The History of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 in Screenshots [Screenshot Tour]

Posted by Karim Baz

June 16, 2008

Mozilla released Firefox version 1.0 to relative obscurity in November of 2004, and four short years later, the much-anticipated Firefox 3.0 will hit the streets with ambitions of setting a new world record tomorrow. In honor of tomorrow’s 3.0 release, let’s take a look back at a visual history of Firefox, version 1.0 to 3.0.

The Themes

The most significant change you’ll notice in Firefox 3 off the bat is the new themes. Mozilla has skinned Firefox 3 to integrate with your operating system of choice. Firefox 3.0 in Vista now fits more into the aesthetic of Vista, Firefox in OS X likewise fits more with the look and feel of native OS X apps, and so on. Here’s a quick look back at the changes from the Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 chrome.

You’ll notice a subtle change in the theme from Firefox 1 to 2, but nothing to write home about.

On the other hand, the changes between Firefox 2 and 3—and even between Firefox 3 on different operating systems—are significant.

Another huge change to the look and functionality of Firefox 3 is the new and improved Location bar. Not only can you find a web page in your history by address, but you can also search the…