With even the government saying people should stay away from Internet Explorer, the browser wars seem to be between two companies these days. Mozilla Firefox made some recent changes to its browser layout as a way to try and take on the leader in the browser popularity contest, Google (News - Alert) Chrome. The revamping of Firefox is the first major redesign in a couple of years for Moziila.

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the company’s refresh actually looks quite a bit like Chrome, with just a couple of tweaks here and there in order to tell the two apart. Still, when both browsers are open and right next to each other, it can actually be hard to tell the difference.

One area in which Mozilla (News - Alert) hopes to gain some users is its new syncing service that includes an easy signup and then an even easier way to sync your bookmarks, cookies and settings across Firefox browsers on multiple devices.  Firefox 29 has a couple of different additions to its browser including a rounding of edges of each tab and a new way to make tabs you have open but are not using to fade into the background. 

Mozilla VP for Firefox Jonathan Nightingale talked to TechCrunch about the refresh and said the company has actually made more than 1,300 user interface and bug fixes on the Australis redesign since it was first introduced a little more than a year ago.

The launch of Firefox 29 will likely help Mozilla put a nasty taste in the company’s mouth in the past. A few months ago, the company named a new CEO and then had to say goodbye to him after just a couple of days when it turned out he had once donated money to people who were working against gay marriage. Its likely the company was breathing a sigh of relief to be talking about its specialty again.

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