Camino 2.1 now in beta, features improved plug-in control

Camino, an open source third-party web browser for Mac OS X, released a beta of version 2.1 last week. According to the release notes, new features in Camino 2.1 include:

• Enhanced Location Bar Autocomplete: The location bar's autocomplete feature now displays results in a single list, using an improved ranking algorithm.
• Improved Plug-in Control: Camino now disables certain insecure or incompatible versions of common plug-ins. In addition, Camino now supports loading plug-ins from the profile's "Internet Plug-Ins" folder.
• Gecko chrome and component registration: Camino 2.1 Beta 1 supports loading components and chrome from the profile, making it easier to use some simple Gecko extensions.

Camino 2.1 Alpha was released in January, and version 2.0 was released in late 2009. The somewhat stately development pace has meant Camino's fallen behind the feature sets of big-name browsers like Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, but this latest release should get the browser closer to being caught up with its more famous cousins.

Camino 2.1 beta is a free download, with all the usual caveats that apply for running beta software. The latest stable release is Camino 2.0.7, released in March.