Opera browser launched, Firefox next week, Microsoft still testing

Opera 9.5 is the first of the company's applications to feature Opera Link, a feature that "blurs the boundaries between computers and mobile phones by enabling a seamless Web experience from device to device."  The feature makes it easier to sync bookmarks, Speed Dial, and notes between Opera 9.52 desktop and Opera Mini for mobile phones.

Also new to the browser is Quick Find, a feature designed to help users locate pages in their history by typing a keyword into their address bar, a feature similar to the "Awesome Bar" addition to the latest version of Firefox.
Opera 9.5 features new security tools, including defense against malware and phishing and is "the first publicly-available browser to protect you from malicious software on the Web" Its protection is assisted by Haute Secure, Netcraft, and PhishTank.

Firefox
A number of speed improvements have been added to the browser, its e-mail client, and RSS feeds. The browser's look has modernised, including, "a sharp, new skin with clean lines and clear icons." The browser can be adapted to match the OS of choice be it Mac, Linux, and Windows PCs from Opera's site.

The new version of the Firefox 3  Web browser is scheduled for release  on Tuesday also with improvements in security, speed and design. Many enhancements  involve bookmarks. The new version lets Web surfers add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. A new "Places" feature lets users quickly access sites they recently bookmarked or tagged or pages frequently visited but  not bookmarked. Other new features include  resuming downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.

Firefox also starts blocking rather than just  warning about sites known to engage in "phishing" scams that try to trick users into revealing passwords and other sensitive information. And it adds protection from sites known to distribute viruses and other malicious software, a list of suspicious sites rom Google Inc. and StopBadware.org, project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities. Researchers who need access to problem sites can manually turn off this feature.

Firefox 3 also offers speed and design improvements  with a back button now larger than the forward button, because people return to a previous page more often. Mozilla has been developing Firefox 3 for nearly three years and has been publicly testing it since November for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Explorer 8 beta 1
Microsoft is still currently testing Internet Explorer 8

Download: http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/next/
Mobile version http://www.opera.com/download/?ver=9.50b
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox
Beta version: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/getitnow.mspx