The Mozilla team is closing in on a full new release of the Firefox browser after posting a third beta of the update today. The new status means that a full release of the program is likely to arrive in the next month or so.

Firefox 3 is intended as a more secure release of the browser with new ease of use and personalisation features, as well as performance tweaks such as in memory utilisation.

Changes in the latest beta include the addition of one-click site information, including site owner and validation checks; malware protection; and web forgery page detection.

In terms of ease of use, Mozilla has: updated the new download manager feature it said makes it easier to find items; simplified associating audio and video podcasts with media playback programs; and improved integration with Mac and Linux desktops.

In personalisation, there are amendments to bookmarking and auto-complete tools.

Mozilla cautioned that the latest beta is aimed at web developers for testing purposes only. Users of Firefox add-ons should not expect them to work properly with the beta and code is “rough around the edges”.