Firefox 2.0 Beta Candidate Released

Tuesday July 11th is the release date of the latest beta from Mozilla. Firefox 2.0 follows close on the heels of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.0 third Beta and Opera 9.0. With Firefox Beta 2.0 version Mozilla Foundation reinstates its place on the browser market, keeping up with its main competitors.

The version has already been posted on the Mozilla FTP site characterized as a public "release candidate", but with the specification that it is not meant for mass utilization, although it is complete as the features of the product are concerned. Beta testers so far have apparently applauded two new options embedded in the browser. One of them provides a helping tool for the user, being an integrated spell checker. The second one addresses the ever increasing need for security and similar applications from rival browsers. The anti-phishing tool acts as a filter of the locally stored black-list of malicious web sites, while tapping Google's site listings.

Mozilla's browser has undertaken an aesthetic and functional face lift as the user interface, although familiar enough with the previous versions, has suffered various modifications. The horizontal scrolling option for tabs and the ability to close a tab from within have survived but are now joined by a horizontal, tabbed based interface introduced to the options dialog.

Firefox 2.0 Beta will be directly available for download starting on July 11 for PC, Mac and Linux.