Mozilla puts green light on Firefox 3 Alpha 5

Mountain View (CA) - The latest pre-release version of Firefox 3.0 has hit the Internet, adding among other things the addition of bookmarks to the much touted "Places" feature.

Places is a collapsable side panel in the browser that gives users easy access to RSS feeds, bookmarks, and history in the same box. Once talked about for Firefox 2, Places was quickly set aside for the last major browser overhaul and will make its debut in version 3.0.

The fifth alpha release of Firefox 3 brings the first time bookmarks have been added to the all-in-one browser tool for developers.

According to Mozilla’s Wiki page, Places will also be used to manage URL AutoComplete settings and will offer a drag-and-drop option for website bookmarking. Places uses an open-source SQLite database, a different standard than it used for bookmarks in Firefox 2, but users will be able to perform a one-time migration from bookmarks on old browser to the new one.

In addition, the latest alpha release has a new crash reporting system, "Breakpad", which Mozilla says makes it easier to report crashes as well as read reports from other users. It also adds a Java-powered password manager, previously powered by C++. Finally, Alpha 5 also adds support for native controls and Growl notifications on Mac OS X systems.