Thanks to its extensibility, Firefox quickly became the favorite browser for most power users. But while extensions are a great way to make Firefox more functional, Mozilla's designers are also currently thinking about a complete redesign of the way the browser looks and feels, in order to keep up with changing usage patterns.

The Mozilla Firefox developers are working on several different branches of the web browser at the same time. The latest public version, Firefox 3.6.6 just released today, and Firefox 3.7 which will be renamed to Firefox 4.0 later this year.

I want to take a detailed look at turbo-charging the Firefox browser with an elite selection of Google utilities. Firefox has its critics and its failings, but it has now been downloaded in excess of 400 million times: and as they say “what flies eat, they can’t all be wrong!” Firefox is pretty good out of the box, but everyone knows that the functionality of Firefox is extended massively by the simple addition of extensions, security issues nothwithstanding.

One of the features that attract geeks and power users to Firefox is add-ons. these simple browser extensions allow you to customize pretty much everything about the browser, from the page being displayed to the browser itself. Extensions are powerful stuff, but Mozilla is working on a project that could see add-ons as we know them disappear.

Download management is one of the larger categories on the Firefox Add-ons site, but while hundreds of extensions fall under this category, they are a mixed lot at best. Many have yet to release versions compatible with Firefox 3.0, and others are designed to work with Windows programs.

Although Firefox 3.5 (formerly Firefox 3.1) is still in beta, Mozilla is already developing Firefox 3.6 code-named Namoroka. Slated for an early-to-mid 2010 release, the browser will be marketed as Firefox.next (FX) moniker in a nod to new technologies set to take Firefox to the next level.

The pace at which Mozilla works can seem insane. It was less than a month ago when the the company released Firefox 3.5. Only three weeks later, Firefox posted screenshots of Firefox 3.7, which includes a change to the Tools bar and an Embracing Glass design.

But the ambition doesn’t end there. The Firefox team is looking even farther in the future: all the way to Firefox 4.0.

One of the major reasons Firefox is approaching 400 million downloads is because of how customizable the browser is thanks to extensions. In a way Firefox extensions are bittersweet, because they can provide some unique and useful features, but at the same time they can cause some unwanted problems.

Mozilla's Firefox browser is among the most popular of all open source applications, and one of the reasons is that it is so extensible and customizable. You probably have lots of favorite Firefox extensions and have picked up some tips, but continuing to add to your arsenal makes lots of sense.