Mozilla releases Firefox 3 Beta 3

Mozilla released the Firefox 2 last year and released the Firefox 3 version in beta stage 2 for developers last November. Today it is releasing a newer beta 3 version and it's available for download here.

I have both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 beta 2, and run them both. The new version is very fast and doesn’t occupy too much memory. Firefox beta 3 is expected to be the same and Mozilla has added a slew of features to it.

Firefox 3 is based on the new Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform and has been under development for the past 30 months. It includes more than two million lines of code changes and has fixed more than 12,000 issues according to Mozilla.

Mozilla claims Firefox 3 is the most secure browser available. They say it's also easiest to use.

The new Beta version has more than 1,300 changes from the previous beta and fixes many bugs and performance problems based on feedback Mozilla received from the community.

Some of the major changes are:

• One-click site info: When we browse any site, there is a favicon (an icon at the browser window), by clicking the favicon, Firefox 3 will let you know whether the site is safe or not by verifying the site. This will alert you about sites that are a threat.

• Malware Protection: Unlike previous browsers, the new browser will warn us if other sites try to install viruses, spyware, trojans and other malware without our permission. It will block them from installing on their own.

• New Web Forgery Protection Page: If somebody tries to forge other websites, the contents will not be shown.

• Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox will automatically check add-on and plug-in versions and will disable older, insecure versions.

• Anti-Virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables files.

• Vista Parental Controls

The list of features goes on and on. If you want a safe and fast browsing experience, try Firefox 3.