Mozilla rolls out Firefox 14

Open source browser maker Mozilla has unveiled the next version of its Firefox web browser, Firefox 14. It comes with enhanced security, verified identity features and better mouse performance.

Open source browser maker Mozilla is starting to roll out the next version of its Firefox web browser.

Firefox 14 comes with enhanced security, verified identity features and better mouse performance.

In one of the biggest changes to its web browser, Mozilla has made Google Searches secure by default by automatically switching on HTTPS. This protects your data from prying eyes when using shared or public WiFi networks.

"You won't notice a difference in how you search, but your Google search suggestions and search results will be presented through a secure web site," explained Mozilla. "Enabling HTTPS for these searches shields our users from network infrastructure that may be gathering data about the users or modifying/censoring their search results."

Mozilla said it hopes to implement more secure HTTPS searches on other search engines in the future, however, Google is currently the only search engine that enables them to support HTTPS searches in the browser.

Additional improvements include better mouse control when using web apps and first-person games, support for auto complete in the browser's "awesome bar," new verified identity icons to the left of the URL that help users determine how secure a site is, and full support for native fullscreen mode for Mac OS X Lion 10.7 users.

According to StatCounter's figures for June 2012, Google's Chrome leads the web browser market globally with 32.76 percent of the market and is followed by Microsoft's IE (32.31%), Mozilla's Firefox (24.56%), Apple's Safari (7.00%) and Opera (1.77%).