Mozilla prepares coders for Firefox 4 features
![zd-defaultauthor-stephen-shankland.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/1b9564b255ea6b1c543d315a654aa616c7739268/2014/12/04/b8cc3fce-7b71-11e4-9a74-d4ae52e95e57/zd-defaultauthor-stephen-shankland.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
It was with delight that I read these words on Thursday: "The proposed IndexedDB standard, which provides a local database store for Web applications, will be supported by Firefox 4."
The statement appears on Mozilla's new Firefox 4 for developers site, boding well for those of us who use the Web a lot: the IndexedDB interface gives Web applications a way to work even without a network connection.
The proposed IndexedDB addition to the HTML standard is one of a collection of technologies opening new horizons for Web programmers and putting competitive pressure on Adobe Systems' Flash Player plug-in. The main reason I'm interested in it in particular: the restoration and, I'd hope, improvement of Google Docs offline access and editing features. But I could see it as improving performance for some Web sites, too, through more sophisticated caching, for example.
For more on this story, read Mozilla prepares coders for Firefox 4 features on CNET News.