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CNET's comprehensive Firefox 3 coverage includes downloads, news, unbiased reviews, user ratings and specs on the latest Firefox browser, extensions, add-ons, and plug-ins.

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Firefox 3 review from CNET editors

Editors' Choice: Firefox 3
After months of testing, Firefox 3 (code name Gran Paradiso) is available for download from Mozilla. With its new Gekko 1.9 engine, the browser rocks, rendering pages faster and uses fewer system resources overall. As with any new browser, some add-ons created for Firefox 2 may not work, but give them time. Firefox 3 touts faster rendering, a vastly reduced use of system resources, and clever new data-mining tools for your bookmarks and browser history. Most notable is that Firefox 3 includes many security-related features baked right in, such as the best of breed antiphishing protection, making Firefox the most secure browser on the market today. Read our full review of Firefox 3.

» Read the full review of Firefox 3 (Gran Paradiso)

Firefox 3 news and blog posts

Buzz Out Loud 861: Ice blue and the hot breaths

We've got a host of Black Friday news today, like Apple retail stores matching online promotions, Sony still refuses to lower the price on the PS3. Read more

We've got a host of Black Friday news today, like Apple retail stores matching online promotions; Sony still refuses to lower the price on Read more

Posted By: Molly Wood Nov 26 2008

How widely used is Chrome? More than I expected

In two months, Google's Chrome rose from nothing to 3.6 percent of browsers used to view CNET News. It's less common in the mainstream though. Read more

Is Google's Chrome browser mainstream? Certainly not. But I've been curious how widespread its use is, in particular because I'm curious if Read more

Posted By: Stephen Shankland Nov 26 2008

Kick your PDFs into overdrive

Foxit Reader keeps pushing the PDF alternative with its latest major-point update, version 3. Read more

Foxit Reader keeps pushing the PDF reader alternative with its latest major-point update, version 3. Although there are some long-awaited minor changes, such as auto-scrolling Read more

Posted By: Seth Rosenblatt Nov 25 2008

Google revamps Street View interface

Pegman, the icon that personifies Street View's interface, gets some new mobility. Also higher resolution and a slick split-screen option. Read more

Google has given Street View a major new look. One big change: to activate the Google Maps feature, you drag the "Pegman" character off the Read more

Posted By: Stephen Shankland Nov 25 2008

New study crowns Google's Chrome king of speed

Which is the fastest browser of all? According to a study that excluded Mozilla's Firefox Minefield alpha browser release, Chrome wins the title, breezing past Safari, Opera, and IE. Read more

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/New_study_crowns_Google_s_Chrome_king_of_speed';Mozilla's Firefox has long breezed past Internet Explorer, which is fast becoming the Buick of browsers: comfortable, safe, Read more

Posted By: Matt Asay Nov 25 2008

Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome

I didn't set out to switch. But while using Chrome, it felt as if some friction had been removed from the Web. Now it's my default, despite its shortcomings. Read more

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Why_I_switched_from_Firefox_to_Chrome_2'; Sorry if it sounds like I'm drinking the Google Kool-Aid here, but I switched from Mozilla Firefox to Read more

Posted By: Stephen Shankland Nov 25 2008

IE8 coming in 2009, but will it be late to the Firefox party?

Microsoft is finally lugging out version 8 of Internet Explorer, but its delay has given the open-source competition room to run. Read more

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/linux_unix/IE8_coming_in_2009_but_too_late_to_spoil_Firefox_s_party';CNET's Ina Fried reports that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 won't surface until 2009. With a release candidate Read more

Posted By: Matt Asay Nov 21 2008

MySpace app for BlackBerry a RIM record-breaker

RIM announces more downloads in the first week for their BlackBerry-compatible MySpace application than for any before. Read more

Remember that little old BlackBerry app for MySpace that premiered last week? Apparently it struck a chord with users because RIM reported just after midnight Read more

Posted By: Jessica Dolcourt Nov 20 2008

Certification credited with boosting online confidence

Alliance promoting extended certificate validation for Web sites touts the benefits of online shopping survey and new rules by IRS for all 2009 e-filing sites. Read more

Extended certificate validation for Web sites has boosted online confidence in 2008, according to a statement released Thursday by the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (Read more

Posted By: Robert Vamosi Nov 20 2008

Wikipedia gears up for flood of video and photo files

New hardware needed to support online reference service's push for more media. Read more

What is the significance of Sun Microsystems' announcement Wednesday that Wikimedia is buying truckloads of Sun servers? It's that the Wikimedia team, which runs Read more

Posted By: Rafe Needleman Nov 19 2008

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Firefox downloads

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Mozilla Firefox 3 for Windows

Even though Internet Explorer dominates the Web browser market, you might wonder why if you spend some time with Mozilla Firefox. This light and nimble Web wonder brought tabbed browsing into the mainstream (IE7 recently jumped on the bandwagon) and offers countless ways to customize it through extensions and themes.

Mozilla Firefox 3 for Mac

Though it's difficult to unseat Safari as the preferred browser of Mac users, Mozilla Firefox garners attention through its solid design and extra features, making it a worthy alternative.

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Firefox extensions and add-ons

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User opinions of Firefox 2

7 out of 10 Very good

"Initial Impression" I was impressed with how quickly it loads pages. I did notice a bit of sluggishness when I was on my MySpace home page, and... Read more

by AspDotNetDvlpr (see profile), 06/17/2008

10 out of 10 Perfect

"Firefox is great 4 me." Firefox is a great way to go about your business on the internet. Read more

by tommmm111 (see profile), 06/17/2008

10 out of 10 Perfect

"Firefox Leads the Industry" Firefox is superior to other browsers for one reason, they are leading the industry. Thousands of creative designers and... Read more

by SleeplessHacker (see profile), 05/28/2008

4 out of 10 Mediocre

"As wonky and error prone as anything I've seen" In the last few months, Firefox has become the least reliable piece of software on my trusty old Dell laptop. Anything that has... Read more

by drdivo (see profile), 04/26/2008

3 out of 10 Poor

"Not as good as IE 7" The only advantage of Firefox is it is more secure than Internet Explorer 7 and that is becuase Firefox is not intergrated into... Read more

by harold24915 (see profile), 04/20/2008

Very good

7.7

out of 10

Average user rating

» See all user opinions for Firefox 2

Learn about the Mozilla Firefox 3 browser

After Mozilla's years-long slow start, Firefox has gained significant market share against its top rival, Microsoft's Internet Explorer. One of the Firefox's strengths is the broad collection of hundreds of add-ons, but that also means things move more slowly when programmers must update their projects to be compatible with Firefox 3. The latest version of the popular Web browser includes a new rendering engine, so pages load faster. It also uses fewer system resources, addressing a complaint in earlier versions.

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Firefox pictures

Firefox 3 Alpha 8 (Gran Paradiso)

Mozilla has released a new security-based build of its upcoming Firefox 3 release. As with its other alpha builds of Firefox 3, aka "Gran Paradiso," Mozilla warns casual users to wait to download until the final version is available.

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