Firefox 17 released

Firefox 17 is out now, and you can download it for Windows and Mac.

In line with recent updates, this is not a radical update, but there are some changes. The most notable is the introduction of Facebook integration. Click here to enable this feature once Firefox has been updated. This adds four Facebook buttons to Firefox, as you can see below, allowing you to check notifications, messages, friend requests, and open your profile.

You can also have the Facebook Sidebar open all the time, which is great for Facebook addicts, but I think it takes up valuable browsing space, so I’ll keep it switched off!

The other bigger development is click-to-play plugins. This is a really useful security measure – Windows users will now be notified if they are using old versions of Adobe Reader, Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, with more to come. This will stop these plugins from loading content automatically unless they are up to date, which will keep you safer.

If you’re a Mac user, Firefox 17 has dropped support for OS X 10.5 (Leopard).