Firefox 3.1 introduces new goodies

Looks like the latest Alpha 2 release of FireFox 3.1 is bringing a whole slew of new goodies. It supposedly adds new video support and boosts the speed of some JavaScript computations.

Alpha 2 is initial support for "web worker threads," enhanced scripting functionality that lets site developers shift JavaScript computations to a background thread where they don't hit the performance of the Firefox user.

Other adds and changes to Firefox 3.1 showing up for the first time include the between-windows drag-and-drop, new support for several CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties, and a performance boost when viewing images with embedded color profiles.

Unfortunately, the biggest feature that I'm waiting on, TraceMonkey JavaScript interpreter is not included in Alpha 2, however. The engine, which Mozilla recently said executes JavaScript as much as 28% faster than Chrome.

Keep in mind that it's not for newbies or daily use, but if you are interested Alpha 2 can be downloaded from Mozilla's site in versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

With all these new browsers hitting the market, it makes me glad I'm not actively involved in coding websites anymore.