Firefox 2.0 is finally here. The real deal. Accept no substitutes. Here are some of the much-anticipated features:
* “Visual Refresh:” That means they made it purdier.
* Built-in Phishing protection: Warns against suspected forged Web pages. “You mean my bank doesn’t really want me to re-enter the names and passwords for all of my accounts and the SS#s of my entire family?”
* Enhanced search capabilities: The integrated search box on the browser will offer search term auto-completion as you type. So, for example, if someone is using your browser and starts to type in “butternut squash,” they’ll get a suggestion of “bubblebutt babes.” And you can’t imagine HOW That got in there!
* Improved tabbed browsing: Improved as in, Firefox will force people to see the brilliance of tabs over new windows by creating tabs by default, a tyranny we wholeheartedly endorse.
* Resuming your browsing session: We’ve been using, and loving, the SessionSaver Plug-in. This works like that, saving and restoring windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and even in-progress downloads from the last user session.
* Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds: Users can decide how to handle Web RSS feeds, either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a standalone reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.
*Inline spell checking: So now there’s no excuse, even if you have the grammatical prowess of Dan Quayle.
* Live Titles: Allows microsummaries of Web contents to appear as a sort of live bookmark with regularly updates. This will surely become another way of aggregating dynamic content.
*Improved Add-ons manager: Tweaks and improvements to the user interface for managing themes and extensions.
* Extended search plugin format: Search engine format now supports plugins written in Sherlock and OpenSearch and allows search engines to provide term suggestions. So “Bubblebutt Babes” can show up as a search suggestion in ALL of your search engine plugins. Not that this has *ever* happened to us. We’re just sayin’…
See the full feature list here.
Oh, and we think we forgot to mention last week that Internet Explorer 7 is out too. It has… ah who cares?
