Yesterday (3/29/07), Ancestry released the FireFox Advanced Image Viewer.  The FireFox Advanced Image Viewer adds the same set of functionality as the Internet Explorer version such as:
- Support for TIFF and JPEG 2000 images – giving our users a high-quality complete image with a single download of a compressed file.
- Hit-highlighting on images (such as Newspapers, and Family and Local Histories).
- Interactive zooming and panning
- Thumbnails
- Auto-Contrasting
- Download progress indicator
- Image magnification
- Auto-sizing UI – using the maximum amount of the user’s browser window to view images
The Firefox Advanced Image Viewer works on FireFox 1.5 and FireFox 2.0 browsers running on Windows ME and higher Windows operating systems.
Thanks Ancestry, I tried it on Firefox, and yes it works great!
Thank you – love it. Firefox is far superior to IE in so many ways I am pleased to not have to launch IE just to access Ancestry’s enhanced image viewer. Thank you Thank you Thank you
Would someone tell me why the Firefox enhanced viewer doesn’t work on MACs… Does Ancestry think genealogy is only on “GATED” computers?
Its funny, since a few years ago, the viewers highlighted even on MACs. I guess to charge higher rates, My Family, improved so that Macs are no longer compatible with historical newspapers… Progress and more money. What a way to go.
I, also, love it, but on dial-up it takes far longer to load than the regular viewer. I can only play so many games of Spider between pages!
On April first I contacted ancestry and asked just when were they going to offer the enhanced viewer for firefox and other systems. They emailed me this morning and did not mention they already had one! So, how do I get to this enhanced viewer? And, is it worth it?
I have the same question as the Mac user — why isn’t this feature implemented for Linux users? One of the strong advantages of Firefox is that it works so well across platforms. Monoculture leads to stagnation.
I have to agree about the MAC— I had to go to “Reunion” rather than “Family HIstory” as a basis for my research as the latter was not supported by the MAC.– What a shame and extra work for me.
Thanks so much for adding this feature. I’m thrilled not to have to go back and forth between Firefox, my primary browser and IE.
However, I’m only getting blank images on the WW1 draft cards so there is apparently some problem there.
I posted the update on one of the newsletters I use and others were equally thrilled.
Thanks again.
Patt Ricketts
I have Windows XP. So, how do I access or get to: FireFox Advanced Image Viewer?
When will the Ancestry toolbar be compatible with Internst Explorer 8?