Firefox 0.8 review

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Verdict:

Firefox is in beta and not without its bugs, but it looks set to become a contender for best Mac browser

Review Date: 19 Mar 2004

Price when reviewed:

Reviewed By: Craig Grannell

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Firefox is a new browser built around the same principles as Mozilla, but with a modern feel and smaller download.

First impressions are favourable, if a little reminiscent of Safari, right down to the minimalist interface and integrated Google search box. However, once you start using the browser, it feels very different.

Like any quality browser, Firefox has the basics: good standards compliance/compatibility and speed. It also has plenty of features we now take for granted, including pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing. Tabs work similarly to Safari's, but instead of a useful close button on each tab, Firefox has a single one to the right of the window. We'd also like Next/Previous Tab shortcuts displayed in a menu, because we had to trawl the web to find out what they were.

We like the Type-Ahead Find keyboard-based navigation. Essentially, you start typing the name of the link you want, and Firefox focuses it. From there, you hit Enter to activate the link or Escape to deselect it.

Firefox is in beta and not without its bugs, but it looks set to become a contender for best Mac browser.

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