Editor’s note: Yesterday, Mozilla announced a new version of Thunderbird.  You can read full details here.  Below is an excerpt from the blog post.

The latest version of Thunderbird includes more than 390 improvements and performance enhancements that make Thunderbird more responsive, faster to start up and easier to use.  Thunderbird delivers several improvements to some favorite features such as RSS feeds, Attachment management, and Tabs which can now be reordered and dragged into a new window.

Today we’re launching Web FWD (Web Forward), the community-driven innovation accelerator from Mozilla Labs. Web FWD supports Open Web innovators by providing a space at Mozilla where they can build their products. We are creating a workshop environment where bold ideas can be realized and bare-bones prototypes can develop and go forward as products.

How

We’ll host small teams at Mozilla’s global offices for four weeks at a time, giving them access to our people, tools and resources, so they can focus on building. We’re looking for playful, useful, original problem-solving applications and tools that make the Web a better place.

During the four week program, teams will work in-house alongside the Mozilla crew. You’ll receive mentorship and guidance from some of the brightest people around, allowing you to focus on bringing your product idea to life.

At the end of four weeks, you’ll have a minimum viable product ready to go out on the Open Web. And together we can decide on how to take this product forward.

What we offer

• The opportunity to work alongside the Mozilla crew in one of our offices
• Access to key Mozilla personnel, introductions to interesting people and industry leaders
• Regular mentorship sessions with experts on technology, scalability, security, marketing, community, and business strategy
• Financial support during the program
• Help with IT infrastructure (servers, software, etc.)
• A great coworking experience with plenty of fun & awesomeness!

What we look for

• The product fits into one of the predefined problem areas
• The product is developed with the traits that are important for the open Web
• The team has at least the kernel of a product (i.e. some working code, not only an idea)

The program runs on a rolling submission schedule with the first spots opening in August. Head over to the Mozilla Labs Web FWD site for more information and submit your application.

Mozilla is committed to providing the best Web experience for people everywhere, for whom the Web has become such an important part of their daily lives.  Providing updates to Firefox more frequently allows us to secure users against emerging threats and provide the platform for innovation that today’s rich and compelling Web experiences demand.

The Mozilla Community has focused our efforts on the needs of the individual user, and prioritized the product roadmap and features accordingly. However, as is the case with many technologies, loyal Firefox users and their IT departments have sought to bring Firefox into their places of work.

A key challenge for enterprises is that they need to certify their websites, apps and add-ons each time Firefox is updated. This can take weeks or months. Security is also paramount, enterprises need access to a version that includes all known security fixes.

We are exploring solutions that balance these needs, with active discussion in our community.  Open Source software is well-suited to these challenges, as interested parties can come together to build what is needed.

We look forward to continuing the dialog, and will post updates as they become available.

Mozilla, a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to making the Web better, today released a new version of Mozilla Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. The new version of Firefox comes on the heels of the wildly successful release of Firefox 4, which had more than 200 million downloads on Windows, Mac and Linux and millions of downloads in the Android Market.

Mozilla’s shift to a rapid release development cycle delivers cutting edge Firefox features, performance enhancements, security updates and stability improvements to users faster.

The latest version of Firefox includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox. This release adds support for more modern Web technologies that make it easier for developers to build amazing Firefox Add-ons, Web applications and websites.

Firefox for Android includes the Do Not Track privacy feature in this release, making Firefox the first browser to support Do Not Track on multiple platforms. Mozilla created Do Not Track to give users more control over the way their browsing behavior is tracked and used on the Web. The feature, which lets users tell websites that they wish to opt-out of online behavioral tracking, is now easier to find in Firefox Preferences.

Firefox offers users complete control over the look and functionality of their Web browser with a gallery of hundreds of thousands of add-ons. About 85% of Firefox 4 users have an add-on installed to customize the look, features and functionality of their Firefox.

Mozilla has a rich set of resources that make it easier for Web developers to build compelling Firefox Add-ons using HTML, JavaScript and CSS. The new Firefox Add-on SDK for Windows, Mac and Linux enables local development of add-ons, while the Firefox Add-on Builder Beta provides a hosted Web-based build environment. Developers can build Firefox Add-ons for all platforms that install and update without requiring a browser restart or interrupting the Web browsing experience.

Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux now supports the CSS Animations standard to enable developers to build more amazing Web applications and websites. Mozilla Hacks has a tutorial on CSS Animations and a comprehensive blog post explaining what developers can create with Firefox.

To get the latest version of Firefox for Windows, Mac or Linux click on “check for update” under the “About Firefox” menu or download the Firefox Aurora and Beta channels here. Visit this page to get the latest version of Firefox on your Android device or to join the beta. Users with Firefox for Android installed will receive a notification to update to the latest version.

For more information:

FAQ: Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux / Firefox for Android
Long, technical release notes: Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux / Firefox for Android

We’re excited that Twitter has released the Twitter Address Bar Search add-on to make it easy to complete Twitter searches in Firefox. With Twitter Address Bar Search, users can discover richer and more relevant Twitter search results directly from the Firefox Awesome Bar (Address Bar).

The add-on makes searching Twitter in Firefox a snap. You can search for #hashtags and @usernames by entering the searches directly into the Firefox Awesome Bar, and you’ll be taken to Twitter search results. Twitter Address Bar Search works with the latest version of Firefox for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and even on Android!

Mozilla is continually exploring innovative ways to put users in control of their online experience. With the Twitter Address Bar Search add-on, Twitter leverages the extensible Mozilla Firefox platform to deliver an integrated social experience to hundreds of millions of Firefox users worldwide.

Visit the Firefox Add-ons gallery to try out the Twitter Address Bar Search add-on. If you aren’t a Firefox user, you can download the Mozilla Firefox with Twitter bundle.