Firefox 8 Hands-On

Rather then just reading and rephrasing what TechCrunch, CNET, and other reputable tech blogs wrote about the new Firefox 8, I prefer to do some testing myself. Forget about those complicated benchmarking, I'll show those significant changes in Firefox 8 that will affect the way you surf the net.

Those who favour Twitter are in luck, as Firefox finally integrate Twitter search feature into their search bar. It allows direct access to Twitter search in your Twitter account, making it easier for you to search for any specific tweets by using keywords. To enable Twitter search, click on the icon at the left side of your search bar, a list of search engines will appear. Just click on the blue Twitter icon and now you have Twitter search set as your default search engine.

The second updated feature is the improved add-on management. Remember those days when you got annoyed by those toolbars such as "Ask Toolbar", "Babylon Toolbar", etc. that appear in Firefox browser without your permission right after you install a software? Those things happen mostly because you forgot to deselect the toolbar installation option while you are installing the software. The toolbars are not just annoying and distracting, they are often the main reason why your web browser turn sluggish during startup and loading. With Firefox 8, we have the solution for this issue. From now on, all toolbars and applications that you accidentally install will not appear on your browser, not till you allow them. Firefox 8 automatically disable all the extensions /add-on that you added by default, and they will remain disabled until you give them the permission to run alongside with your Firefox.

Overall, there are not much new features being introduced, but from the usual web browsing task that I've done, the performance of this new Firefox has improved significantly. The launching time of the browser has reduced, and the occasionally freezing issue during the browser launch has also been solved. Opening new tabs are speedy, with no lag and crash. Besides that, page loading is smooth and rapid.

There's generally no complaint about this new Firefox, though no radical changes are detected. Let's just hope that Firefox won't let us down this time like it did in its previous release.