The delay is finally over! Mozilla has recently released Firefox 3.1 beta 1 (code-named “Shiretoko”) for public testing.

What should a web developer expect?

Web developers will definitely be delighted to know that the @font-face CSS property is implemented in Shiretoko. This will allow web developers to design websites with consistent formatting and layout. New CSS properties such as text-shadow and word-wrap are also supported.

New HTML tags are also introduced: namely, the <video> and the <audio> tags; both tags simplify the embedding of video and audio files on a web page. It must be noted that the <video> and the <audio> tags only support the OGG Theora and OGG Vorbis formats.

With all of the excitement yesterday coming from the new Google Chrome browser its important to remember that we already have some good browsers on the market, namely Firefox.

With progress being made on version 3, Mozilla has announced that the latest beta (Beta 1) for Firefox 3.1 will be delayed by a few weeks. According to the developers website, the code freeze was pushed back from September 9 to September 30. Mike Shaver, the interim head of engineering for Mozilla stated that “the delay was necessary so developers would be able to incorporate feedback on the earlier alpha editions.”