Mozilla is trying to beef up extension security in Firefox 3 by ensuring that the updates are provided by a secure address. All of the extensions on the official Mozilla add-ons site will work perfectly with this new system, but there could be problems when venturing outside of the site.

Apparently just standing back and watching Google gobble up company after company in acquisitions has gotten Microsoft itching to gobble up their own collection of start-ups. According to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, the company has intentions of making 20 "smaller" acquisitions each year over the next five years, giving them 100 new companies to work with by the end of 2012.

Pidgin is an extremely popular open source instant messenger, but have you ever thought to yourself what it would be like if Mozilla created something similar? It would be possible to make the instant messenger do almost anything you want with the use of extensions ...

If you've said you wanted to give back and help those in need but you've never actually done anything about it, here's your chance.  A site called "Free Rice" has turned helping the hungry into a "game" that tests your vocabulary.  When you go to the site, a word will be displayed and you'll be give four different choices of what the word means.  For each word you get right, they'll donate 10 grains of rice to a hungry person through an international aid agency.

The Flock team has been working hard as they push towards their first release of the social web browser, which is based on Firefox 2. To get the ball rolling they kicked Flock 1.0 Beta out the door today so that user feedback can start rolling in.

At the Web 2.0 Summit going on right now, Flickr's co-founder Stewart Butterfield will be demonstrating two changes that will debut over the next several weeks to the popular photo sharing service.  These new features will focus on geography and allowing people to discover places around the world using photos.

Welcome to Daily Downloads brought to you by CyberNet! Each weekday we bring you the Windows software updates for widely used programs, and it's safe to assume that all the software we list is freeware (we'll try to note the paid-only programs).

Gearing up for the launch of Mac OS X Leopard, we thought now was the perfect time to take a look at some of those Mac vs. PC (or PC vs. Mac)parodies out there. There are so many good ones that it was difficult to choose just a few! If you know of any good ones, feel free to add the link in the comments below. Happy Friday!