First Look: Firefox 3

Leigh McMullen ()

 20070520-firefox_logo.jpg

I’m a fan of both Firefox and Safari and regularly use both on my Macs. I like Firefox because it lacks some of Safari’s “Squirrely-ness” with some websites –particularly those using scripting, and I like Safari for private browsing, and because it is so fast. So after a day of use, am I prepared to drop Safari forever for the Fox? Click through, and lets discuss.

Factor 1: Speed – Edge: Safari.
Webkit rocks, there’s no denying it. My tests below using a site load time timer, show that on average Safari is remains 34% faster than Firefox. Filed under: ‘things that make you go, Hmmm?’, the only site where Firefox was faster was Microsoft.com

firefoxcompare.png

Factor 2: The “Mac Experience”  – Edge: No one.
Firefox 3 promised a more native UI. My question: How could you tell? The new Firefox UI is pretty, and this is less a critique of the Fox, than the tower of babel that OS X applications user interfaces have become. Even Apple has become universally inconsistent on this point. Uh.. Fellas… try reading this.

osxui.png

Factor 3: Cool Browser Tricks  – Edge: Firefox.
The google search bar is cool, but how many times have you wanted to find a site you’ve previously visited. Go to the address bar and start typing in a topic and it will automatically search you history for you, pulling up sites that are the best match. Seriously, it’s only been a day, and I don’t know how we’ve lived without this feature.

coolbtrick.png

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Summation
Are the features in the new Fox enough to make me dump Safari? Sadly no. Firefox just isn’t up to speed with Webkit yet, and it lacks one feature I can’t live without, Private Browsing (never you mind what I need that for –that’s why it’s called private).

That said, Firefox retains a place on my Dock right next to Safari, and will likely become my browser of choice for research, simply for it’s ability to manage and search history. We’d love to hear from you on this topic, what do you love about the new Fox, what do you hate?

33 comments »

About the author

LeighMcMullen

Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.

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Posted in Reviews, Top stories |

  • Jimmy

    And this is why I love Firefox, plugins! Your private browser experience can be fixed with the plugin Stealther.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1306

  • C Rolls

    I too enjoy the porn browsing feature … er um, private browsing feature.

  • fatsvernon

    I just went back to using Firefox after the release…..and I realized immediately how much I missed having my bookmarks in the sidebar. I wish Apple would build this into Safari. It’s just so damned convenient.

    Anyone know how to make that happen in Safari????

  • http://web.mac.com/bderwest Brendan West

    Personally, I think Firefox 3 is rather ugly, and uses too many pixels to do too little. I understand making the back button bigger (but personally, as someone who uses a laptop most of the time, I just hit Command+[), but why’d they choose pill buttons like Mail? Square buttons are the future! Look at iCal, Safari 3.0. Much better usage of pixels than circles and ovals.

  • swellman

    I really like Firefox 3.0 and would be tempted to use it for everything except I have multiple Macs, an iPhone and a .Mac account and I can’t live without the bookmark sync feature. I know there are third party tools out there that will help sync multiple browsers but it’s an added step I’d rather live without. (If anyone knows of one that “Auto-syncs” all browsers on your machine then please say so, I’d love to find one.)

  • http://zalandria.wordpress.com Shawn

    I would switch to Firefox if it had (a) drag-and-drop tabs and (b) the ability to load an entire tab set with one click. I rely on these in Safari, and so far I haven’t found the same functionality in other browsers (although I may have missed it). So, despite the fact that Safari freezes up more than, say, Camino (which I would love to switch to, if it had both (a) and (b)), I guess I’ll stick with it.

  • Cody

    Before FF3 I a staunch Safari user. It was my primary browser, but after using the final release of FF3, I’m switching. Personally, it FEELS faster than Safari, even if tests give Safari the edge. All the little enhancements (zoom, offering to remember passwords AFTER they are input correctly, etc) make it an overall better experience. Plus there are some sites with which Safari just plain does not work right with. I’ve yet to find one with FF. As of today, I’m switching.

  • jim

    I am using Bookmark sync and sort to keep my work machine, home desktop and laptop in sync. Is there a good way to do this on Safari?

  • http://ironicmoth.blogspot.com IronicMoth

    I have suffered from the widespread conundrum of choosing between Safari and Firefox. I must say, Safari still is my browser of choice. I find it faster and with less hassle than Firefox.
    Then there are the tiny things that make my browsing experience: the autocomplete feature in the address bar, which removes the need to click/use arrows to reach the url of intention.
    I also love its integration with Mac OS X, and I have an iPod Touch, so the bookmark syncing is a must for me.
    Finally, ever since I started using Inquisitor (http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/), a plugin that makes my searches perfect Spotlight experiences, I can’t live without it.

  • Peter

    Mac-like FF 3 themes :

    http://www.takebacktheweb.org/

  • Martijn

    Camino is and remains my browser of choice. Not a shred of scientific proof why I prefer Camino, I just do.

    I hope that Snow Leopard also means a cleaning of the UI, that would be very welcome. Very nice screenshot to illustrate your point!

  • rich

    you can extend safari quite a bit using plugins:

    http://pimpmysafari.com/

  • Dawnson

    The three things that seal it for Firefox (despite whatever speed increase Safari has):
    1. Scroll over a link and see where it goes on the bottom. That many times helps me know if I really want to go there or not.
    2. Adblock Plus addon
    3. NoScript addon

  • tony

    one word. omniweb. well worth the price.

  • Simon

    I think that Firefox 3 is wonderful on Windows (I haven’t used it on Linux) but it’s still behind Safari for me on the Mac as Firefox is still built in Carbon, not Cocoa so you get that anachronistic looking OS 9 style black and white ‘I’m working’ mouse pointer.

    However, the new address bar is indeed awesome – let’s hope that Apple concentrates on the Safari UI and putting in some anti-phishing etc. measures for the next release as Safari is certainly not feeling cutting edge now, UI-wise.

  • http://www.foodorpoison.com Mark

    I’d like to know how you achieved those performance scores? Since upgrading to 10.5.3, I’ve found Safari to be very slow. Firefox seems literally _instant_ compared to Safari.

  • Camino

    I switched away from Safari the day a page failed to load and haven’t gone back since (except for por…ahem, private browsing)
    I recently started using Camino and I tried to go back to Firefox for the plugins but it’s just grueling. I find that I can tell te difference in page load times. I’m never going back.

  • http://www.cultofmac.com Leigh McMullen

    @Shawn: Drag and Drop tabs are a go in Firefox3 I don’t know about saving or loading a group of tabs. –Anyone?

    @IronicMoth: love Inquisitor… that is certainly a recommended download for Safari! Thanks for the tip.

    @fatsvernon: check out SafariStand: http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html – Gives you sidebar bookmarks and much more.

    @rich: Thanks for the pimpmysafari link… EVERYONE should check that out if you haven’t.

    @mark: I just used a site load timer, and loaded up the different sites in each browser (while taking care to always load from a blank page, and delete caches and such).

    @Tony: I’ve not used OmniWeb… but I will say this: the folks at Omni make the best, most consistently good User interfaces and useful products out there for the Mac.

  • steve

    Google Browser sync will keep your bookmarks etc sync across multi computers with FF – wont help on your iPhone though.

    As for me, I’ll keep with Firefox

  • http://eyejot.com/users/davidg David Geller

    I’m surprised by your speed test results too. Anecdotal eveidence, for me, suggests that FF3 is loading faster and operating more swiftly than Safari 3. It just seems way faster than Safari.

    Maybe this is related to Leopard DNS changes Apple made that, well, make everything seem slower!

  • http://iwaves.blogspot.com Iury

    I always like to use the fastest browser, so…Safari still the best for me.

    Oh, to guys that use Firefox:
    if you want automatic bookmark sync, have a look at foxmarks.com.

  • kivers

    were you using safari or webkit nightly? webkit nightly would be even faster

  • http://ilovesymposia.wordpress.com Juan Nunez-Iglesias

    The Mac Experience is still better on Safari:
    a) what the hell happened to Keychain integration??? It was the #1 most requested feature for FF3/OSX.
    b) OSX programs allow you to move the window from any “empty” part of a toolbar. FF3 does not.

    Having said that, the Awesome Bar and Places bookmarking make every other point moot, afaic. I use Safari for Gmail only because FF3 breaks Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts.

  • Mystical

    Once i found a way to turn off the history search, i dived right in and turned it off. I use firefox, but for the moment safari will remain my browser. I’m finding it impossible to sure the net without the spring back feature that safari has. The only thing that firefox does for me, that i would love to see safari do, is the way it handles new tabs when you click on a link.

  • http://jimmerish.com Thomas

    @ Dawnson
    In my Safari I mouse over a link and it says “Go to “www.whatever.com” ” in the status bar. I’m pretty sure I don’t have any plugins.

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    As a web designer and Mac journo, I have a lot of experience with web browsers. FF3 looks like a good leap, but it’s a pity the UI is such a botch-job (it’s not native – they’re just emulating Leopard’s look and feel). However, FF is likely to remain my primary choice until Safari finally adds out-of-the-box keyboard shortcuts, which are the main deal-breaker for me right now.

    Someone mentioned OmniWeb. I used to recommend that browser all the time, but it’s horribly stagnant. Where it was once a leader, it’s now often falling behind, and when its use of standards falls waaaaay behind (as it often does), it’s time to either throw in the towel or start leading again. All evidence points to the fact that Omni really doesn’t see its browser as a critical product.

  • J is Here

    It won’t let me use my three-finger swipe to go forward and back in the webpages.

    No Firefox for me…

  • Alan Christensen

    One little thing keeps me loyal to Safari: loading status at the top instead of the bottom. Hey, I’m easy to please.

  • http://www.ian.ca Ian

    I can’t believe I am the ONLY one using Flock!?

    RSS reader, social networking, gmail, flickr integration.
    Blogging built in…

    and built in the firefox engine…

    Give it a try!

  • travelbore

    Opera is a terrific web browser for PC – is it available for Mac’s? If so, I wonder how it compares to Safari, which seems to be the preferred choice by general consensus here.

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    Opera’s available for Macs. I think if the UI wasn’t so awful it’d be the best Mac browser, frankly. It’s got lots of great features and works nicely. However, the interface is dreadful.

    As for Flock, I quite like it, although it could do with widening the net as far as services go.

  • Rowan Evenstar

    I use Safari when i want something quick and fast, and often open somehting in it when everything else is loaded up in FF. I put a folder in my bookmarks toolbar, which allows me to open all the bookmarks in it with one click.

    I dont think i would be able to cope without firefox, it has everything i need.

    p.s. also agree about the safari loading bit being at top, would be nice to see that in FF

  • Desmond Aboagye

    HELP……..I HAVE LOST THE SAFARI THAT CAME WIT MY E-MAC. WHERE DO I DOWNLOAD A NEW SAFARI FOR THE E-MAC…JAGUAR.
    I THINK I HAVE ALSO LOST MY INSTALL DVDS.
    HELP…PLEASE