Inside Firefox 2 Alpha 1

Firefox 2 Alpha 1 offers features that keep up with Microsoft's latest enhancements to Internet Explorer 7 beta 2.

Inside Firefox 2 Alpha 1
Following the successful launch of Firefox 1.5 last November, the Mozilla organization has released Firefox 2 Alpha 1, code-named Bon Echo. One caveat: Your current Firefox extensions will probably break with this new build, so only the technically adventurous should proceed. Read on to see some of the changes already in this build. For more details on this and upcoming builds, read our Firefox 2 Alpha 1 preview.

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Enhanced tabs
At first sight, the changes are not dramatic. But spend a little time with the browser, and you'll notice subtle enhancements, such as adding little Xs to close specific tabbed browsing pages.

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History menu
A History drop-down menu has been added to the toolbar alongside File, Edit and View.

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Go Places
Places is a new feature that resembles the Internet Explorer sidebar, allowing you to control Bookmarks, RSS subscriptions and History.

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Search history
With the new MozStorage system, you can now execute a search query of your browser history to find pages you may have visited 100 Web pages ago.

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Improved RSS
In Firefox 2, as you click a page's RSS icon, the feeds are added to a toolbar, while drop-down menus display the latest choices and the option to open all current feeds in individual tabs. For more details on this and upcoming builds, read our Firefox 2 Alpha 1 preview.

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