With the new Firefox beta that has come out we get a first look at the technology that is making its way into Firefox for the mainstream users. We take a look at the changes you can expect and outline a few changes you probably will not notice.

New Features you will enjoy

Clear Private Data
You can now press Shift+Ctrl+Delete in Firefox and have it completely remove your private data. Alternatively, you can select Delete Private Data on the Tools menu. You can also select what data is to be deleted in the options dialog. This is pretty handy if you are using a public computer and want to be absolutely sure that your login or credit card numbers (etc, etc) are no longer stored by Firefox. Or if you are using a work computer and you don’t want it to be found out that you have been reading non-work related websites like BrittleFish.

New “Options” Dialog
The Options dialog box has been redesigned with the tabs moving along the top now, instead of along the left side. There are now more options in the “Privacy” tab, including the settings for the “Clear Private Data” tool. Other than that there isn’t a whole lot of improvement in this area. Not that there needed to be.

Word Highlighting/Searching
This new version allows you to highlight a word or phrase with your mouse, then right-click and choose Highlight Word and Firefox will highlight every instance of that word or phrase on the current page. Or you can choose to search off of that highlighted word and Firefox will open up a new tab with your default search engine (probably Google) already loaded with the search text.

Error Messages
Instead of getting an annoying popup letting you know that the page you were trying to reach is unavailable you will now get an well formatted webpage describing what happened and what your options are to fix the problem. And a handy “Try Again” button, which doesn’t do anything more than hitting the refresh button except giving a little inspiration. “Don’t give up, Try Again.”

What’s Missing?

Here are some things you won’t see in the new beta, which you may have been expecting.

Native SVG support
I was under the impression that the new version of Firefox would have SVG rendering support builtin to the browser, without the need for the Adobe plugin. This is not true, as this beta has no svg capabilities (unless you have to go through hoops to turn it on). This is really too bad, since the Adobe pluging requires you to move files and such to get it to work with Firefox. This leaves non-techy users out in the cold.

Extensions and Themes (for now)
Before you get your panties in a bunch, let me clarify that the beta has the capability to use extensions and themes. It is just that most of them have not been updated to work with the new version yet. By the time the final version comes out I’m sure all of your favorite extensions and themes will be supported. But, as you would expect from a beta, they aren’t available now. So don’t replace your wife’s 1.06 version just yet, unless you enjoy sleeping on the couch.