The latest stable release of the open-source Web browser Mozilla, Version 1.2.1, gains some welcome features in its browsing and mail capabilities, making it a worthwhile upgrade for those still using Mozilla 1.1 or earlier.
Among the new features I found useful in Mozilla 1.2.1 were improved keyboard shortcuts, additional user interface customizations and a new option to launch tabbed site groups when launching the browser.
However, the coolest new feature in the browser is Type Ahead Find. This feature let me go to any link within a Web page simply by typing the text within the link highlights. I found this especially useful on laptops with unfriendly mouse interfaces.
Under the covers, the browser now supports the HTML link tag, which lets sites pre-fetch content when the browser is idle. This can be turned off, although with some difficulty.
The mail client now has improved drag-and-drop capabilities and supports multiple-attachment selection. We could also apply filters to messages that had already been downloaded. Palm users will find that they can now sync to the Netscape address book—although if they implement this, they can no longer sync to the Palm Desktop application.
Mozilla 1.2.1 can be downloaded at www.mozilla.org.