Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta

THE OPEN SOURCE Mozilla Foundation has released a beta version of its forthcoming Firefox 4 web browser.

The beta of Firebadger version 4 seems to have imitated Google's Chrome browser by putting the tabs on top and providing webpage crash protection features.

The menu bar has been replaced with the Firefox button and you can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar.

There are improvements to HTML5 support, including native support for Google's HTML5 WebM HD video format for those who want to use the new video standard.

The crash protection function means that whenever Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins go belly-up it will not stuff up the rest of Firefox. Instead, you can simply reload the webpage to restart the plugin and try again.

You can download the beta here, but it is beta software and still a little unstable for production use. µ