Firefox 20 Fixes Private Mode and Improves Downloads

The Firefox 3.1 release back in 2008, introduced a Private Mode for browsing. In private mode, user history and cookie information is not retained after the browser is closed. Since 2008, there has been a bug listed against Private mode, that the Firefox 20 release finally fixes.

Prior to Firefox 20, Private Mode only worked by spinning up a firefoxnew browser window that replaced the non-private browser window. As such, users could not have both a private and non-private browsing session at the same time. With Firefox 20, Private Mode browser tabs can be open at the same time as regular browser tabs.

The Private Mode fix isn’t the only user experience item that Mozilla has improved in Firefox 20. There is also a new Download Manager being introduced in the open source browser. “The old, separate window for managing downloads has been replaced by a simpler downloads panel integrated in the main browser toolbar,” Asa Dotzler, Product Manager for Firefox, told Datamation. “With the new Download Manager, downloads are now a single click away, users no longer have to look to another Window to get to their downloads.”

Mozilla has also made a number of under-the-hood changes that result in improved performance for end users.

“Firefox start-up time has improved by more than 10 percent, which is significant and noticeable to users,” Dotzler said.

Read the full story at Datamation:
Mozilla Firefox 20 Improves Browser Privacy

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.

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