Just because a close contender is running ahead in version number, Mozilla released Firefox 5 which doesn’t deserve to be called as Major release. Or maybe because they are lagging behind in number, Firefox feels itself as old. Honestly, Firefox 5 doesn’t have any notable features and it is as good as Firefox 4 except for few.
On first run, Firefox 5 interface looks similar to it predecessor but includes number of bug fixes underneath solving many security issues. Along with that, it has few new features worth mentioning about.
What’s new in Firefox 5
- Do not Track me button
- Pin as App Tab
- Tightened WebGL Security
- Support for CSS animation
- Improved standard of HTML5 compaliance
I do not want to be Tracked
You can Tell Website that you don’t want to be tracked by them. This feature is accessible under Privacy option and can be enable with one check mark. By activating, you are telling not to follow your browsing habit and hence no behavioral targeted ads.
It is similar to Do not Disturb Service by Telecom company which depends upon fair play by advertisers. If Advertisers do not respect this, you have no option left.
Pin as App Tab
This is wonderful feature which I used to have using addon. It lets you turn any open tab into App tab which then reduces to just favicon taking less space. Services which you like to keep always open like Gmail, Facebook can be turned to app tab.
Right click on any open tab and select “Pin as App Tab” to activate.
CSS Animation Support
CSS Animation means you will see moving objects or images made using CSS3. Though supported but it is incomplete. When I checked a Matrix animation, I saw no movement on Firefox which worked fine on Chrome.
Don’t know whether it is just one exception because rest of my tests were successful and Firefox did show animations.
HTML5 Compliance
Though it is said to be improved, Firefox 5 has just scored 240 points out of 400 in HTML5Test whereas Chrome has 328 / 400. Well, that doesn’t really matter to general end user as not may HTML5 compliant Websites or Web Apps we come across.
Firefox 5 Verdict
Firefox 5 is no wonder a great browser but calling it a major release wouldn’t be right. It’s simple- If you liked Firefox 4 then you’ll like Firefox 5 apart from facing Addon incompatibility issues. But you can stillenable old incompatible addons on Firefox 5. I admire the team Firefox but there is certainly no point in releasing complete new version which can kill excitement.