Mozilla has recently released its Firefox 3 web browser that contains several new features and improvements from the previous release. Aside from just being another web browser, Firefox 3 also has the distinction of being in the Guinness world record books for becoming the most downloaded software in 24 hours. Here are several of those new features and improvements that you might want to check out.

One Click Bookmarking

Firefox 3 has given users a more convenient way to bookmark their favorite sites without having to go through menus. With Firefox 3, a favorite site can now be as easy as a single click of the star icon located at the end of the location bar.

Smart Location Bar

Firefox also features a location bar that learns about your preferences along the way. It can be a quick way to go through the websites that you may have visited but seem to have forgotten about. When you type a certain keyword on the location bar, it gives you a list of possible site matches that you have previously visited from your browsing history as well as the sites that you have bookmarked or tagged.

Security Features

Firefox 3 also includes a number of security features that will help users be more assured of their online safety. If you are not sure whether a website that you have visited is legitimate enough to purchase products from or providing your personal information, you can use the instant web site ID feature that allows you to check important website information. The information provided can alert you of suspicious sites or bogus ones that aim only to deceive you.

With the prevalence of trojans, worms, viruses and other malware not being spread through attack sites, Firefox 3 can also alert and warn you of possible attack sites in case you accidentally gain access into one. Firefox 3 pops out a full size browser warning to alert you of a possible attack site.

Firefox continuously updates its list of known attack sites so that it can automatically warn and alert you before you gain access and get into potential harm online through malware threats. Firefox 3 also alerts you from trying to get into fraudulent websites that pretends to be a website that you frequent and trust. The same browser warning pops up whenever you find yourself entering into such phishing websites.

Improved Performance

A problem that most users have complained about previous Firefox versions have been its memory-hogging characteristics and memory leaks. Firefox 3 has now been improved to keep memory usage under control. It now has an XPCOM cycle that tries to clean up unused memory more often.