Firefox steps up browser battle

Mozilla on Tuesday released the latest version of its Firefox internet browser, warming up a battle between competing browsers that is dramatically increasing the speed with which web pages are viewed.

The 3.5 version of the Firefox software was released to the public on Tuesday, with a capability of loading web pages more than twice as fast as its 3.0 predecessor, thanks to advances in JavaScript, the scripting language.

The pace of innovation has not been matched since Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fought with Netscape’s browser for domination a decade ago. This time there is more at stake – with the browser threatening to replace desktop applications.

“It really is Browser Wars 2,” says Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst covering web applications and services for Forrester Research.

“It is certainly the most innovative period since the late 90s. The technology is shifting, the types of apps are shifting, the web is going real-time and we are seeing a tremendous amount of experimentation.”

The rise of the Firefox browser since the middle of this decade has brought an unexpected wave of competition back to browsers, with Firefox now accounting for about 23 per cent of the market and Safari 8 per cent, according to Net Applications.

Google’s Chrome browser, with 2 per cent, is an important part of the search company’s effort to stimulate advances in the PC software needed to support its web-based applications.

Mozilla’s release comes in the same month as the launch of Apple’s Safari 4, which, running on Java-Script, had claimed the title of “world’s fastest browser”.

“On some benchmarks, we come out ahead and on others we come in a little behind,” says Mike Beltzner, Mozilla director of user experience and product design.

“However, both of these modern browsers are allowing for the creation of more engaging and interactive websites and web-based applications at blazing fast speeds.”

Mr Hammond says the rivals are responding to developers who want to make applications run in a browser as fast as “native” desktop applications, as well as trying to please users.

“If pages are rendered much faster, the perception for the end user is that it’s a better experience and that’s going to drive browser adoption,” he says.

While Microsoft introduced many new features with the launch of Internet Explorer 8 in March, it is viewed as lagging behind its competitors in moving towards standards known as HTML 5.

These allow the browser to behave more like a computer desktop in allowing all kinds of applications to be launched, but from a remote server rather than a local hard drive.

Firefox 3.5 will allow video and audio to be played in a browser without the need for an application to be launched locally or “plug-in” software to be installed.

Additional reporting by Richard Waters