Mozilla is making a number of Firefox-related announcements as it celebrates the 10th year of Firefox being in existence.
One of the biggest changes to Firefox is the addition of a "Forget" button, which allows users to wipe only their most recent browsing history.
Users can choose to wipe their history from the last five minutes, two hours or 24 hours, preserving all history and cookies prior to that.
Firefox has offered private browsing similar to Chrome's "incognito mode" for a while now, which wipes history and cookies once a user closes the browser window. This feature, however, requires users to plan ahead. Some users simply browse and find themselves in the depths of the Internet, only then realizing that they should probably delete some evidence. For these people, the "Forget" button is perfect.
Mozilla has also released DuckDuckGo, which is a new search option being offered by the company. Mozilla says DuckDuckGo works just like any other search engine included in the browser and users can, of course, opt to use other search engines instead.
DuckDuckGo is known as a search engine that protects users' privacy because it does not track search queries. According to Mozilla, many users had been asking for DuckDuckGo out-of-the-box, or as an add-on, however now the search engine is included in Firefox by default.
Mozilla has also been experimenting with ads in Firefox through its nightly releases, with the company now ready to release ads to the browser. Previously, the new tab page would remain blank until the user had established a browsing history. Now the page will display "sponsored directory" tiles.
While many users likely don't want to hear that Mozilla is experimenting with ads, Firefox fans should probably get used to it. Mozilla has been looking for new revenue streams and Mozilla Senior Engineering Manager Gavin Sharp has said users should "expect a lot more experimentation in advertising."
Firefox was launched on Nov. 9, 2004, making it officially 10 years old. At the time Mozilla faced an uphill battle, with Microsoft's Internet Explorer accounting for over 90 percent of the browser market share. Now, Mozilla is one of the more-used Internet Browsers, holding a 15.54 percent share as on June, down from 18.02 percent share in January. It is again facing a battle as many users are turning to Chrome, 19 percent as of June, and IE still holds a hefty 58 percent market share.
Moxilla also today launched a Developer Edition of Firefox, which is being described as the first browser created specifically for developers. It includes a number of debugging tools and makes it easier for developers to build web pages and apps.
In celebration of the 10 years, users will see a "10 Years Independent" social sharing page on the default home page. Not only that, but the company adorned a San Francisco cable car with Firefox branding for the day on Monday.
