Like most modern Web browsers, Firefox includes a handy Web search box in its default UI (though, unlike with IE 7, you can actually remove it if you don't want it). In Firefox 2, Mozilla added search suggestions, which appear in a drop-down box as you type. (And isn't that a curiously Microsoft-like feature?)



So how does it work? Pretty well, actually (Figure). If you type in "xbox," for example, you'll see suggestions like xbox cheats, xbox live, xbox games, and xbox.com. Type in "apple" and you'll get applebees, apple ipod, apple.com, and apple store, among others. Note, however, that search suggestions only work when you're using the Google, Yahoo, or Answers.com search engines.

Firefox also includes a new Manage Search Engines List dialog, which features Google, Yahoo, Answers.com, Creative Commons, and eBay by default, but not Microsoft. Given Microsoft's relative success with Live.com and MSN Search, this is a bit disingenuous. And if you visit Mozilla's Add-ons site, you can add MSN Search, but not Live search. OK, we get it: You hate Microsoft.

While Firefox 2 doesn't include any truly innovative tabbed browsing features like IE 7's Quick Tabs, it does include a few useful enhancements to an admittedly mature technology. First up is tab reordering: Using standard drag and drop skills, you can now rearrange tabs in Firefox 2 as you wish. Even more useful is Firefox 2's default behavior of opening links in new tabs instead of new windows. That's right: Anytime a link is configured to pop-up a new window, a new tab will display instead. I think that's a killer option, frankly. (It's optional in IE 7.) Finally, tabs in Firefox 2 now all include their own close window button; in Firefox 1.x, there was a single close window button in the far right of the browser's UI. I like the new arrangement better.

If you're a blogger like me, you'll really appreciate this feature: Firefox 2 includes inline spell checking for Web forms, allowing you to find misspellings as you go (Figure). This is a truly nifty feature, and given Microsoft's ownership of both IE and Word, you'd think there'd be some kind of killer functionality like this in IE by now. But there isn't.

Recapping my issues with Firefox 2

With the possible exceptions of the new Options dialog and the Add-ons manager, virtually all of the new features in this release could have been added to Firefox 1.5.x via Extensions. And that, ultimately, is why Firefox 2 doesn't qualify as a major upgrade. (Why isn't it called Firefox 1.6?) What this browser needs is a major overhaul of its Bookmarks system and some truly innovative features, such as the Quick Tabs feature Microsoft added to IE 7. I don't see anything like that in Firefox 2.