Firefox

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What Does Firefox Mean?

Firefox is an open-source Web browser introduced in 2004 as part of the Mozilla Application Suite. Firefox included almost all the features offered by other browsers at that time, as well as a number of new features, including a bookmarks toolbar and tabbed browsing. Firefox’s user interface was also easily customizable with the help of extensions, such as autofill and stock tracker.

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Mozilla has introduced multiple versions of Firefox since its launch, with each version incorporating additional features and better security. Its secure version is Firefox 7.0.1, which was released in September of 2011.

Techopedia Explains Firefox

The original name for Firefox was Phoenix; it was renamed as Firebird before it was finally brought to market as Firefox. The browser was very popular, and wad downloaded 22 million times in the first 12 weeks after it was introduced. By 2005, Firefox had captured 10 percent of the Web browser market. This increased to 20 percent by 2008, and 25 percent by 2010. Firefox is most popular in Germany and Poland, where it is favored by 51 percent and 46 percent of Internet users, respectively.

Firefox is compatible with multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. Firefox also supports many customizable options and features, including:

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Spell check
  • Incremental search
  • Parental controls
  • Password manager
  • Form filling helper
  • Live bookmarking using the bookmarking button
  • Download manager
  • Pop-up blocker
  • Private browsing
  • Anti-virus integration
  • Location-aware browsing
  • Do-not-track feature
  • Integrated search system
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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.