Mozilla has released Firefox 31.0 for desktop, with Firefox for Android 31.0 due to follow in the next couple of days.
After the relatively disappointing Firefox 30, version 31 adds some notable new features, including the ability to block known malware downloads as well as a new search box to the New Tab page.
Firefox 31 New Tab Page
The most visible and user-facing of these is the introduction of a search bar on the New Tab Page that sits above favourite site thumbnails. Like Chrome and Opera, this enables users to initiate searches from a new tab without using the omnibox.
Google is set as the default search provider but this can be changed to any of the other pre-listed defaults, such as Yahoo! or Wikipedia, or any additional engines installed from the Search Add-Ons directory (e.g., DuckDuckGo, Google Maps, and so on).
Mozilla’s New Malware Scanning
To help protect its users against malicious software Firefox 31 now automatically blocks known malware downloads.
The security feature uses the Google Safe Browsing API to screen downloads initiated by the user as well as those automatically triggered when browsing.
Other Changes
Besides stability and performance fixes, the updates also improves the built-in developer tools. The colour picker gains an eyedropper to allow color to be grabbed from any webpage element, there are new add-on and canvas debuggers, and console logs are now styled.
Rounding out the major changes of this release is a new certificate verification library and initial WebVTT implementation to support embedded video captions and subtitles in online video.
Firefox 31.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux is available now as a free, open-source download. Firefox 31.0 for Android should be available shortly.
Firefox 31.0 for Windows
After the relatively disappointing Firefox 30, version 31 adds some notable new features, including the ability to block known malware downloads as well as a new search box to the New Tab page.
Firefox 31 New Tab Page
The most visible and user-facing of these is the introduction of a search bar on the New Tab Page that sits above favourite site thumbnails. Like Chrome and Opera, this enables users to initiate searches from a new tab without using the omnibox.
Google is set as the default search provider but this can be changed to any of the other pre-listed defaults, such as Yahoo! or Wikipedia, or any additional engines installed from the Search Add-Ons directory (e.g., DuckDuckGo, Google Maps, and so on).
Mozilla’s New Malware Scanning
To help protect its users against malicious software Firefox 31 now automatically blocks known malware downloads.
The security feature uses the Google Safe Browsing API to screen downloads initiated by the user as well as those automatically triggered when browsing.
Other Changes
Besides stability and performance fixes, the updates also improves the built-in developer tools. The colour picker gains an eyedropper to allow color to be grabbed from any webpage element, there are new add-on and canvas debuggers, and console logs are now styled.
Rounding out the major changes of this release is a new certificate verification library and initial WebVTT implementation to support embedded video captions and subtitles in online video.
Firefox 31.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux is available now as a free, open-source download. Firefox 31.0 for Android should be available shortly.
Firefox 31.0 for Windows
