I just downloaded the latest Firefox BETA – 3.1, and I’ll have to say: It’s fast.

If I was impressed on the speed of Google Chrome as a startup, today I am officially more impressed on the speed of the second milestone of the third version of Firefox.

What exactly makes it fast?

• Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, speculative parsing for faster content rendering
• The new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine

One test proved Firefox’s superiority versus other browsers. With a single trial of Firefox 3.1, I don’t think I’ll switch back to Google Chrome; unless, of course, it adds the missing features such as the Google Toolbar, support for addons, themes, and native RSS.

Oh, and by the way, here are the latest features of Firefox 3.1 Beta:

• This beta is now available in 54 languages – get your local version.
• Added a new Private Browsing Mode.
• Added functions to make it easy to clear recent history by time as well as remove all traces of a website.
• New support for web worker threads.
• The new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine is on by default for web content.
• Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
• Removed the new tab-switching behavior based on feedback from users
• Support for new web technologies such as the

So, as an opening and conclusion, Firefox 3.1 is fast.