Firefox 3.6 beta will be the smallest upgrade Mozilla has released to date. It is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine and containins many improvements for web developers and add-on developers.

The most significant new change in this new version has been the addition of Personas to the core of Firefox. This will allow users to change the appearance of the browser with a single click, without having to separately install the add-on.

The major new features in this release are posted below:

* Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
* Open, native video can now be displayed full screen.
* Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.

For the curious minds, here is a list of the many new features in Firefox 3.6.

Ready to test the new beta? download it from Mozilla. Available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

It basically allows you to play videos from your favorite video sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, MetaCafe, MySpace right from within your Firefox sidebar.

Users can make a playlist of videos and watch them while surfing the web. The reason I love this extension is because it kills the limitation of staying on a browser window to watch a video and allows you to enjoy it virtually anywhere you go.

Once you install this extension (link provided at the end of this post), simply click the red YP button on the bottom right section of Firefox to bring up the YouPlayer sidebar. To start watching videos, all you have to do is drag the video link from your browser to the playlist section and double click it.

And if you still think YouPlayer is not cool enough, let me tell you that YouPlayer also allows you to even drag local files from hard drive into playlist and if you want you can download videos from YouTube by right clicking their link in the playlist and selecting Download.

Install YouPlayer Firefox Extension

This Firefox addon is recommended for users who download files very often and using this addon they will be able to view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar instead of the download window.

The fully customizable interface of this Firefox addon auto-hides when not in use, allowing full control without interruption.

Users can pause/resume a file download with single-click and can open or run a completed file with double-click. Other interesting feature of this addon is the in-line preview of percent done, speed in KBs, KBs downloaded so far and remaining time. A virus scanner can also be configured to auto-scan a file when it completes.

Install Download Statusbar

Secure Login is a Firefox add-on that will allow you to login to websites instantly just with one-click.

It is very similar to the Wand Login feature in Opera. In case you have multiple login credentials for a single website, it will let you choose the username through which you want to login.

Moreover you can choose a keyboard shortcut (in case you are too lazy to press the key button).

Firefox-addon Secure Login

According to a report by TippingPoint, a research organization for vulnerability analysis and discovery, Firefox 3.0 has a security loophole which could allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code.

The vulnerability does not come exclusively in Firefox 3.0 rather it has also been diagnosed in early versions of Firefox 2.0.x. This exploit was discovered within 5 hours of the official release of Firefox 3.0 on June 17th.

The good thing is that Mozilla Security Team has already taken this vulnerability into account and soon we can expect a security patch for Firefox. Just keep checking for updates daily and update Firefox as soon as a patch is available.

URL Fixer for Firefox is a simple little add-on that will make sure your typing mistakes are automatically corrected as you type.

Lets say, you wanted to go to “Google.com” but instead you typed in “Google.con” in a hurry.

URL Fixer will automatically correct the URL for you and will also ask you for confirmation. Currently it supports auto-correction of all TLDs e.g. .com, .net, .info etc and protocols (http:, https:).

If you make typos frequently, then URL Fixer is the best Firefox add-on for you.

Firefox 3.0 is the new version of Mozilla Firefox Web Browser that has revolutionized the web since its creation and overthrown browsers like IE and Opera from the web browser industry.

In Firefox 3.0 you will find tons of new features and improvements most of which focus towards security and usability. Below is a list of the top new features of Firefox 3.0:

• Better anti-malware and spyware protection
• Super add-on manager
• Improved Download Manager with detailed stats
• New and improved Bookmarking feature
• Much cleaner and smooth layout
• Streamlined Remember Password
• Less memory-usage

and lots more!

The Firefox community still needs your help to make a World Record. Stay tuned as I will soon be updating this blog on how to install Firefox 3.0 Final on Ubuntu Linux.

Download Firefox 3.0 from Softpedia
Download Firefox 3.0 from Mozilla FTP

This is actually a Firefox bug which causes a user to lose all bookmarks if Firefox is not closed properly but thanks to a solution provided by anewmorning, you can restore all bookmarks using the smart backup feature of Firefox which automatically makes a backup of your bookmarks daily.

Here is how it goes:

1. Go to run and type the following and press enter:
   %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
2. In the folder that opens, simply open the “bookmarkbackups” folder. If you use multiple profiles then open the profile folder first and then open the “bookmarkbackups”.
   
3. In this folder you will see backup of all your bookmarks that were made by Firefox automatically according to date.
   
4. Now to restore the bookmarks open Firefox and go to Bookmarks → Organize Bookmarks. In the Bookmarks Manager, click on File → Import and select Import from File and click Next. Choose the backup HTML file and enjoy!
   

Alternatively, I would recommend Firefox users to make self-made backups of settings, bookmarks on a regular basis. Here is a good tool to make Backup of Firefox Settings and Bookmarks.

Google Earth Browser Plugin can be downloaded using the link provided at the end of this post. This plugin currently supports only Firefox, IE6 and IE7 and is consumes a lot of memory while running so make sure you have enough RAM before downloading and installing this plugin.

Courtesy: Google OS

Along with the Google Earth Pluign, Google has also released the JavaScript API which lets you embed Google Earth, a true 3D digital globe, into your web pages.

Google Earth Browser Plugin

It is simple and easy, all you have to do is download Firefox 3 during Download Day 2008 to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours.

Above you can see a pledge map of all the users who are participating to help make this World record for Firefox.

To take part in this exciting campaign, go to Firefox World Record page and make your pledge. You will be automatically notified through mail when the Download Day arrives somewhere in June. You can ask your friends, family and colleagues to be a part of this campaign and you can also put Firefox World Record badges and banners on your blog to spread the word.

Love live Firefox!