Mozilla Firefox 64 Debuts With Smart Recommendations, Improved Tab Management

Mozilla has released Firefox 64 with a system that is designed to recommend new features and add-ons based on how you use the Web. Called Contextual Feature Recommender (CFR), the new system is currently available for US users in regular browsing mode and uses on-device processing to recommend Firefox features and add-ons. The new Firefox version also brings enhanced tab management to let you quickly and easily manage multiple tabs on the tab bar. There is also improved performance on Mac and Linux machines as well as seamless sharing on Windows.

Among other new features, Firefox 64 has the CFR system that is touted to "proactively recommend" features and add-ons based on you use the Web. For instance, if you open multiple tabs and use these tabs repeatedly, the Firefox browser may suggest you use Pinned Tabs feature along with giving its explanation. "Firefox curates the suggested features and notifies you," says Mozilla's VP of Firefox Product Nick Nguyen in a blog post.

Nguyen also underlines that Mozilla doesn't use the browser history to recommend features and add-ons through Firefox 64. The system instead processes recommendations locally within the browser. Also, the feature is initially available for US users in regular browsing mode. This means you won't see any recommendations if you're using the browser in the US in Private Browsing mode. Moreover, Mozilla is all set to start the rollout of smart recommendations through three recommended extensions, including Facebook Container, Enhancer for YouTube, and To Google Translate.

In addition to the new recommendations system, Firefox 64 brings "enhanced tab management". You can now shift or Ctrl and click multiple tabs from the tab bar to organise them as per your requirement. Mozilla says that you can mute, move, bookmark, or pin tabs quickly and easily using the new addition. Furthermore, Firefox has updated Task Manager to show the amount of energy each active tab consumes and provides access to close tabs to conserve power.

Firefox 64 improves performance on Mac and Linux releases by enabling link-time optimisation (Clang LTO). This was enabled for Windows users in Firefox 63. Further, Windows users can now share a webpage using the native sharing option. There is also an option to remove add-ons using the context menu available on their toolbar buttons. Additionally, there is an updated policy engine on macOS to enable configuration profiles to customise Firefox for enterprise deployments. The new Firefox browser also includes various security fixes.

For Android users, the updated Firefox brings an improved scrolling speed. The browser also improved a few other performance-related metrics.

You can download Firefox 64 on your system by visiting the official Mozilla site. Alternatively, you can also download the latest developer version of Firefox.

Earlier this month, Qualcomm announced its partnership with Mozilla to bring a native ARM64 version of Firefox. The new version will be designed for "always-on, always-connected" Windows 10 PCs.