Yahoo has released a beta of its toolbar for the open source Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Yahoo said that key features include bookmarks and custom buttons that follow users anywhere, so that they do not lose bookmarks when switching browsers or logging on from different locations such as at home or work.

Other features include 'Search this site' to find results just for the current website being browsed, 'Translate this page' based on the Babel Fish translation tools, mail notification/alerts when new Yahoo mail arrives, and one-click 'Add to My Yahoo' on sites that provide RSS/Atom feeds.

"We are excited about the release of the Yahoo Toolbar for Firefox," said Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation.

"Firefox has been downloaded more than 23 million times since its launch in November and the Yahoo Toolbar release demonstrates the popularity of the browser and the success of the Mozilla platform."

The Yahoo Toolbar Beta for Mozilla Firefox is available for download here.

The toolbar is currently available for Windows, with versions for Mac OS X, Linux and Yahoo Anti-Spy expected shortly, Yahoo said.