The latest version of Firefox launches today and with it comes two new features: multiple picture-in-picture viewing and cookie partitioning.
Now you can be more protected as you browse the web alongside watching a cute cat video and live sports... all at the same time!
What Is Multiple Picture-in-Picture?
Firefox's Picture-in-Picture mode lets you watch videos while surfing the web. You can pop out videos from their player to become an always-on-top floating window, so you can browse other sites while the video remains in view. It's one of Firefox's best features.
Until now, you could only pop out a single video. Now, today's update to Picture-in-Picture view means you can use the feature on multiple videos simultaneously.
It also includes the addition of new keyboard shortcuts for fast-forward and rewind.
Multiple picture-in-picture mode is available on Firefox for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
What Is Total Cookie Protection?
Another new feature available in the latest version of Firefox is called Total Cookie Protection.
This creates a separate cookie jar for every website you visit. This means that cookies can't be used to track your activity across the web because they are all confined to the site they originated from.
A deeper technical look at how this works is available on the Firefox security blog.
Total Cookie Protection is available as part of Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection when set to Strict mode and is available on desktop and Android.
Enhanced Tracking Protection came to Firefox in 2019 and blocks cookies from known and identified trackers.
To enable Strict mode:
- Click the shield icon to the left of the address bar.
- Click Protection Settings.
- Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select Strict.
- Select Reload All Tabs to immediately apply the new setting.
Strict mode blocks things like social media trackers, cryptominers, and fingerprints, but bear in mind that it can break some website functionality like buttons and forms.
You can always click the shield icon again and disable Enhanced Tracking Protection for a particular website, if it's so broken that it's become unusable.
How to Make Firefox More Secure
Firefox's new Cookie Protection feature means that Mozilla's browser continues to be a great choice if you're concerned about your privacy online. Plus the new multiple Picture-in-Picture mode will allow for more fun when browsing!
Firefox has other tweaks you can employ to protect your browsing, like installing the Facebook container extension or the private browsing feature.