Mozilla today launched its new and updated Firefox Quantum web browser. Firefox Quantum is available for mobile platforms iOS and Android, and also on Windows, Mac and Linux. Along with the new layout and features, Firefox Quantum is being portrayed as really fast by Mozilla. Mozilla says that it is twice as fast as Firefox from six months ago.

Firefox Quantum offers a minimal design as compared to the previous version. The search engine toolbar stays at top with most frequent sites browsed arranged below. There’s also a ‘Highlight’ tab below which will show related articles, photos and videos of the most browsed content on Firefox Quantum. Mozilla has added Pocket as a built-in feature on the toolbar of Firefox Quantum. There’s also a Pocket library on the browser’s library from where you can access all the saved files. Additionally, the new browser library also has browsing history, bookmarks, and synced tabs all in one place.

Firefox Quantum also comes with a built-in screenshot tool. This eliminates the need to download any other third-party app to take screenshots. You can choose to capture a screenshot of the entire page or edit out only the portion needed. Screenshots will be saved to the web so you can share it further on other platforms. 

The address bar on Firefox Quantum is said to be the browser’s most powerful tool according to Mozilla. It also says that Firefox Quantum consumes 30 percent less memory than its arch rival, Google Chrome. Firefox Quantum also comes customizing tools like rearranging the toolbar by dragging and dropping. The browser also comes with themes you can choose from. You can sync your data on Firefox Quantum on different devices. 

A rather interesting bit in the launch of Firefox Quantum is the decision to use Google as the default search engine. After the completion of Mozilla and Yahoo‘s five-year contract, Mozilla didn’t renew and instead signed a deal with Google for its search engine. Prior to Yahoo, Google had been Firefox’s default search engine for 10 years. Mozilla terms this change as their experiment with different search engines for its users. 

Mozilla today announced the biggest update for its web browser, Firefox. Now known as Firefox Quantum, Mozilla says that it’s “over twice as fast as Firefox from 6 months ago”. Firefox Quantum comes with a new layout, new features and is also optimized to consume less memory. The most surprising element in the launch of Firefox Quantum is, however, the integration of Google as the default search engine and not Yahoo.

Google had been Firefox’s default search engine since 2004, but back in 2014 Yahoo joined in. Although Google along with other search engines was built-in on Firefox, Yahoo became the default search engine. This deal was made after Yahoo paid over $300 million (approximately Rs 30 crores) a year, which was more than what Google offered to pay. However, now Google will be the default search engine for Firefox in the US, Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Mozilla in a blog post says that the decision is part of the company’s ongoing search strategy announced in 2014. This online search strategy is “to evaluate and select the best search experience in each strategy in each region as opposed to having a single global default”.

With the new deal between Mozilla and Google, Yahoo isn’t happy with the change. Charles Stewart from Verizon (Yahoo’s new owner) was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, “Yahoo and Mozilla have enjoyed a productive relationship together since 2014. We are surprised that Mozilla has decided to take another path and we are in discussions with them regarding the terms of our agreement.” As of now, it is still unknown how much Google has offered to pay Mozilla for the search engine position.

Interestingly, Mozilla pits the new Firefox Quantum to be more than two times faster while using 30 percent less memory than Chrome. Primarily focusing on the speed, Mozilla says that it will eliminate the “Wait Face” that appears due to pages not loading, and videos not streaming.