Some time ago, Mozilla announced plans to create a new organization responsible for development of the Thunderbird e-mail client. Mozilla’s hugely popular Firefox web browser has been getting most of the attention from both developers and internet users, while Thunderbird has been standing in the dark.

Tuesday, David Ascher announced that the new Thunderbird project has a new name: Mozilla Messaging. He also released the following about Thunderbird 3:

An integrated calendar
Improved search
Easier configuration

In the long run, Ascher says the team is focusing on internet communication. Most people use instant messaging, IRC, blogs, and VoIP to communicate along side email. We hope to see an instant chat add-on included.