Mozilla has released the latest update to its popular browser,
Firefox 8, and an update for Android, that gives users Twitter as a search option, the ability to load tabs on demand and more protection from add-ons that could cause trouble.
On its
official blog, Mozilla gives Firefox loyalists the lay of the land about their update, which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Some of you who were tempted enough to try Firefox 8 before its official release, clogging up Mozilla's FTP servers, got a sneak peek at its highlights, which we also shared with you Monday.
But here they are again, with some more details provided in Tuesday's blog post:
• Twitter search in Firefox makes it easier to discover new topics, #hashtags and @usernames. Twitter search is currently available in English, Portuguese, Slovenian and Japanese versions of Firefox, with more languages to come in future releases.
• Firefox lets you load tabs on demand, making it much faster to restore windows with many tabs. Enable this option in the Firefox Menu, under Options/Preferences, in the General tab.
• Disabling add-ons installed by third parties without your permission and letting you pick the ones you want to keep.
Mozilla also released an update to Firefox for Android with some new features, including Firefox Master Password, which allows users to protect saved usernames and passwords — even if you share or lose your device.
Android users can now also "add icons for any bookmarked website or Web app to the home screen and launch with just one touch," in order to add better ease to HTML5-based Web apps.
We're curious to see how many downloads this update will have by Wednesday, since the last big release, Firefox 4, in the spring, saw 7 million downloads (vs. 2 million for the update to the No. 1 Web browser, Internet Explorer 9, when it was released last spring as well).
