alpha

Firefox 6 Now in Alpha: Introduces New Developer and Privacy Tools

Frederic Lardinois

27 May 2011 — 1 min read

Mozilla’s new rapid release schedule remains on track. Firefox 5 is now in beta and, right on schedule, Firefox 6 is now entering its development cycle. The next version of Firefox will introduce a number of new tools for both regular users and developers. The alpha version of Firefox 6 Mozilla launched today introduces a new experimental privacy feature called the Data Management Window, an enhanced add-ons manager and some new features for Panorama. For developers, Mozilla is introducing a new feature for quickly building and testing JavaScript snippets in the browser, as well as enhancements to the Web Console and a new Web Developer menu that makes it easier to access these tools from the Firefox menu button.

If you would like to run these early-release versions of Firefox, you can download the Aurora channel here.

New Privacy Feature: Data Management Window

For users, the most important addition is likely the Data Management Window (type about:permissions into the URL bar to access it). This is currently an experimental feature and may not make it into the final version of Firefox 6. This new privacy tool gives you the ability to set fine-grained permissions for every site you visit. You can allow or disallow whether you want the site to write cookies, open pop-up windows, maintain offline storage and access your location, for example.

New Developer Tools

For developers, the Scratchpad is probably the most interesting new feature. This tool allows you to copy-and-past short JavaScript snippets into a basic editor and execute them in the browser.

In addition to all of this, the Aurora channel now also features additional support for more HTML5 features and networking features. You can find a full list of these here.

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