Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 Released!

Here at Sizzle, we love new web technologies, and we're particularly fond of the increasing trend towards code standardisation and the adoption of lean xHTML and CSS. Unfortunately, the ability for the Internet to develop at full pace is limited by the reluctance of the general public to adopt newer, better browsers. Much as we'd love to abandon older browsers like Internet Explorer 6 (which would allow for the development of slicker, quicker, more usable, more search engine-friendly websites), a whopping 17% of users have not upgraded despite it becoming outdated way back in 2006.

This latest version of Firefox brings with it support for two very exciting (from a nerd's point of view) HTML tags: <video> and <audio> allowing rich multimedia content to be embedded on-site without reliance on bulky plugins. It also has support for the new W3C Geolocation API, CSS 2.1 and CSS3 properties, and support for offline applications. Admittedly, most of this stuff won't affect the end-user just yet, since us web developer types can't abandon the people using old browsers, but it's great to see the Mozilla foundation pushing ahead with these new standards.

From a user's point of view, the new release comes with new and improved rendering and Javascript engines, meaning websites will load in less time and operate faster and more reliably. It also includes a new 'private browsing' toggle, ideal for use on publically-accessible machines or situations when you'd prefer people not to know what sites you've been on, for whatever reason.

Anyway, enough blabbering. If you're feeling adventurous, the release is available for download right here!

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