Firefox 3 targets online mail

DEVELOPERS working on Firefox 3 are aiming to have the browser working better with online mail.

Mike Schroepfer, vice president for engineering for Mozilla said that when the new browser comes out in the middle of the year a punter will be able to write an e-mail while offline, with the data sent later when a user is connected to the Internet. Schroepfer wants to see better integration between the browser and Web-based services so that it is as smooth-running as a desktop application.

Firebadger now works with Zimbra, an open-source e-mail, messaging, and VoIP application. Schroepfer said that if the Mozzarella Foundation managed to score a bit of code from Google and Microsoft, it would be possible to integrate with Gmail and Hotmail too.

He also hinted that later versions of Firebadger will support the JavaScript 2 language, now under development in part by Mozilla's CTO Brendan Eich and the ECMA International standards body.

This will make high-performance Web applications easier to write and assemble for people with less coding expertise.

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