There’s a new feature in Firefox 3 Beta 5 that I just came across yesterday when using the browser, and I’m not sure how long it has been there. What I did was I clicked on the icon for our site which brought up what would normally be security-related information for the page your viewing. Then I clicked the More Information button:
I was then presented with more details on the security of the site, which includes being able to view cookies or passwords for that particular domain. What I found to be really interesting, however, is that it says whether you’ve visited that particular site before… and how many times you have done so:
If you frequently clear out the browser’s history then it obviously won’t be able to keep track of this, but it’s been a month or so since I’ve done that. Needless to say I’ve visited our site quite a bit in that period of time. 
Ryan,
All this extra detail feeds off of Firefox 3’s new Places structure which is supported by SQLite databases for URL’s, history tracking, etc.
It’s actually cool stuff.
There is some more fun you can do to get details under the Places “Library” view which organizes your bookmarks.
Hidden Power in Firefox Places “Library” Organizer – [grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com]
Cheers!
@Ryan: I thought you were an Opera user. Have you switched or do you browse the web so much with both browsers that it’s creepy?
That’s a cool new feature. My guess this is only the beginning of what they can do the that new database they use for bookmarks and more.
Looks good. Wish they’d just release the thing already
I mean, this whole Beta/RC thing is a tad drawn out.
I’m with you on this Michael. It has been way too drawn out. That is a pretty cool feature except I always clear my cache upon closing Firefox.
Thats pretty cool, I didn’t notice that till you pointed it out.
How cool, I love statistics. I hope Opera “borrows” this
I use both quite regularly. That way I keep up on what both technologies have to offer. I’ve been leaning more towards Firefox 3 than Opera lately though thanks to the much improved memory performance.
As Claus pointed out in an earlier comment there does seem to be some great things happening in the background with Places.
They are still polishing it up though. I mean it wasn’t until the last Beta that they actually got nearly all aspects of the new theme added. And they probably want to make sure extension developers have time to update their extensions.
It’s something that a lot of people probably wouldn’t notice. I have a feeling that someone will develop an extension that displays this number in the status bar.
It’s not just cool to be able to see some visit statistics. The primary value is that you can make a good identity decisions with it. You’re probably at your bank, for example, if you’ve visited the site 200 times before and saved a password. You’re probably at a phishing site impersonating your bank if you’ve only been there this one time and never saved a password for this site. This kind of secondary identity information can go a long way to helping you protect yourself online.
That is very true, but it’s too bad that Firefox doesn’t somehow utilize that data to show a user a warning if it believes it is a phishing site. I definitely like the idea that you can check the data, but I have a feeling that people will know they are visiting a phishing site before they go and check that data. And they would have to suspect the site as being a phishing attack before it would cross their mind to check that. There’s just gotta be some way that it can be utilized as more of a precautionary measure.
Ryan,
Quote: “…it’s too bad that Firefox doesn’t somehow utilize that data to show a user a warning if it believes it is a phishing site.”
Firefox 3 will do that, if enabled. It actually now sets two levels of protection: Protection against phishing sites and protection against “attack” sites.
See this related post of mine for issues related to these features:
Firefox 3 Security Blocker: Going In Deep – [grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com]
It uses another SQLite database file for this information, obtained (currently) from Google’s own identification of such (potentially) malicious sites.
There is also an interesting follow-on thread in the comments of that post that developed regarding some conclusions a fellow Firefox fan and researcher has offered regarding user privacy with this feature.
Cheers.
I understand that Firefox has the anti-phishing mechanisms, but I’ve read nothing that says it utilizes the number of times a user has viewed the site to help determine its validity. I may have missed it in your article, but I did not see anything about it specifically using this information.
Ryan,
I think I see where you are going with this now.
This would be different from the built-in phishing protection available in Firefox 3. Maybe supplement that existing warning process and put that information up front for the user to consider…especially important if the suspected phishing site hasn’t yet made it as an inclusion in the badURL phishing list database that Firefox 3 would be using.
Maybe someone would be able to develop an extension that provides a site visit-counter view; maybe a window-shade format that briefly appears then disappears after you visit a site and the URL is cross-matched against the URL history in the database. Or possibly some icons in the toolbar or status bar with a counter to show how many times you’ve visited the site (main URL / sub-page URL).
Definitely some new things for developers to work with here.
As you say, assuming that the user isn’t in the habit of deleting their browsing history.
Yup, you understand what I was getting at now. I’m sure someone could develop an extension for that where maybe they highlight the domain of the site in red if it is the first time you’re visiting it. Or something along those lines. Just some sort of visual indicator would be nice if you’ve visited the current site less than 1 or 2 times before.
“There’s just gotta be some way that it can be utilized as more of a precautionary measure.”
Well, it’s secondary data. It’s meant for when the primary source isn’t giving an indication. We have a primary mechanism in Firefox called Phishing Protection. This secondary data will certainly help instill confidence if you check it before, say, engaging in a large financial transaction at what you presume to be your banking site.
Presumably we could use this data to inform the Phishing Protection feature, but I don’t think it’s sufficiently authoritative to use to block access to a site. There was a time when you had not yet visited your bank for the first time. It’s really much more useful for confirming the good than warning against the bad.