Firefox 4 Releasing in February

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the Firefox browser. Google Chrome and Opera have been releasing build after build over the months, but Firefox hasn’t really let out a stable release in a long time, except for a few bug fixes.

Will it be able to regain its loyal users?

Alpha builds of the browser were released close to a year back, and beta builds have been out since July of last year. Over the past year, popularity has steadily been dropping as users have found Firefox to get bloated and slow. Even the beta builds haven’t showed much promise. Start up times and simplicity have been some of the reasons users have chosen to move to Google Chrome’s browser and a smaller share with Opera. Firefox still holds as a substantial share of the market. Google Chrome’s strong support for extensions has only made things worse for Firefox. Extensions used to be one of Firefox’s strong points.

The new version of the browser will allow easy syncing of data across browsers and machines. A feature called Panorama will make working with multiple tabs simpler. There have also been interface changes to maximize workspace. These are just a few of the many new features added to the browser. This year, Firefox is bound to face stiff competition from Google Chrome. The new browser needs get back its users which it has been steadily losing, if it wants to be number one.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?