Quick Hands-on with Fennec, Mozilla’s Mobile Browser

Mozilla is looking to spread the success of their Firefox browser into the world of mobile phones, and have moved one step closer with the release of the latest alpha version of Fennec.

Fennec, Mozilla’s mobile-based counterpart to Firefox, hit alpha version 2 this past week. For now the web browser only works on the Nokia N810 line of internet tablets.

Even then it is only designed for testing purposes, so that users can work out bugs and web developers can give feedback and suggestions. Users can also install it on any Windows, Mac, or Linux machine for testing purposes as well.

A quick install of the latest test-version of the program shows a fairly sparse but simple interface, with big, easy-to-read text and straightforward controls. These controls are pretty clever, allowing you to view the full width of a page while still allowing access to bookmark tabs and other controls by sliding the screen to the left or right.

Zooming also works fine, allowing you to move in for a closer look at a webpage, leaving out little to none of the details you would normally see when browsing on your desktop or laptop.

Fennec appears to simply be Firefox for mobile phones, which in my opinion definitely isn’t a bad thing; Firefox is a very solid browser with good security and many useful features, and I can’t even remember when I last used another browser as frequently. If Fennec can incorporate many of Firefox’s best features, such as tabbed web browsing, simple and usable interface, and strong security, I can see no reason why it won’t be successful.

But the most interesting feature of Fennec is its potential to bring third-party and open-source add-ons and plug-ins to mobile web browsing; one of Firefox’s most cherished features is its open design, which allows users to create and download an enormous selection of user-designed add-ons that improve, change and customize Firefox.

Fennec is no exception to this trend, as plug-ins are already being designed for it. On the Fennec website Mozilla even encourages users to give feedback and write add-ons, expanding the capability of even this very early version of Fennec.

A few plug-ins have already been designed, including the NoScript add-on, which improves Fennec’s security, and the TwitterBar plug-in, which integrates Twitter-posting capabilities into the address bar of Fennec.

New features in the latest alpha release include faster panning and zooming, and improved responsiveness.

Overall, if Fennec is half as popular as Firefox we could see it become the de-facto standard for mobile phone browsing, and so far there doesn’t seem to be any reason to think that it won’t be; it looks to offer everything that Firefox does, in a mobile-sized package.

Try out the latest version of the Fennec Alpha for yourself, right here.