the vynsane asylum

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Firefox continues to prove with release after release why it's the best browser on the market. With Firefox 3 coming out soon (it's been in beta for about eight months now), the development team was nice enough to put together a short video showing off the new features that will appear in Firefox 3 when the final version ships sometime this month.

If you're a Firefox user, take a spin through the new features by clicking here, or read on for a digest.

The Smart Location Bar adds a better memory to your browser history and your bookmarks: Now Firefox keeps track of web page titles in addition to actual URLs: Type "null" into the URL bar and you'll see my blog pop up instead of having to type "tech.yahoo.com...," plus it will search your bookmarks too.

Bookmarking gets an upgrade too. Click the new star button to easily add an page to an "unsorted bookmarks" folder (a dumping ground for sites you want to remember in history); click the star again if you want to organize that bookmark a little better. Tagging is also added to the bookmark system to help you find stuff later.

Website Owner Information is now easily accessed by clicking the favicon (to the left of the URL), which looks helpful in avoiding phishing attempts and in telling you exactly who you're providing data to.

Integrated Malware Protection - Enough said! Users can report sites that are infected with malware and Firefox will automatically block the site. Extra data is available for website owners who might have had their websites hacked, so they can fix the issue. This alone looks like reason enough to upgrade.

Pause and Resume Downloads is a killer feature that used to require a third-party add-on. Now the Downloads window has a simple pause/play button, letting you stop and start all you want. Downloads are also now searchable.

Add-Ons get a search system right in the browser, too.

Firefox 3 should be available before the end of the month, and I'm definitely upgrading to the new browser when it's out. (I've held out on moving to the betas due to some incompatible plug-ins.) These new features look not only very useful, but well integrated into the program, too. Definitely looking forward to it!