Firefox Rolls Another Major Update: 13.0 Final [Updates]

It seems like Firefox gets minor updates at least once a month, but this time it really has released the full version of Firefox 13, which has been in beta since April of this year. The upgrade features numerous new UI features and improvements, which will help keep it among the top three web browsers.

Mozilla’s cross-platform Firefox 13 sports a revamped Homepage with a cleaner interface and menu items at the bottom of the page for Downloads, Bookmarks, History, Add-ons, Sync, Settings, Restore Previous Session. Note, in the previous version of Firefox, all tabs automatically restored by default. Now you get the option to restore or start a new session.

Tabs are above the URL/Search-field and, just as the last version of Firefox, the action of right- or Control-clicking on individual tabs and selecting “Pin as App Tab” places them over the left side of other opened tabs. There’s also a handy bookmark button on the right side for perhaps quicker viewing, instead of reaching up to menu bar. A dedicated Home button also has been moved to the right of the search-field.

As with Chrome, you can now type URLs and perform searches in the same field. The keyword entries you type will bring up selections for suggested URLs in your history and bookmarks, as well as matches for existing opened tabs.

The new update also includes SPDY technology (also built into Google’s Chrome) which is automatically enabled and is supposed to give the browser a significant performance boost.

What do you love about the new Firefox 13?

Source: BetaNews


MakeUseOf Recommends

Bakari Chavanu

Bakari is a freelance writer and photographer. He‘s a long-time Mac user, jazz music fan, and family man. Bakari‘s Business Blog; Twitterme: @bakarichavanu; Google+

The comments were closed because the article is more than 180 days old.

If you have any questions related to stuff mentioned in the article or need help with any computer issue, just ask it on MakeUseOf Answers.

Hide 25 Comments

  • thuya8 June 7, 2012
    0 likes

    like to hear first
    u guys are great
    thank u

    | Like
    • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
      0 likes

      Thuya8, thanks for your feedback.

      | Like
  • Scutterman June 7, 2012
    0 likes

    “As with Chrome, you can now type URLs and perform searches in the same field. The keyword entries you type will bring up selections for suggested URLs in your history and bookmarks, as well as matches for existing opened tabs”
    Firefox has been doing that for a long time now.

    | Like
    • Mihovil Pletikos June 7, 2012
      0 likes

      not just ff… all browser have it…

      | Like
      • Scutterman June 9, 2012
        0 likes

        I was just pointing out that this isn’t a new feature. The wording made it sound like “Firefox is finally catching up to chrome in this”, when really Firefox has had it for a while, possibly before Chrome since it was part of the awesomebar in the FF3 release.

        | Like
        • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
          0 likes

          Thanks, Scutterman. I’m not a regular FF user, but the URL/Search field was listed as a new feature so that’s why I added that. Safari doesn’t currently have it, but it’s coming in I think in the Mountain Lion update.

          Thanks for you feedback.

          | Like
          • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
            0 likes

            Meant to say, Thanks for *your* feedback.

            | Like
  • David Commini June 7, 2012
    0 likes

    Whats the memory usage like? My laptop gets bogged down if I have two browsers open at the same time (which is usual as I use one for business and one for pleasure) – I know i need to update my RAM but I would like to be able to multitask efficiently.

    | Like
    • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
      0 likes

      David, how much RAM are running on your laptop?

      | Like
      • David Commini June 19, 2012
        0 likes

        1 gig, I am currently in the process of upgrading my OS and it seems to be helping with every upgrade (Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04)

        | Like
  • Diane June 7, 2012
    0 likes

    Firefox automatically updated on my Mac but now I can’t use it at all. I have an older Mac. Can anyone advise me if there is a way I can still use Firefox?

    | Like
    • Jelffy June 7, 2012
      0 likes

      Same thing happened to me and I have alot of bookmarks >:C

      | Like
    • Scutterman June 9, 2012
      0 likes

      Firefox support for older Macs has officially ended, but you can still get older versions from places like this http://mac.oldapps.com/firefox.php

      There’s also TenFourFox, which is trying to backport security and features into an older version which will run on older macs
      http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

      | Like
      • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
        0 likes

        Scutterman is right. And thanks for those resource links. Really helpful.

        | Like
  • GamE June 7, 2012
    0 likes

    nice

    | Like
  • colin June 8, 2012
    0 likes

    May roll back until a couple of bugs are sorted. Scrolling keeps stopping and it is also throwing errors up from my Foxit pdf reader. Its lightning fast but the scrolling is happening to frequently.

    | Like
    • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
      0 likes

      Colin, thanks for letting us know.

      | Like
  • Ashwin Divakaran June 14, 2012
    0 likes

    The latest version of firefox is awesome with the new tab page displaying most visited pages.But still FF needs to improve its memory efficiency as it eats up memory when playing flash and unity content than most other browsers.

    | Like
    • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
      0 likes

      Ashwin, good point. I think what caused me to stop using FF was that I added too many plug-ins and it started to have all sorts of problems, especially when it came time to update it. It does feel a little weighty memory wise, but I have lots of RAM on my Mac Pro, so it’s not much of problem for me.

      | Like
      • Tom July 6, 2012
        0 likes

        It seems like the more I upgrade Firefox the more crashes I get.
        I use Chrome quite a bit, but not getting the performance I expected, so I seen Comodo web browser and tried it. It has great security, but is slow.
        I have used SeaMonkey before and liked it, so I download it again and am using it now. I like the built in email, I think it is better than Opera. And easier to use. I don’t think SeaMonkey is getting the recognition it deserves. I love it.

        | Like
  • puneethkumb June 15, 2012
    0 likes

    Though the 13 crashed for couple of times on my XP, I love this v13 and the good old 3.6 version.. I see these two as very stable.

    | Like
    • Bakari Chavanu June 18, 2012
      0 likes

      Puneethkumb, thanks for you feedback.

      | Like
  • Saurabh Kumar June 20, 2012
    0 likes

    I previously used chrome and then i used Firefox 13 it has the new tab section like the chrome which i liked and also i think there is some change in the scrolls.

    | Like
    • Bakari Chavanu July 6, 2012
      0 likes

      For some reason Chrome keeps crashing on mu Mac. I’ve read of other Mac users having the same problem. I do however like how you can park tabs in Firefox. Thanks for sharing.

      | Like
  • Raj Sarkar July 13, 2012
    0 likes

    <3 Firefox.

    | Like