It seems like we have a new trend goin' on as of late with Microsoft unleashing Windows 7 Ultimate Beta to millions of users (a few months ago), Google now promoting their own browser Chrome, on a myriad of Google properties, and others, recently reaching out to as many Beta testers as possible.
It's interesting to note that during our brief test of Firefox 3.1 Beta 3, this time, most extensions seem to have made the upgrade. (Of course, the extensions I use may not be the one you do).
One that seems to stand out .... Google Gears is currently incompatible.
I suppose it remains to be seen whether Google will continue their financial support for Mozilla now that they've entered the browser arena but it really seemed to 'jump off the page', at least to me, that Google Gears missed this cut?
As for this latest Firefox Beta (which will be released as Firefox 3.5 marking a significant upgrade when final), it IS fast.
Mozilla has added the familiar easy 'top tabs' to open a new window as well as private browsing (both already adopted by Safari 4 Beta, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 8), as well as a new 'Smart Location Bar'.
More details on Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 can be found here. Techies might find this page more interesting (Note: Firefox 3.5 now at the top of the page).
Both Firefox (and Chrome) have been increasing market share over the past 6 months.
Regardless of the outcome, it should be a fun year to watch the latest sequel to 'browser wars', as long as everyone stays close to some kind of standard that doesn't create havoc for bloggers and website designers.
Most importantly, while I've been writing this brief post using the Firefox Beta (installed on Windows 7 Beta) ..... it hasn't crashed .... yet.