Firefox 13 provides features that users of other browser platforms have seen for years. Most notably in the new Mozilla release there is a New Tab page. Instead of starting with a blank page for a tab, Mozilla is now copying functionality present in Opera, Chrome and Safari.
All those browsers have features that provide a new tab page that highlights the most frequently access pages. In Safari, the feature is called ‘cover flow’ and it’s a feature that Apple has provided its users with since at least 2007. Firefox 13 now does the same and enables users to customize the new page as well, following Apple’s lead five years after the fact.
Mozilla is also following Google’s Chrome browser. Google debuted its SPDY web protocol acceleration technology in 2009. Mozilla has been toying with SPDY support since the beginning of the year with the Firefox 11 release. With Firefox 13, SPDY is now on by default, whereas previously it was an option. SPDY has gained broader adoption in the past year and could potentially become a W3C standard in the coming years.
From a security perspective, Mozilla is also following Google’s lead as well.
As part of the Firefox 13 release, Mozilla has issued seven security advisories, four of which are rated as critical. Two separate critical advisories, dealing with at least four security issues, were reported to Mozilla by researchers using Google security tools.
Read the full story at Datamation:
Mozilla Resets Firefox 13
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
