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.

Firefox 3 beta 3 is now available to be downloaded. Updated versions include Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. There aren’t any major new features, but it does have improved OS-specific themes and a new bookmark/history manager. Check out Mozilla Links for a list of changes in the latest beta.

Firstly Firefox 3 beta 3 blends in better in Windows XP, Vista, OS X, and Linux. The new themes are still looking beta, but you will notice redesigned icons and some small changes to the toolbar layout. For example, the backward and forward buttons in the Windows version have been combined into one button. We actually like how it looks… and we found that it to be a faster way of going back and forward.

You will find that the Mac and Linux versions now have native windows for file and text selection boxes and other menus. And the OS X version also includes Growl integration.

Something that we have always wanted is now here. When you try to close multiple tabs or close a browser session with multiple tabs open, Firefox will ask if you want to save your session.

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox to fix security problems. The most common problem that Version 2.0.0.12 hopes to fix are program crashes and corruption of stored passwords.

Other fixes include security holes, including browser history and navigation, holes related to multiple file inputs, and URL token stealing. Be sure to update for best security.

gDocsBar is a new add-on for Firefox that gives users instant, access to their Google Documents. It features a built-in search and filtering, and browsing online documents is a breeze, gDocsBar is one of the best firefox extensions that we have used.

Once installation is completed, users will be required to login to their Google account. Login is sent using SSL so it is safe.

After logging on users will see a list of all of their Google Documents, including Spreadsheets and Presentations. Users have the option to sort them by date, title, or author, in ascending or descending order.

With gDocsBar it is simple to upload a document. Simply drag and drop a file to the upload part at the bottom of the gDocsBar sidebar, and the file is automatically uploaded. We love this firefox add-on because it is so easy to use.

Firefox 3 beta 2 is now available to be downloaded. Updated versions include Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

The new version displays many improvements over beta 1, best improvements include plugs for memory leaks, security fixes, and a better download manager.

The updates to the download manager are very good. The new manager allows you resume stopped downloads, and it includes a built in virus detector.

One great new feature is the ability to zoom in on a Web page. There’s now one-click bookmarking and smart folders for bookmarks.

The Mozilla claims that Web site rendering is faster than it was in FF3 beta 1, we didn’t notice any difference. But from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 beta 1 we did see an improvement in speed.

You may download a portable version of Firefox 3 beta 2 from Portable Apps.

Mozilla recently released the third update of Firefox this month, version 2.0.0.11, which fixs a stability problem. Like always Mozilla strongly recommends that users upgrade to the latest version.

The Firefox browser update came soon after version 2.0.0.8, released October 18, version 2.0.0.9 from November 1, and version 2.0.0.10 from November 26.

Like we said before, Firefox 3 Beta 1, is not recommend. Unless you are a user that does not mind running a buggy program.

Mozilla has finally given us the beta release of Firefox 3. Not like the pre-beta release a couple of weeks ago.

The only differences between this beta and that pre-release version are that the Firefox team has fixed more bugs. The rest of it is the same.

New in Beta 1:

Updates to the Gecko rendering engine which should improve stability.
New Places feature makes it easier to find the sites you’ve visited most recently, most often, or starred for coming back to later.
New security features alert you when you’re visiting insecure web sites and let you auto-scan downloads with your antivirus software

We are still going to keep using Firefox 2 until all the bugs have been worked out.

Mozilla plans on releasing Mac, Linux, and Windows versions of Firefox but not quite yet. This morning a digg user found Firefox 3 beta on Mozilla’s server. Now Mozilla has blocked access to it with a nice thank you message. We managed to download it in time to try it out.

Many of you won’t notice many changes from Firefox 2. Firefox 3 beta will import all of your settings, bookmarks, add-ons and plugins from Firefox 2 so you may think you have not upgraded properly. One thing we did notice is a star, its use is to remember websites you like or want to come back to later. Firefox 3 beta has a completely redesigned bookmark system in Firefox 3 its name is Places. We found it to be very useful.

Some other new features include a redesigned plugin manager, security requirements for upgrading add-ons, and an enhanced security system that alerts you of suspected attacks.

Mozilla says it will have a new theme but we have not had the chance to see it yet.

Mozilla’s calendar programs Sunbird and Lightning have some how become even better. Sunbird is a standalone application for Windows, Linux, and Mac, and Lightning is a calendar plugin for the Thunderbird e-mail client.

Sunbird and Lightning 0.7 were both released today, and they feature a new event/task dialog, a new event summary dialog, and many other new features and bug fixes.

There is also a new version of the Google Calendar plugin for Sunbird and Lightning. The add-on allows you to write data to a Google Calender using your desktop calendar client.

Via Download Squad

As you may have already started to notice Mozilla keeps building more applications. We have Firefox web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, Songbird music player/browser, and now we’ve got a Mozilla-based instant messaging client.

Instantbird is still in very early beta. But version 0.1 already shows us assurance. The program is much like popular instant messaging services by AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.

Like most program by Mozilla, Instantbird comes in Linux, Windows, and Mac versions. We don’t recommend your downloading it until the next beta release unless you are prepared for many annoying bugs.