Firefox 2.0 Beta released

Firefox 2 hasn't changed much, interface-wise, from the original. Existing users will be instantly familiar with the standard button bar, links bar, and the row of tabs. In fact, most of the new features in Firefox 2 can be emulated in its older 1.5 version using several add-ons and extensions. Under the hood, however, there have been numerous bug-fixes and improvements, in addition to some new features.

One of the new features is a built-in antiphishing filter, which automatically checks sites against a locally-stored blacklist of known phishers, although an option to "ask Google" to check is also available. The ability to use remote antiphishing sites other than Google is planned but not currently implemented (the dropdown selection list is greyed out).

Another very neat feature is an integrated spelling checker for web-based text input forms. This is a boon for anyone who posts on a lot of blogs or forums. There have been other add-ins that checks spelling in browser forms, such as IESpell for Internet Explorer and GNU ASpell (which works very smoothly with Opera) but these require user intervention to start the spell check for each field. Firefox 2's checker automatically highlights misspelled words with a dotted red line.

eWEEK.com tested the Beta 1 of the Firefox 2.0 and the test showed that the beta catches up a bit with capabilities found in other Web browsers and adds some nice security enhancements.

However, while Firefox 2.0 is shaping up to be a good upgrade to Version 1.5 of the popular Web browser, it doesn't look like it'll be technologically superior to Internet Explorer 7, the way its previous version 1.5 was superior than Internet Explorer 6. For that matter, unless Firefox 2.0 and IE 7 improve greatly before their respective releases later in 2006, neither will come close to topping the quality of the already shipping Opera 9.

Firefox still has a ways to go in its quest to convert the sprawling masses of IE users, but the latest market share figures show it making good headway. According to Web statistics firm OneStat.com, Firefox's global usage share has reached 12.93 percent -- up 1.14 percentage points from May 2006. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer's total global usage share has fallen to 83.05 percent, down 2.12 points from May. But are these users enough to fend off the inevitable counterattack when the final version of Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista finally arrive at market?

Ahmed Ashiful Haque