Mozilla is working on its popular open source e-mail client Thunderbird to make it more usable and feature rich. For example, the upcoming Thunderbird 13 will have built-in instant messaging system that allows you to IM right from Thunderbird. IM chat is already available in the latest nightly builds.
By default, Thunderbird will support few IM protocols only and give access to some quite popular IM networks such Google Talk and Facebook Chat right from Thunderbird. IRC and Twitter are also included later.
The goal according to Mozilla is to bring additional value to Thunderbird users or in other words, to enrich the email experience with instant messaging functionality. You can read more about this news at here.
Meanwhile, Mozilla has updated Thunderbird to version 11 with revised user interface, new features and number of bug fixes to improve security, stability and usability. The new Thunderbird 11has a revised user interface (UI) with Tabs above the main menu bar.
Moreover, now you can search on Bing, Twitter, Wikipedia and others to find the answer you need right from Thunderbird. Just type the word in Thunderbird’s search box, or highlight words in your email to start your Web search.
Thunderbird 11 is built on the new Gecko 11 engine, the same rendering engine that Firefox uses to draw its user interface and render HTML content. Thunderbird is now more responsive and faster to start up and use.
Thunderbird 11 is available for download from the Mozilla website and the latest nightly can be downloaded from its ftp servers.
