While some people were underwhelmed with the recently released Firefox 2.0 browser, there are some important improvements that will fly under a lot of people's radar. Improved tab navigation, better anti-phishing technology, improved user interface, and other improvements are great. However, the most notable enhancement, in my opinion, is the new inline spell checking feature in text input areas. This might seem like a pedestrian feature, but I honestly do not think its importance can be overestimated.
The poor spelling habits of the online horde is one of the clichés of the internet. Weblogs and forums are notorious for childish spelling as people rush to get their words out into the public eye. This single improvement to the browser will have a tremendous effect on the online experience. On a site like digg.com where the usage of Firefox is well above average, the effects are already being felt. The quality of spelling in submissions and comments (while still not perfect) has significantly improved since the release of the new Firefox last week. And, with better spelling, one thankfully sees far fewer snide responses correcting other peoples' mistakes.
As on the Mac, this type of feature would ideally be implemented at the operating system level — one dictionary to rule them all. Also, grammar and misspelling still require good old-fashioned editorial abilities. Browsers still can't help me with my poor hyphen use and misplaced commas, for instance. Nonetheless, this is a massive improvement for webloggers, commenters, forum participants, and most especially for everyone else who reads the content those people produce. If you haven't upgraded yet or if you were waiting for one special thing to entice you to try Firefox, this is your cue to get Firefox 2.0.
PS: In case you were unaware, you can also enable spell checking in text inputs (the smaller, thinner inputs where you enter text like the search input on google.com) but it's a little tricky: in your location bar enter about:config, scroll down to layout.spellcheck:Default, double click that line, change the 1 to a 2, and you're done!
Comments
Jesse C. - November 3, 2006 7:50 am
Okay, I'm an idiot. I thought gmail had quietly rolled out a new feature. But then I noticed the spell-checking happening while updating a client's cms - and then I read your post :)
I agree, this is a feature that quietly takes FF 2 to the front of the pack. Great post.
Jay Jones - November 3, 2006 9:36 am
Another nice feature rolled out by Firefox (that completely went below radar) is the "microsummary":http://wiki.mozilla.org/Microsummaries . It's basically a link tag with a rel="microsummary" attribute that pulls in a description to a site. This description appears in your bookmarks along with the site title. That doesn't sound all that grand, but the nice thing is, the microsummary can be _dynamic_. Imagine the bookmark summaries in your browser constantly updating to reflect the most current content. It's an interesting concept. I think it could be useful, but I'm not sure how it would get adopted. There obviously isn't much fan-fare about it right now.
Regarding the spell-check feature, I think it's great. Some people are calling it feature-bloat, and that may be true, since it has been offered as an extension for quite a while already. Maybe it should have stayed as an add-on, who knows, but at least correct spelling will start to become more commonplace on the 'Internets' now. Let's hope. :)
Steven Garrity - November 3, 2006 10:16 am
Turning on the spell checking in all form fields is fantastic. Great tip. The red-underline looks particularly sharp in your hip grey form fields.
Cuidhil-meaban - November 3, 2006 11:12 am
WOW 'your bad spellins commints have reely hit hom with me.' FF2 to the rescue, eh?
Seriously though, I have been using FF2 since it became available & am really
enjoying the changes as well as the subsequent improvements to the extensions.
BTW Thanks for the about:config tip. Is there a help file for this config available?
Reji
Scott Noblit - February 27, 2007 9:47 pm
Thanks for the tip on the input spell check. This may be one of the biggest enhancements to go under the radar. Its such a simple addition that really makes a huge difference.