Mozilla has pushed back the release of Firefox 3.1 by several weeks in order to build into it a number of features that include a highly touted 'private browsing' mode, further optimizations on its JavaScript engine and improvements on how the browser's address bar works.

With this timetable the first beta of Firefox 3.1 is expected to see the light as soon as next week, while a more feature complete Beta 2 is expected on early November. Mozilla anticipates to have the final version out by the end of the year or early 2009, with a set date being announced later on.

Firefox remains the second most used browser worldwide with ~18% market share. By comparison Internet Explorer dominates at large with about 76,3% of users and Safari comes in at third with 3,8%.