Mozilla is making forays into the future of Firefox and the Web, but at the same time is cooking Shiretoko. The list of Firefox 3.1, codename Shiretoko, features is growing ahead of the Alpha 2 and Beta 1 builds that are planned to drop by the end of this month. Nothing is completely set in stone as far as the next version of Mozilla's open source browser is concerned, and certainly not the full feature-set. However, Mozilla is indeed fattening up the feature set, as it aims to include all the items on track for the final version as early as the first Beta release. Users that grabbed Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 have already been able to get a taste of the enhancements coming for the successor of Firefox 3.0.

Essentially, Mozilla aims to include in version 3.1 all the features that it has cut from Firefox 3.0 in order to meet the June 17 delivery deadline. This is why, even as early as Alpha 1, new features have started being implemented, although the majority barely visible, since the improvements are focused mainly under-the-hood. The most visible enhancements deal with a new tab switching behavior as well as boosted capabilities for the Smart Location Bar.

But there are additional items that have been built into Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 such as: Tag Autocomplete, Bulk tagging support, Private browsing mode, Enhanced compatibility checking during upgrades and new HTML5 and CSS3 elements, according to the official list of Firefox 3.1 Features.

And there are more HTML5 and CSS3 and even CSS 2.1 improvements coming in Beta 1, since Mozilla is looking to evolve Firefox 3.1's support for web standards and come as close as possible to perfection in the Acid3 Test. In Firefox 3.1 Shiretoko Beta 1, Mozilla will also introduce "Aero Glass support in chrome on Vista, improved CMS performance, rendering video to canvas, HTML5 audio/video and support for Ogg Vorbis and Theora codecs".

Shiretoko Beta 1 code freeze is scheduled for August 19, with the fully-fledged Beta promised by the end of the month, while the final version of Firefox 3.1 is expected either in late 2008, or at the beginning of 2009.

Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 for Linux is available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 for Mac OS X is available for download here.