Firefox 50 Improves Security And Usability For Desktop And Mobile

Mozilla Firefox for desktop and Android has reached version 50, with the latest edition of the open source browser boosting video playback, security and usability.

The most obvious additions are an option that allows users to limit searches to whole words, new keyboard shortcuts – Ctrl+Tab now cycles through tabs and reader mode is summoned with Ctrl+Alt+R – and a built in emoji set for operating systems without native emoji fonts like Windows 8 and earlier or Linux.

Firefox 50

More types of video on different sites can now play without plugins and WebGL is now supported by more than 89 percent of users on Windows 7 and later. There’s also improved performance for SDK extensions using the SDK module loader.

In terms of security, there is added protection for a number of executable file types across Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as fixes for a number of bugs. These include a buffer overflow flaw and a vulnerability that allowed a maliciously crafted URL to crash the browser.

On Android, the user interface has been simplified by combining the ‘recent tabs’ and history panels.

Firefox 49 debuted in September, adding offline viewing for smartphones but removing the WebRTC-based Firefox Hello.

The desktop and Android editions operate on a separate release cycle to Firefox for iOS, which has reached version 5.0.

According to NetMarketShare, Firefox 49 has a 5.78 percent share of the browser market.

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