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By the way, here is a list of all changes in Firefox 3.0 from the developer:

Enhanced Security

* One-click site information: click on the site icon in the address bar to see information about the site owner and check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. The authentication check is very visual and easy to understand. If a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site icon button turns green and displays the name of the company you are connected to. (Try it here!)
* Protection against malicious software: this protection warns users when visiting sites known as distributors of viruses, spyware, Trojans, and other malware. (Try it here!)
* New phishing site protection page: content from pages suspected of spoofing other sites is no longer displayed. (Try it here!)
* New SSL connection error warnings: when Firefox encounters an incorrect SSL certificate, more informative pages with precise descriptions of the errors are shown. (Try it here!)
* Add-on and plugin version checking: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and disables outdated, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to increase security, add-ons that do not provide secure updates will be disabled.
* Antivirus integration: when downloading executable files, Firefox informs the antivirus software.
* Parental control in Vista: Firefox now adheres to system-wide Vista parental control settings for prohibiting file downloads.
* The effective Top Level Domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other same-site information within a single domain.
* Improved protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.

Ease of Use

* Simpler password management: the previously used password save dialog has been replaced by an information panel. Passwords can now be saved after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: removing the "whitelist" allows extensions from third-party sites to be installed with fewer actions.
* New download manager: the redesigned download manager makes it easier to find downloaded files, as well as allowing you to see the name of the site the file was downloaded from and search by it. While downloading files, your active downloads and time remaining are always displayed in the status bar.
* Resuming downloads: users can now resume interrupted downloads after restarting the browser or reconnecting to the network.
* Full page zooming: performed via the "View" menu or using keyboard shortcuts. The new zoom feature allows you to increase or decrease the entire page, changing the scale of text and images, or if preferred, only the text size. Your settings will be remembered and applied whenever you return to that site.
* Podcasts and Videocasts can be opened using programs you have selected for playback.
* Tab scrolling and quick menu: searching through tabs is simplified with new tab scrolling and a tab quick menu.
* Saving your work results: Firefox now offers users the option to save tabs upon exit.
* Optimization of "Open in Tabs" behavior: when opening a bookmarks folder in tabs, bookmarks now open in new tabs rather than existing ones.
* The size of the address and search bars can be easily changed with a simple mouse movement.
* Advanced text selection: multiple text selections can be made using Ctrl/Cmd buttons; double-click and drag selects in "word by word" mode; triple-click selects a paragraph.
* Search bar: when a word is pre-selected, it appears in the opened search bar.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-ons Manager window.
* Windows integration: Firefox icons in Windows have been improved. Firefox now uses the native operating system interface within the browser and web forms.
* Mac integration: with the new Firefox theme, toolbars, icons, and other UI elements look just like those in a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications about completed downloads and available updates. Combined forward and back buttons make navigating between web pages easier.
* Linux integration: Firefox by default uses the current GTK theme styles for icons, buttons, and menus.

Ease of Customization

* Star button: quickly adds bookmarks from the address bar with one click; a second click allows placing bookmarks in the desired folder and adding tags.
* Tags: you can assign keywords to bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* Smart address bar: type a title, tag, or page address fully or partially and you will see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; the new display method makes it easier to view matching results and find the desired page. Results are displayed according to a combination of frequency and recency of visits to each page, ensuring that you see the most relevant matches. The adaptive learning algorithm further adapts to your queries!
* Collected information: browse, organize, and search your bookmarks, tags, and history using the new "Library" window. You can create and restore full backups of this data at any time with a few clicks.
* "Smart" bookmark folders: you can quickly open most frequently visited bookmarks from the bookmarks toolbar and recently added bookmarks and tagged pages from the bookmarks menu. You can also create your own smart bookmark folders by saving a search query in the "Library" window.
* Web protocol handlers: now, instead of desktop applications, web applications such as your favorite webmail provider can be used to handle mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (the web application must first be registered as a handler in Firefox).
* Downloading and installing add-ons: the add-on manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install thousands of add-ons available on the add-ons website, developed by the community and customizing Firefox to your liking. Upon first opening the add-on manager, a list of recommended add-ons is displayed.
* Convenient action selection during downloads: the new "Applications" settings panel provides an improved interface for configuring the handling of various file types and protocols.

Improvements in the Developer Platform

* Improved graphics and font rendering: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provide improved CSS and SVG processing, as well as excellent rendering of fonts with ligatures and complex fonts.
* Color management: (set the gfx.color_management.enabled parameter in about:config to true and restart the browser.) Firefox can now adjust image display according to their embedded color profiles.
* Offline mode support: allows web applications to work offline (for this feature to be available to users, website authors must add support for offline viewing of their site).
* A more complete overview of what's new in Firefox 3 is available for website developers and add-on authors.

Performance Increases

* Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profiling optimization have led to positive shifts in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications such as Google Mail and Zoho Office launch twice as fast in Firefox 3, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows significant performance improvements over previous versions.
* Memory usage: several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used while running Firefox 3. Memory cycles are interrupted and collected by an automatic cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of memory leaks have been eliminated, and caching strategies have been optimized.
* Reliability: bookmarks, history, cookies, and user settings are now stored in a transactionally safe database format, which prevents data loss even during an operating system crash.

Everyone can decide for themselves if these changes are serious =) But finding out how many times a particular site has been visited is cool :)

P.S. By the way, I recently received an email from Mozilla stating that the record for the number of downloads in the first 24 hours was indeed set.
O God of Earth and Altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die,
The walls of gold entomb us,
The swords of scorn divide,
Take not thy thunder from us,
Take away our pride.


G.K. Chesterton: English Hymnal