Mozilla on Friday announced the release of Firefox 4 Beta 9, moving a step closer towards the open source browser's expected official debut by the end of February.

According to Mozilla's Kraken benchmark test, Firefox 4 Beta 9 is 2.5 times faster than Firefox 3.6. The company claims that it is faster to start up and better at handling animations.

It features a Chrome-like viewing area for tabs, dubbed Panorama. Unlike Chrome, which displays the tabs of Websites that are most frequently accessed, Firefox Panorama shows the tabs which are presently open and allows those tabs to be grouped.

Firefox 4 Beta 9 also features an improved interface and Feedback Add-on that can be found at the upper right corner of the browser's window. Users can send immediate feedback using Feedback Add-on feature.

It also features Crash Protection. Whenever there is a crash Flash, Silverlight and the like, Firefox 4 efficiently rectifies them and offers unremitting browsing.

The long list of Firefox 4 Beta 9's other features include support for HTML5 video standards such as WebM format to allow users to watch open HD quality video, fixes for some holes that lets others to access users' browser history, and Transitions and Transformations to allow users to easily add graceful animations to Web pages.