14 DAY TRIAL // Along with the latest beta of Firefox 3, Mozilla has introduced a brand new address bar that represents more than a simple browser function because it is able to provide many other features besides allowing you to enter an URL and load the website. First of all, the address bar provides as-you-type suggestions depending on your browsing history. Moreover, Firefox analyzes the websites you visit more often and places them higher in the list in order to provide more relevant suggestions. Because of that, the Mozilla engineers named this browser utility the "awesome bar", Rafe Needleman of Webware informs, explaining that he "had an interesting discussion today about Firefox with Mozilla's Mike Schroepfer and Mike Beltzner."
According to the same source, Mozilla is expected to bring out an official name of the address bar somewhere in the near future, probably along with the final version of Firefox 3 which is scheduled for release this year. However, such an advanced address bar obviously attracts other questions related to the way Firefox works.
As you know, Mozilla's Firefox also provides a Google search box which is obviously one of the ways the browser brings money to the parent company. Well, having such an advanced address bar, some users may abandon the search box in case they want to re-visit a website they loaded in the past, so can it be considered harmful?
Mozilla doesn't think so, Rafe Needleman explains. "Schroepfer and Beltzner don't think that the fabulous new address bar will hurt their revenues, though, since searching for a site you've already visited - which is what people use the search bar for only if there's no better option - is not "monetizable traffic", he wrote.
So, until the folks at Mozilla roll out the final version of Firefox 3 and the "awesome" address bar name, you can give Firefox 3 beta a try by downloading it from Softpedia.