Mozilla announced on Tuesday that version 8 of its Firefox web browser is now available for download. Along with improvements, Firefox 8 also brings a new feature made possible by a partnership with Twitter.
The mini search bar, found to the right of the navigation bar at the top of Firefox windows, will now include in its drop-down menu an option for users to search within Twitter. The new feature joins Firefox's list of built-in search tools, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Aol and Wikipedia.
According to a post on the Mozilla Blog, this Twitter search feature will be available to Mac, Windows and Linux users who download Firefox 8.
"Twitter search in Firefox makes it easier to discover new topics, #hashtags and @usernames," explains the Mozilla Blog. "Twitter search is currently available in English, Portuguese, Slovenian and Japanese versions of Firefox, with more languages to come in future releases."
The Twitter search option had been available as a separate add-on in previous versions of Firefox.
Another big new change that Firefox 8 introduces is the disabling of third-party add-ons. Firefox will now do this so that the user can approve all add-ons, thereby blocking the ones that might have been "installed by third parties without your permission," according to the Mozilla Blog.
"Such add-ons have caused serious problems for users in the past—like the notoriously buggy Skype toolbar which Mozilla had to remotely disable earlier this year when it caused 33,000 Firefox crashes in one week," Ars Technica points out.
TechCrunch explains that most recent version isn't the radical overhaul that version 4 was. "Overall," writes TechCrunch, "Firefox 8 isn’t a major update for the browser, nor is it introducing any features that seem compelling enough to convince a happy Chrome user to switch back."
For a run-down of the new features offered in Firefox 8, visit the Mozilla Blog. To download version 8 for Windows, Mac or Lniux, click here. Android users can click here to view the app update.
Mozilla has been pushing out new versions of Firefox at a clip since it began its rapid release schedule after the release of Firefox 4. Firefox version 7 became officially available in late September.
Take a look at the Twitter search bar (below), courtesy of the Twitter Help Center.
