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Firefox is coming out with release 2.0 in the next few months. Beta 1, codenamed Bonecho, has recently been made available for download. At first sight, the new version looks like it has only cosmetic changes from the current version. Here are a few features I could spot:

1. The Close-Tab button. This is a feature I love in Opera.
   
   Closing a tab used to require two clicks; now the Firefox guys have halved your effort.

2. The Tools menu has a new item called Add-ons. But this is simply a collection of both the Extensions and Themes. That’s like two bottles of old wine in one big bottle.

3. A new button has been added to the Search box that appears next to the Address bar. Previously, clicking on the icon used to display a drop-down to select a different search engine. Again, pretty cosmetic.

4. Now come some of the nice features. Firstly, the Recently Closed Tabs list. Many a time, we close tabs unintentionally, and there is no way to get it back. Firefox 2 addresses this.

   
   (never mind the cheap advertisement in the pic above!)

   
   

5. Another nice little new feature is ability to add feeds to your preferred feed reader. Bloglines, My Yahoo! and Google Reader are the default selections available. Don’t worry, the Live Bookmarks feature hasn’t been removed.

   

6. The best of the new features in Firefox 2 has to be the Restore Session option. Suppose the browser crashes, and you start a new instance, you are prompted if you would like to restore the previous (abruptly-ended) session. Seems like the best thing these guys can do to save you from Windows.

7. Firefox 2 comes pre-installed with a Spell Checker, which underlines misspelled words a la MS Word. Right-clicking the underlined word will give you a list of possible corrections. But look, I found something interesting.

   
   Firefox is itself underlined. There! Gotcha!!

Firefox 2 may not be much different from the version you are currently using, but it definitely shows that these folks are constantly at it. At just over 5 MB, this beta version is worth a try! Click here to get Firefox 2.

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