We’re releasing a new update to F1 with support for more services, more service specific features, and a brand new UI. Here’s a run down of what’s new.

A new UI
The first iteration of F1 had a horizontal layout stretching across the width of the browser. This worked well enough for a simple user interface, but quickly became awkward when we tried to add more service specific functions. A vertical layout was more appropriate; it kept the line length of your text readable, allowed more space for direct messaging UI, and the doorhanger UI was less intrusive (e.g. it does not shift the content frame of the browser, it simply floats above it).

New functionality
We’ve expanded our capabilities with Twitter and Facebook. You are now able to send direct messages to anyone on Twitter who follows you, and also share directly to a group wall on Facebook.

New services
We now support sharing via LinkedIn! Send a link to everyone, just your connections, or a direct message.

Nicer Gmail template
We now provide thumbnails in our emails so your recipients can get a better preview of what they are about to open.

Finally, a note on Firefox 3.6
With this release we’re also dropping our support for Firefox 3.6. This means that in order to get this update you will have to be running the Firefox 4 beta.

Why you ask? In order to push this new UI we’ve used technologies only available in Firefox 4, namely the doorhanger overlay. After trying to implement this in Firefox 3.6 and running into many bugs, we decided it would be a better investment of time to simply look ahead and focus on the future with Firefox 4.

You can grab the add-on at f1.mozillamessaging.com

We’re always delighted to hear from you – join in on our discussion forum!