Mozilla (News – Alert) has released the latest version of Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, bringing a number of improvements over previous versions, including social network integration on the desktop, open source fonts on Android (News – Alert) and HTML5 tweaks.
Firefox 21’s new social integration stems from Mozilla’s partnerships with Cliqz, Mixi and MSN Now, as well as the browser’s Social API feature, introduced in Firefox 17. Social API enables social providers to integrate directly with Firefox resulting in a more social, customizable and personal browsing experience. According to The Next Web, this means that users are able to keep up with social news without having to switch between tabs as all content is displayed in a Firefox sidebar.
The first social network to partner with Firefox in this endeavor was Facebook (News – Alert), largely because the company helped Mozilla develop the Social API. Since the introduction of the API toward the end of 2012, users have been able to send Facebook messages directly from Firefox. With its new social partners, Firefox is able to offer real-time updates about news, entertainment and more.
Specifically, Cliqz offers a real-time stream of relevant articles, stories and videos based on users’ interests. Firefox users can customize this feed directly from the sidebar based on categories, keywords, websites and even specific people.
The Mixi sidebar, meanwhile, allows users to access the Japanese social network from Firefox, with a real-time activity stream of comments and photos. Mixi integration is officially supported in Japan only.
Finally, MSN Now offers up interesting trends taken from sources including Facebook, Twitter (News – Alert), Bing and BreakingNews.com. This feed can also be customized directly from Firefox.
In terms of HTML5, Mozilla says it added support for the <main> element in Firefox. This element represents the main content of the <body> of a document or application. Firefox 21 also brings support for scoped stylesheets, which allows Web developers to limit style rules to apply only to a part of a page.
Edited by
Alisen Downey