Be sure to uninstall any previous version of Firefox prior to installing this new beta. Firefox stores important user profile information, including your bookmarks, previously installed extensions, themes and plug-ins, and settings data. You may want to make a backup copy of your user profile. For more information, see backing up your profile on the Mozilla site. You should do this before installing Firefox 2.0 Beta 1.

New Features

Mozilla was forced to push off some of its more ambitious goals for Firefox 2.0 to Firefox 3.0. The list of what's new, as a result, is modest, and yet the changes are all welcome.

Firefox 2.0 adds built-in phishing protection. According to Mozilla documents, it warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries. Like Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, the Firefox antiphishing feature offers to switch the browser to a safe page (the user's home page). The phishing protection feature works by checking the currently loaded site against a list of known phishing sites that will be generated by user input and maintained by Mozilla. During Beta 1, the list of sites is limited, but Mozilla says it will grow as users contribute. For more information about the new phishing protection feature, see the Firefox 2 phishing protection FAQ. (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/anti-phishing/)