Mozilla releases Firefox 3 Beta 3

Mozilla has released the latest upgrade to its browser - Firefox 3 Beta 3.

The release is designed for developers and testers and offers a host of improvements.

Security has been improved with better presentation of website identity. The browser now supports Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates and includes malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, and anti-virus integration in the download manager.

The new version is designed for ease of use, with simplified add-on discovery and installation, improved download manager search and progress indication in the status bar, resumable downloading, full page zoom, and better integration with Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux.

The browser is now easier to personalise, with the addition of one-click bookmarking, smart bookmark folders, and a location bar that uses an algorithm based on how recently and frequently the site has been visited to provide better matches against user history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customisation of download actions for file types.

The platform features have also been enhanced, with new graphics and font rendering architecture, JavaScript 1.8, major changes to the HTML rendering engine to provide better CSS, float-, and table layout support, native web page form controls, colour profile management, and offline application support.

Performance has also been enhanced, with better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to accelerate page rendering, over 350 memory leak fixes, a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks, and reductions in the memory footprint.

Story link: Mozilla releases Firefox 3 Beta 3