Mozilla has released the 18th security and usability update for the Firefox 2 browser. For more information about this update see the Firefox 2.0.0.18 Release Notes. Current Firefox 2 users may obtain Firefox 2.0.0.18 manually via the Check for Updates… option from the Help menu. Automatic upgrade (for those who have this feature enabled) should occur within the next 24-48 hours. Alternatively, users may also download Firefox 2.0.0.18 directly here. IMPORTANT: Firefox 2.0.0.x will be maintained with security and stability updates until mid-December, 2008. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3.

Mozilla has released the fourth stability and security update for the current Firefox 3 browser. For more information about What’s New in Firefox 3.0.4, check out the Release Notes (as of this post were titled  What’s New in Firefox 3.0.4 Beta). Current Firefox 3 users may obtain Firefox 3.0.4 manually via the Check for Updates… option from the Help menu. Automatic upgrade (for those who have this feature enabled) should occur within the next 24-48 hours. Alternatively, users may also download Firefox 3.0.4 directly via getfirefox.com

On November 9, 2004, Firefox 1.0 was released. It would be almost a year later on Christmas Day 2005 before I started using Firefox (1.5).  Earlier this month Firefox past the 700 Million Downloads milestone. Source: Mozilla Links

One feature I really like with Chrome is when opening a new tab, you are provided with Thumbnails of your recently/most visited sites to select from as seen in this Chrome screenshot. This is something that is still in development with Firefox and the developer as experimenting several ways to accomplish this. In the meantime there is Trace, an add-on which replicates the behaviour of Chrome’s new tab interface plus some other enhancements (choose from Stickies, Most Visited or Recently Visited as well as a list of recently closed tabs). The thumbnails are served by ShrinkTheWeb.com. A couple issues have…

One of the more popular new features in Firefox 3.1 is the Private Browsing feature. Private Browsing means the sites you visit (while in Private Browsing mode) will not appear in the browser history or search history, and won’t leave other traces, like cookies. This is already a feature (Incognito) with Google Chrome browser, however unlike Chrome, Firefox’s Private Browsing works a little lot (at least when it comes to activating). Claus (Grand Stream Dreams) pointed me to the Mozilla Links article: Meet Firefox private mode… “Once confirmed, Firefox will save and close your current session and restart in Private…