A new browser release (Firefox 3.1 beta 2), big whoop, right? But Firefox is charging ahead, leading the way to a better web. Here's some of the new features that will be important to web designers, developers and even the average surfer.
- Embedded fonts and text-shadowing styles. Maybe designers will finally stop rendering text in images? I won't hold my breath, but it's nice to know the capability is there.
- Inline, in-browser audio and video without plugins (part of the HTML5 spec), using the free/open Ogg format. I suspect Apple and Microsoft will "embrace and extend" this, but it could mean that finally, finally (after a decade or more) there will be at least one video format that all platforms support.
- Support for n-th child CSS selectors, a cleaner way to do things like render table rows with alternating colors (I can't tell you how many times I've inserted a new row and had to change all the "evens" to "odd" and vice versa).
- A new, even faster JavaScript JIT compiler/interpreter (the one in 3.0 was itself a big improvement). Also a threading capability for JavaScript. This will enable smoother running, more fully-featured web applications.
- Geolocation, now you can grant sites permission to use/track your location. (Uh, might want to be careful with that one).
- Better security for AJAX (cross-site authorization control) and a JSON parse method, a secure way to load data and prevent code injection.
- Switchable 'private browsing' mode... which they suggest is useful for hiding your online xmas shopping from your spouse (!).
There's more, that's just the stuff that seemed significant to me. I think Safari and Internet Explorer are working on, or already have implemented, some of this stuff, and there's a new Opera browser in the works too. This reminds me of the long-lost days of yore, when browser competition fostered innovation. This difference this time is that they all seem committed to common baseline standards.
