Firefox 13 Beta ready for download

Mozilla released the version 12 of the Firefox browser only last week. Now, we have the version 13 in the Beta state ready for download. The company is in the overdrive mode with rapid releases of new versions of the browser. The Firefox 13 Beta is now available for download for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

So what's new in the new version? Mozilla has changed the default layout of the homepage slightly. Also, opening a new tab will give a quicker access to the bookmarks, settings, history and more. A feature is borrowed from Chrome. While opening a new tab, it will show the most visited pages. This will help the users to go directly to the page they want to without typing the URL.

There are some changes on the SPDY protocol. It will be enabled by default thereby allowing faster browsing on the supported sites. While the browser is opened for the first time, it will not restore the tabs by default. This change has been adopted to make the start up faster.

The smooth scrolling is activated and there are some new features for the developers as well. A total of 72 improvements were made to Style Editor, Scratchpad, Style Inspector, HTML panel and Page Inspector. As it is in the Beta state, there are some issues. For instance, if the user is trying to start the Firefox with a locked profile, it will get crashed. Some might have slower scrolling on the main page of Gmail.

Are you planning to download and give it a try? What is your experience with the Firefox 13 Beta? Please do share your opinions with us in the comments below.