Firefox 131 brings tab previews, text fragment links, and security fixes
Yesterday, Mozilla released Firefox 131 for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, which not only fixes a number of security vulnerabilities but also includes some interesting new features. They also released security updates for both ESR versions as well as the Tor Browser.
Mozilla’s security report for Firefox 131 lists more than 13 fixed security vulnerabilities, categorizing at least seven of them as “high risk.” As far as is known, none of them have been exploited in the wild.
You can use the Help > About Firefox menu to manually initiate an update check and download the update if you haven’t yet.
What’s new in Firefox 131?
The Tab Preview feature that was promised for the previous version should now be available to all users. When hovering over a background tab, Firefox no longer just displays a simple tooltip but now shows the title, URL, and thumbnail. (This should be familiar if you use other browsers like Chrome.)
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Another change is that when a website asks for permission to access your location, Firefox can temporarily remember your decision. After an hour or after closing the tab, Firefox forgets the permission granted.
Firefox now also supports URL fragment text directives, which are basically links to specific text passages on a web page that aren’t necessarily provided by the website itself. Clicking such a link will cause Firefox to automatically scroll to the linked text passage and highlight it in a color that helps it to stand out.
What Firefox still lacks is the ability to create such links yourself, but there’s a browser add-on called Link to Text Fragment that provides this functionality. (Chrome can already do this without an extension.)
Firefox ESR and Tor Browser updates
With Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release), Mozilla remains committed to supporting older versions of Windows and macOS.
Firefox ESR 115.16.0 fixes a Windows 7 incompatibility with the latest Widevine library as well as 4 security vulnerabilities.
Firefox ESR 115 is only available to users on Windows 7 through 8.1 and macOS 10.12 through 10.14, and will only remain supported through to March 2025. (A final date for end of support is still to come, expected sometime in early 2025.)
Firefox ESR 128.3.0 fixes at least 11 security vulnerabilities and includes a few quality-of-life improvements. (The security fixes are largely a subset of what was fixed for Firefox 131.)
For the time being, Tor Browser and its developers are following Mozilla’s lead and will continue to support older systems. Tor Browser 13.5.6 is based on Firefox ESR 115.16 but integrates some security improvements from Firefox 131. NoScript 11.4.40 is also included.
Mozilla plans to release Firefox 132 as well as Firefox ESR 128.4 and Firefox ESR 115.17 on October 29.
Further reading: Chrome vs. Edge vs. Firefox speeds, compared