| Firefox 2.0 beta 2 boasts enhanced look, features |
Aug. 31, 2006
 [Updated Sept. 4] -- Mozilla released Beta 2 of its Firefox 2 browser for developer review Aug. 31, emphasizing that it's being made available for testing purposes only. The release contains a number of new features, as well as some enhancements to look and feel.
"Firefox 2 Beta 2 is intended for Web application developers and our testing community," the team said on the Mozilla development website. "Current users of Firefox 1.x should not use Firefox 2 Beta 2 and expect all of their extensions and plugins to work properly.
The final Firefox 2.0 is expected to be completed in late October, the team said on its wiki, with the first release candidate scheduled for a Sept. 13 debut.
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Key new features in beta 2, as listed by the team, include:- Visual refresh -- Firefox 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability without altering the familiarity of the browsing experience. For instance, toolbar buttons now glow when you hover over them.
- Built-in phishing protection -- Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated when the Phishing Protection feature is enabled.
- Enhanced search capabilities -- Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.
- Improved tabbed browsing -- By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.
- Resuming your browsing session -- The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.
- Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds -- Users can decide how to handle Web feeds (like this one), either subscribing to them via a Web service or in a standalone RSS reader, or adding them as Live Bookmarks. My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader come pre-loaded as Web service options, but users can add any Web service that handles RSS feeds.
- Inline spell checking -- A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms.
- Live Titles -- When a website offers a microsummary (a regularly updated summary of the most important information on a Web page), users can create a bookmark with a "Live Title." Compact enough to fit in the space available to a bookmark label, they provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated with the latest information. There are several websites that can be bookmarked with Live Titles, and even more add-ons to generate Live Titles for other popular websites.
- Improved Add-ons manager -- The new Add-ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, combining them both in a single tool.
- New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.
Beta 2 screenshots
We downloaded the Beta 2 tar, unzipped it, and loaded it up on our SUSE 10.1 system. Here are a few quick screen grabs:
New RSS preferences function
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Selected tab is now highlighted better
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Have you noticed our enhanced headline feed yet?
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Availability
The download will eventually be available from Mozilla.org's Firefox download area. In the mean time, we managed to locate it on Mozilla's ftp site, here.
This news item was edited using Firefox 2.0 beta 2.
[Editor's note: This story was updated and corrected with regard to the final release date of Firefox 2.0 in October and to the date of the RC1 release.]
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