Mozilla rolls out the Firefox 44 update, where one of the most notable features to be added in is the push notifications function on the desktop browser.
To start things off, Web Push gives the user the option to allow certain websites to send notifications even when a site is closed.
"Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux now lets you choose to receive push notifications from websites if you give them permission. This is similar to Web notifications, except now you can receive notifications for websites even when they're not loaded in a tab," Mozilla says, noting that it's particularly useful for email, weather, social networks and shopping.
To make the feature work, the Web browser uses the Web Push protocol of W3C (Worldwide Web Consortium) along with Push API (application programming interface).
Of course, users can manage these notifications, and they can do so in two ways:
First Method
Step 1: Click the navigation drawer on the upper-right side of the browser and go to Options.
Step 2: Click on the Content tab and select Choose... under Notifications.
Step 3: Choose which websites you'd like to stay or leave on the list.
Second Method
Step 1: Click on the green lock icon on the left side of the address bar.
Step 2: Under Permissions, choose whether to set the website you're on to Always Ask, Allow or Block.
For the record, this isn't exactly new, as Google launched the same function on Chrome version 42 back in April. Interestingly, Facebook was quick to get into the action as well.
Meanwhile, Mozilla published a Hacks blog post with more details of the feature for developers who want to take advantage of push notifications in Firefox.
Moving forward, the Firefox 44 update has dropped support for RC4 cipher over HTTPS connections. For those who don't know, RC4 is used on virtually every browser and online service for encryption, but numerous vulnerabilities have been cropping up over the past several years, causing the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to restrict the usage of RC4 with Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Other browser makers are following through with the prohibition, where Google implemented the necessary change on Chrome 48 a week ago. Microsoft will also carry out the required measure for Internet Explorer and Edge sometime in "early 2016."
Now, Mozilla also included support for the Brotli compression algorithm to improve loading times of webpages and reduce data consumption. On top of that, a set of new developer tools are making their way, including visual editing and memory management ones.
The Firefox 44 update is already up for download, and Mozilla uploaded the full changes for the desktop and Android.
