsing with just 8 or so tabs open, Firefox was using over 150mb of RAM -- and I often have 20 or 30 tabs open while writing and researching stories. Duncan Riley at TechCrunch noticed the same thing."

...and we're still noticing it. With that old ghost still plaguing the browser, does Firefox 3 have what it takes to set a world record in a single day?

One quarter of those surveyed who reverted back to Firefox 2 cited privacy as their biggest issue with Firefox 3. In an effort to curb privacy fears, Firefox 3.5 allows for private browsing, the ability to clear a portion of the history and website blocking to stop certain websites from appearing in browser history.

If Mozilla's little location bar raised this much attention, imagine the barriers facing shared browsing services and history trackers. Skabble, Hooeey and Me.dium (Now OneRiot) must have faced enormous scrutiny around user privacy. It's interesting to see privacy become an issue with browsing habits while in other areas we allow so much of our private lives to trickle into the ether.

It's a browser plug-in that lets you quickly apply different skins to your browser's chrome. You can also set your skin to change automatically with incoming designs on a JSON feed. The aim is to make new skins easy to build, and easy to try out without downloads and relaunching. They don't change any of the buttons in the browser like real Firefox Themes do. It's a good idea, but unfortunately most of the "personas" at launch are ugly as sin.

It would be nice if users were able to upload their own background image. The term "Personas" seems a bit overstated given what's actually being possible. As a proof of concept though, this one's worth a few minutes to check out.

On the next version of Firefox

John Lilly: Firefox 3 is the killer browser. And I think I’ve been using the Beta since Beta 1 and Beta 2 is even better. Even in the Beta, we’ve surpassed the quality of Firefox 2. So I already encouraged my mom and my grandmother to update their Firefox 3 Beta 2. I thinks it’s a killer product. It holds up in a lot of new areas.

On Data Portability

Sean Ammirati: The Weave project is interesting. And it’s something that we’ve covered a lot at Read/Write Web or a couple of times at least. How does that relate in your mind to the DataPortability.org stuff?

John Lilly: Oh yes, that’s a good question. Yes we’ve talked about that this week. So I suspect that we’ll start to participate in DataPortability.org.They’ve got to start doing something sooner or later. So like doing the actual work there is going to be the key. Of course OAUTH and that kind of stuff we’ve starting to experiments with. That stuff will be very important for Weave. So I suspect we will start to participate in dataportability.org, but we haven’t yet.

Listen to their conversation, read the transcript and find relevant links at tonight's installation of ReadWriteTalk.