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The Acid test,  tests how well a browser complies with a given set of Web standards. Acid2 tests a variety of web standards published by the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Harrison Hoffman, co-founder of LiveSide.net and contributor to the CNET Blog Network is reporting that Google’s Chrome browser is outperforming the latest “stable” builds of both Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 7 in the popular Acid3 test. All the browsers tested pass the Acid2 test. However, the only currently released browser to beat Google’s Chrome browser was Opera, which scored an 83. FireFox scored 71 and IE scored 14, whereas Google’s Chrome (which is still beta) hits a 78 out of 100.

Developer builds however, including Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 (85), Opera (91), and Safari 4 (100) do beat out Chrome.

Read the full details over at CNET.

If you visit a website with either an expired or a self-signed SSL certificate, Firefox 3 will not show that page at all. Instead, the browser shows the “customs officer” graphic and an error saying the website may be dangerous. Apparently this is seen as an issue by some people (I dig it.. and you can always override it).

Of course, excuse or no, according to Netcraft, as many as 18% of the Fortune 1000 websites have expired SSL certificates. That means the odds are pretty good that Firefox 3 is going to block you from accessing some legitimate sites.

I’m gunna say thumbs-up to FireFox for doing us all a favor. People like my mom have no idea what an SSL Cert even is… if it stops here from hitting some bogus self-signed site in error then kudos to the FireFox team.

Read more at WebMonkey

Net Applications, published some interesting data about Mozilla’s Firefox in this month’s newsletter. Specifically, they’re projecting that users of the world’s favorite alternative browser will account for 20% of all web traffic sometime in July.

“Net Applications Global Internet Usage Market Share for May 2008 shows Firefox gaining more momentum,” said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president, marketing. “Firefox market share for May was 18.41% up from 17.76% in April. If recent trends continue, Firefox should achieve 20% market share some time in July.”

Source: Net Applications

It’s all in the timing

However, with Firefox 3 RC 1 already in circulation and the full release expected soon, Mozilla may be able to steal a march and shoot past 20% before the end of June.

Firefox 3 RC 1 has been my browser of choice, I love the thing. Already, prerelease versions of Firefox 3 account for close to 1% of web traffic as measured by Net Applications

Lastly, SpreadFirefox.com is planning a major marketing push for the release of Firefox 3 with the SpreadFirefox.com is planning a major marketing push for the release of Firefox 3 with the Download Day 2008 promotion, whereby backers hope to break the single-day record for the number of downloads for a single piece of software.

Whereas Firefox growth to date has been slow and steady, it seems to me that the time may be right for a major surge in adoption.