Recently while using Google Maps on latest Firebox 3.6 beta3 (I updated my favorite Firefox to the latest beta3 few days back) I noticed that the browser asked me to share my location in order to provide more relevant local search results for your location. I didn’t knew how precise my location can be tracked using network but believe me it was amazingly accurate. Google tracked my ‘exact’ location using ‘Location-aware Browsing’ feature and by ‘exact’ I mean 100% accurate.

But, this means a new problem I.e. Privacy. if using ‘Location-aware browsing’ (aka GeoLocation) Google can track you then sooner or later hackers/spammers/crackers/etc are also gonna track you down. Though I like the feature but being a privacy lover I do not like Google or anyone else tracking me via ‘Location-aware browsing’.

Though, Mozilla team claims on their site that Firefox does not track your location as you browse on web and it provides only limited location information is sent to the website that too with user’s permission only, Firefox also enables user to change the permission to share his/her location with any website by him/her. BTW, Firefox also allows user to clear the “random client identification number” assigned by Google GeoLocation Services (normally remains valid for two weeks).

If you wish to disable the Location-Aware Browsing completely in your Firefox, do the following step by step:

1. In the URL bar of Firefox, type about:config
2. Type geo.enabled
3. Double click on the geo.enabled preference (value will change from “true” to “false”)
4. Location-Aware Browsing is now disabled

Yesterday, Mozilla Corp. launched Beta3 version of their Firefox 3.6 web browser, which they intend to update itself during the beta period and eventually to the final release. Firefox 3.6 Beta3 uses Mozilla’s Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform. This version has been optimized to make it faster and more responsive than previous versions.

Apart from all changes and new features of Firefox 3.6 Mozilla community stated following improvements:

• Changes in third party software integration with Firefox to prevent crashes.
• Speed up page load time via ability to run scripts asynchronously.
• More than 80 bug fixes from the last beta to improve performance, stability, security and features.
• This beta is available in more than 60 languages – get your local version.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. RealVNC is an “open source” piece of software that allows two or more computers to be connected while allowing one to be the host and the others to be the clients. It’s a remote control software which allows you to view and interact with one computer (the “server”) using a simple program (the “viewer”) on another computer anywhere on the Internet. It is platform independent, which means you can use VNC to view an office Linux machine on your Windows PC at home. VNC is freeware and publicly available and is in widespread active use by millions throughout industry, academia and privately. Even the banks like Canara bank use it [i have seen them using it].

Firefox 2 Beta 2 is a developer preview release of our next generation Firefox browser and it is being made available for testing purposes only.
Firefox 2 Beta 2 is intended for Web application developers and testing community. Current users of Firefox 1.x should not use Firefox 2 Beta 2 and expect all of their extensions and plugins to work properly.

Download Firefox 2 Beta 2 here | Release Notes