Coming soon to your PC, Firefox 4.0

BANGALORE, INDIA: Mozilla recently announced that the next version of its Firefox browser is set for release by the end of the year.

The new version will pare down the software's menus and certain user options while giving Web surfers more control over privacy.

The Mozilla Official blog mentioned that the Firefox 4 promises to let users have better control over their relationships with websites by describing more simply what information is gathered by cookies.

The blog reported that with this change, users would be able to see from a single menu what information websites are gathering. Users would then have the option of deciding which cookies to allow and which to disable.

"The simpler an interface looks, the faster it will seem," Mike Beltzner, Firefox director of development, said in a video presentation posted to its website this week.

Firefox said the browser will be made more stable, by requiring fewer add-on programs for additional functionality.

The program will use the new Web programming language, HTML5, which will allow videos and other multimedia content to play on the browser without needing companion software such as Adobe System Inc.'s Flash.

(Will the new release end the much talked about relationship between Google and Mozilla as Firefox 4 seems to be more or less similar to Chrome? Or do you expect a 'cold war' between Google and Mozilla foundation in the near future? Please do comment in the box below.)