According to the schedule, Mozilla should have launched the beta version for Firefox 3 this month but it looks like this is not going to happen. On the other hand, users can test a new alpha version if they want to. As with the previous alpha, Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 runs on Gecko 1.9 rendering engine and showcases many new features, although it still isn’t ready for wide public release.

When taking a look at the new release, the first thing we noticed stands in the beginnings of a UI for tagging and starring your bookmarked web sites. There is no way to actually add the tags but they should be there as there is a space for them. This probably means that they weren’t added in the alpha version although several blogs stated that you can tag by clicking the star a second time and then type the tags separated by commas. We did not get a chance to test this and see if it is true or not but if it is, it does appear strange and will probably be modified in the future.

The auto-complete algorithm also seems to be better implemented and appears as more accurate. The malware protection previously implemented is also present in Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 and we can also notice the new download panels that appeared first in alpha 6. On the whole, Alpha 8 looks nice but still has different issues that show the fact that it is not ready for public release yet. We are currently waiting for a beta version although there is no news as to when that will happen.