Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 has been released and it introduces several new features and improvements to already existing ones. The buzz feature of Firefox 3.1 will definitely be tab previews which opens up a small overlay whenever the user presses CTRL TAB. It looks similar to Windows Vista’s Alt Tab behavior by displaying the tabs as visual thumbnails that the user can flip through.
Three tab thumbnails are shown by default but the value can be changed in the about:config settings by changing the parameter browser.ctrlTab.previewsCount. Users who prefer the old way and do not need or like this new tab thumbnails preview feature can turn it off completely by setting the parameter browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed to false.
Firefox 3.1 also introduces several changes to the Firefox location bar. Users will finally be able to define the Firefox 3 auto complete feature. The first noticeable change is the addition of five characters that, when entered in the location bar, will restrict the search. The characters can be entered anywhere in the location bar.
(via Mozillalinks)
- History = ^
- Bookmarks = *
- Tags = +
- Titles only = #
- Addresses only = @
That’s however confusing and a feature that only a few Firefox users will really take advantage of. The default characters can be changed in about:config as well.
Far more interesting is the possibility to change the default search, that is the search when no special char is entered. The special chars can be changed which includes their removal. Now if you want that the normal search is only searching your History then you would simply remove the ^ char in the about:config settings of the History parameter. Here are the five parameters:
- browser.urlbar.restrict.history
- browser.urlbar.restrict.bookmark
- browser.urlbar.restrict.tag
- browser.urlbar.match.title
- browser.urlbar.match.url
Removing the special char will apply the restriction by default which will help all the users who complain about the Firefox 3 location bar.
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Pooh! There are not enough thing to require an update. The Ctrl+Tab feature can be got in Fx3 by use of an extension.
The stupid preview feature is completely superfluous and a waste of system resources. Thankfully it can be disabled, but I don’t think it should be included in the core browser functionality, when it’s clearly an aesthetic addition available through extensions.
I was trilled to use Firefox 3, but that enthusiasm decreased fast when I noticed that FF3 is a lot slower than FF2 and Opera. I really have to wait a looong time before I can access the functions from the browser while if I start opera it works completely within max 6 second.
I hate to say it but the Firefox 3 startup time sucks big time in comparison with FF 2 and Opera. And that is ugly when a Firefox fan comes to that conclusion.
I’m agree with Steven about preview. It is eye-candy, but useless for serious user.
And I’m not impressed about search additions too (though they can be useful for somebody).
I noticed a big improvement in every respect moving from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3, any and all improvements are welcome.