Firefox 3 Beta 4 has been available for the available for some time now and I’ve been playing with it since release. Here’s a short list of the updates included in the new release:

• Full page zoom – Works like in IE 7 and Opera, you can now increase or decrease the size of all the content on a web site, not just the text.
• Updated download manager – Time remaining, status are now available information for you downloads and a search function has also been integrated to make things easier.  Not very useful if you use the Clear Private Data function often though.
• Better OS integration – I didn’t see how this one went but Firefox 3 beta 4 includes specific icons and themes for Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Better memory management - Beta 4 loads and responds faster than my bare installation for Firefox 2 and seems to consume less memory.  (to be updated with more info later)
• Integrated Add-ons manager – Now you don’t have to go to the Firefox site for your dose of add-ons. Just open the Add-ons Dialog Box (via Tools > Add-ons) and do a search.  Firefox will locate plugins that are compatible with your version.  Too bad most of the add-ons are still not available for Beta 4.

Note that you can install Firefox 3 Beta 4 on a separate folder to preserve your current installation of Firefox 2 BUT you can’t run them at the same time. Also, if you interchange between Firefox 2 and 3 Beta, you may notice that the back and forward button disappears.  I thought it was a bug but I remembered that Firefox 3 integrates those into one.  Since it’s not supported in Firefox 2 and it uses the same user profile, it gets discarded from your current toolbar options.  To enable the forward and back buttons or the integrated one in Firefox 2 and 3,just right click on any of the toolbars, click customize and drag the feature where you like.

Firefox 3 beta 4 also includes a ton of other tweaks and bug fixes. The browser is also designed to use less memory, and there are major improvements to the JavaScript engine that should allow web based applications like Gmail and Zoho Office to run twice as fast in Firefox 3 as Firefox 2.

So how does IE 8 compare to the current beta for Firefox 3?  Microsoft needs a world of improvement to catch up.