The third generation of Firefox was released on June 17th with more than 8 million downloads during the first 24 hours [a world-record according to Mozilla, the non-profit that orchestrates the worldwide development of this popular web browser]. As of this writing, less than a week after the launch, the download count has exceeded 17 million.

What’s so cool about Firefox as a web browser? First, it’s a global, cooperative effort (available in 45 languages). Second, it’s open source (meaning that anyone can create widgets and plug-ins to add special functionality). Some of my favorite plug-ins for photographers are listed below. Third, it’s free (but donations at Mozilla and plug-in developer sites are always welcome).

As a modern photographer, chances are that you’re using Firefox right now. According to the digital bean counters at PixSylated, of 15,000 people who have visited this site during past two months: 46% use Firefox, 28% use Internet Explorer and 23% use Safari. So, if you’re not using Firefox (yet), your neighbor probably is.

What’s so cool about Firefox 3? Well, the folks at Mozilla say there are thousands of improvements. Among the biggies, for instance, I can now bookmark a site with one click on the navigation bar. Also, the zoom-in command (Cmd+ / Ctrl+) now enlarges images as well as text — a feature much appreciated by my old-school eyes. Web pages also seem to load faster. For a list of the major features in Firefox 3, click here. Also, check out the detailed Field Guide To Firefox 3.

So, if you’d like to download Firefox 3 right now, click on this button. We’ll wait for you to come back. Oh, and you should read all the way to the end before you install it.

Photographers Rejoice – Color Management
Now in Firefox, sort of.

The coolest feature, in my book, is that Firefox 3 has the ability to use ICC-profiles embedded in web pix. This means that if you’re looking at my commercial portfolio site with Firefox 3 and you have a profiled monitor, you’ll see the color very close to how I see it — because I embedded the sRGB profile in my images when I prepped them for the web.

Again, Firefox 3 “has the ability” to use color management. It’s not automatically turned on as a preference. Further, the the plug-in that drives it is still marked “Experimental” (aka: “beta”, a four-letter word). To make sure that you understand it might be a bit buggy, you have to register on the Firefox site as a user before you can get the color management plug-in. The registration is free and takes just a minute. To make it easy on yourself, install Firefox 3 and use it to access the plug-in page for the download. That way, it will install automatically into Firefox 3 (but keep reading before you break away to do that).

While not a perfect solution today, I think that Firefox 3 with the color management plug-in opens a new frontier for photographers on the web. Knowing that my friends and clients can see my web pix with colors that come very close to the colors on my screen will be a big leap forward… even if we have to take a bunch of baby steps to get there. I’m betting that in a few months all of this will become a stable and standard part of the Firefox browser.

Update: Read my June 24 post on Color Management In Firefox 3 by clicking here. It includes an alternative way to activate color management in Firefox 3 as well as Mozilla’s explanation of why the feature was not activated in the first place.

[Hear the chant in the distance? It's the fans of Safari who are saying that their favorite browser also has color management capabilities. True. And, I'm a big fan of Apple. Emotionally, however, I'm tied to the Firefox community when it comes to surfing. Safari is worth having around, especially since it's also available for PCs. It certainly is better than IE.]

Firefox Plug-Ins For Photographers
and Their Friends

Previews – A personal favorite for Firefox 2 and 3. Lets me take a peak at the content of a web link in a preview window without clicking on the link. If I like what I see, then I make the click. Detailed info on the Previews website.

PicLens – One of the most popular Firefox photography plug-ins is ready to go in Firefox 3. Too many cool features for this blurb. Get more info at the PicLens website.

VisualBookmarks – Creates bookmarks with a thumbnail and full-sized preview of a web page. Very helpful for remembering sites of various photographers. Currently works with Firefox 2. No word on a Firefox 3 upgrade. Hope it’s coming.

AutoSlideshow – With a single click, generates an image slideshow of all the images on a web page or images linked to/from a web page. Helpful when you’re mindlessly wandering around Flickr late at night and just want to stare at the screen. Works with Firefox 2. No word yet on a Firefox 3 upgrade.

FotoFox – Facilitates selection and uploading of images to sites like Flickr and SmugMug. Update coming for Firefox 3.

How to run both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3…
on a Mac.

If you plan on experimenting with color management in Firefox, the PixSylated recommendation is that you keep your Firefox 2 in place while you get used to Firefox 3. I’m all gung-ho on the new version. But I want to be sure that I’ve got an instant fall-back in case something gets buggy during the next few weeks. Yes, I have my essential backups and external disk images. When it comes to working on the web, however, I need to keep my workflow moving forward (plus I like instant gratification).

The other reason to run both Firefox 2 and 3 is that not all of my favorite plug-ins have been upgraded to Firefox 3. Be forewarned that if you accept Firefox’s offer to upgrade automatically, after Firefox 3 is in place then the ashes of Firefox 2 will drift away. This is not a problem if you are using only “Recommended” Firefox 3 plug-ins and staying out of the “Experimental” candy store. My son, Tom, found out the hard way this afternoon that many of his favorite Firefox 2 plug-ins are not yet functional in the new version. He decided to uninstall Firefox 3 and reinstall Firefox 2 on his… Dell laptop.

Fortunately, as a Macista, I’ve come upon a great solution that enables me to keep Firefox 2 in place while I continue to customize Firefox 3. Once, I’m convinced that my configuration of Firefox 3 is stable and all of my favorite plug-ins are available for the new version, I’ll say “sayonara” to Firefox 2 with a great amount of respect.

If you’re on a Mac, you need to know about MultiFirefox. It allows you to open multiple versions of Firefox at the same time. Installation and activation is a breeze. (If you’re on a PC, click here. As far as I know, there currently is no way to simultaneously run two versions of Firefox on a PC. Please comment if you know of a solution or work-around.)

Here are the steps I followed to create my skulk of Firefoxes and open them simultaneously via MultiFirefox. (Remember this is for Macistas. PC folks will have to… ?)

1. Downloaded Firefox 3, but did not install it in my Applications folder.
2. Closed Firefox 2.
3. Renamed “Firefox.app” to “Firefox2.app” in my Applications folder. I right-clicked on the file name, went to “Get Info” and changed the name in the “Name & Extension” box.
4. Installed Firefox 3 from the .dmg file I downloaded.
5. Repeated step 2 so that the new “Firefox.app” became “Firefox3.app”. So I have both “Firefox2.app” and “Firefox3.app” in my Applications folder.
6. Installed MultiFirefox.
7. Started MultiFirefox and followed the prompts to create a new Firefox profile, which I called “Firefox 3″.
8. Restarted MultiFirefox, choose “default” as the Profile and “Firefox2″ as the Version. Hit “Launch Firefox” and Firefox 2 opened.
9. Returned to MultiFirefox, chose “Firefox 3″ as the Profile and “Firefox3″ as the Version. Hit “Launch Firefox” and Firefox 3 opened.
10. Smiled at the fact that I had both versions of Firefox running simultaneously. I then sent the developer of MultiFirefox a few bucks through the “Donate” button on his site to say thank you.

Is your inner-geek wondering if you can also create two instances of Firefox 3 – one with the color management plug-in active and one without? The answer is yes. After following the steps above and installing the color management plug-in, I installed Firefox 3 a second time from the .dmg file, changed the name to “Firefox3np.app” (as in “No Plug-in”), created a “FirefoxNP” profile through MultiFirefox and once again thanked the plug-in’s creator as I simultaneously looked at web galleries with and without color management. [If you want to run two instances of Firefox 3, be sure that you've created a unique profile for each instance.]

Finally… Is Firefox 3 secure?

As is common with newly launched software, a report surfaced within hours of the launch of Firefox 3 that the program has a security issue. (The timing of the announcement plus the fact that the security hole existed through the many months of public beta and that it also exists in Firefox 2 is fodder for the cyber-conspiracy forums.) I’m not alarmed and continue to trust the Fox completely. The source of the publicity, Digital Vaccine Labs, noted “Not unlike most browser based vulnerabilities that we see these days, user interaction is required such as clicking on a link in email or visiting a malicious web page.”

So, if you’ve learned to surf the web safely, Firefox 3 should be no more vulnerable than any other browser. Just remember that when you’re on the web, you should not take candy from strangers…