Firefox 8 Beta: Visual Tour

Ever since Mozilla first announced that they, like Google Chrome, were moving to a more frequent upgrade cycle for their Firefox Web browser, there has been a lot of controversy and complaints, especially from business users of the browser. But regular users of the browser can be forgiven if they've wondered what all the fuss is about. That's because ever since Firefox has moved the new-every-six-weeks upgrade cycle, noticeable new features in the user interface of the browser have been rarely sighted. But with the new beta of Firefox 8, that looks to change, as this version finally includes a few small but noticeable changes to the browser interface, especially when it comes to managing add-ons, tabs, and adding search capabilities.

Earlier upgrades focused on under-the-hood changes to the browser engine and to standards support. This has often led to problems with add-ons and extensions designed for older versions of the browser. And this has led to many of the complaints from businesses, who often rely on add-ons for additional functionality within the browser. One of the main new focused of Firefox 8 is to improve the notifications for add-ons and give users upfront capabilities to limit problems caused by add-ons, especially third-party ones that a user may not even be aware have been added to their browser.