Private browsing mode has been included in the latest nightly release for Firefox 3.1 beta. This is a feature which didn’t quite make it into Firefox 3.

Private browsing allows you to browse the web “anonymously”. No cookies, cache, history, temporary files, or saved passwords will be stored while in private mode.

To turn on private browsing, go to Tools –> Private Browsing. You can download the latest nightly Firefox 3.1 beta build here.

Next generation releases of both Firefox and Opera will incorporate the royalty free Theora video codec.

The lossy video compression technology uses only has a small CPU footprint and will allow videos to be viewed in the browser without the use of a Flash player, or any other additional codecs installed.

Wikipedia however has been using the Theora codec for video for a while now. Kat Walsh, a Wikimedia Foundation board member believes “open media formats are critical for ensuring a future where everyone can create and share media freely”.

This is fantastic news for users. If Safari and Microsoft get on board, the future will be looking quite bright.