Firefox 3 Goes Places With Alpha 5

Mozilla has finally, after much delay, put its new book-marking system in a Firefox build. Places, originally expected to be a key part of Firefox 2.x but dropped well before the final release, is included in the Alpha 5 of Firefox 3, code-named Gran Paradiso.

Places is expected to
replace the decade-old bookmark system with a new data-storage layer that
will eventually also provide support for browser history, as well. The
general idea behind places is to make it easier for users to both access and
create bookmarks.

Also included in the Alpha 5 of Firefox 3 is a new crash-reporting system.
Breakpad, formerly known as Airbag, is based on technology originally developed by Google.

With this release, Mozilla is also attempting to plug a particularly nasty
problem that it has had in recent months with its Password Manager. Alpha 5
has a rewritten Password Manager that is an attempt to deal with a number of
legacy issues that plague its use.

Password Manager was the subject of a high-profile flaw in November that Mozilla claimed to have fixed in February.

But at least one security researcher disagreed with the fix and Window Snyder, head of security strategy at Mozilla Corp., admitted at the time that a full rewrite might be in order.

The release of Alpha 5 is a bit later than the original Mozilla plan had
called for. The Alpha 4 release came out at the end of April, with Mozilla planning to release new versions every 30 days until July

The final Firefox 3 release is expected before the end of the year.

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