Firefox 87 launches SmartBlock: because power without control is useless

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firefox 1000x600.png
firefox 1000x600.png

It was launched this week Firefox 87 And the truth is that seeing how alternatives with much more budget are doing it, such as Microsoft Edge, but also with much less, see the case of Vivaldi, the news that the new version of Mozilla’s web browser presents, does not leave a good taste of mouth for scarce. But even amid the scarcity, there is some profit to be had.

Thus, the main novelty of Firefox 87 is Smartblock, “A New Smart Tracker Blocking Mechanism for Firefox’s Private Browsing and Strict Mode”. And what does SmartBlock do, you ask? The answer is very simple: avoid that the powerful anti-tracking filters of Firefox in the indicated modes break the browsing experience, something that happened in certain cases more frequently than desirable.

Namely, since Firefox introduced its “enhanced tracking protection” module a couple of years ago, it has been expanding its capabilities all the time. The latest and most prominent, Total Cookie Protection, available from its previous version. And while the default configuration of the browser maintains a balance between protection and web compatibility, activating the strict level – the one used in private browsing – can cause display problems and even navigation on some web pages. That bad experience is what SmartBlock comes to avoid.

Firefox 87 SmartBlock

Firefox 87 SmartBlock

Other new features of Firefox 87 include: also related to privacy, obfuscation of references in URLs that could expose sensitive data; at the usability level, marks on the scroll bars to position search matches when the “highlight all” option is activated; and support for the macOS VoiceOver reader. That’s it, at least when it comes to pure and hard news.

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However, there are a couple of changes that are worth noting: the first, the removal of options such as synced tabs, recent highlights or the Pocket list of the library menuThey say because not many people used them and they are accessible from the sides. In essence, the menu of yore remains as it was long ago, showing only bookmarks, history and downloads.

Another change that Firefox 87 introduces is the backspace key deactivation, which will no longer be used to go back in the tab navigation- This has been done “to avoid the loss of data when completing forms”, although they have left open the possibility that whoever wishes to activate it again. How? Accessing the advanced preferences (about: config) and setting the value of the corresponding option (browser.backspace_action) to 0.

Finally, as a curiosity as it is a tool for developers, in Firefox 87 the web inspector allows applying the dark mode to those websites that have it, simply by pressing a button (clearly visible as soon as you open the wizard) . However, if you are interested in making the task easier and, more specifically, having something like “Chrome’s universal dark mode” … The best solution in Firefox is still the Dark Reader extension.