the end of

After patching up 11 vulnerabilities in Firefox 3.0, 12 vulnerabilities for Firefox 2.0 and announcing the end of “end of life” plan for Firefox 2.0, Mozilla has capped a busy couple weeks with the unveiling of “tear away” tabs.

For those familiar with Google Chrome, this feature allowing users to tear away tabs to form new standalone windows is not new.

The new feature is available in the latest build of Firefox 3.1, which is meant for Web developers. It can be downloaded by anyone who is willing to stomach the risks that come with using an alpha browser.

In addition to the new tabs feature, the alpha build of Firefox 3.1, dubbed Minefield, boasts faster JavaScript speeds, which are faster than Google Chrome’s V8 engine, according to some.

Also, Minefield allows users to look at every open tab in a new visual presentation. A button at the far right of the tab bar displays images of each open tab and allows the user to click on the one they want to view or to search for a tab by entering a query.

The visual effect is similar to the window selection presentation available on OSX and Vista.

Google Chrome’s somewhat suspicious goal of upping the incentives to innovate for all browsers (especially Firefox) appears to be going as planned.

Sources:
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10098552-12.html

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/153876/mozilla_patches_11_firefox_holes.html

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39554855,00.htm?r=1

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/11/critical_security_updates_for.html

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Tab_Browsing_Tweaks:_Yet_Another_Reason_to_Love_Firefox_3DOT1