Mozilla’s Firefox browser is drawing closer to version 11, as the company launched the beta version for the masses to test. As usual, the browser comes with support for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The beta brings capability for migrating Chrome settings, synchronizing add/ons across computers, some CSS and HTML5 properties, etc. Firefox webpage shows that there are already some known unresolved issues, but there should be some more once the general public jumps aboard and investigates.

You can download Firefox 11 beta here.

As of yesterday, Google+ has started to roll out a couple of updates that bring extra functionality, and make it 'easier to follow and contribute to live events'. One of the goodies is enhanced hashtag support while the other is real-time search.

The hashtag improvements basically make it so that terms you use hashtags for become links,. These links are to a search results page where you can find stories that contain the linked word.

Real-time search is pretty self-explanatory and allows result pages to be automatically updated when a new post is relevant to your query. Both these features should be available to all very soon.

According to Californian company Net Applications, Google Chrome has continued its rise in the global browser market, managing to reach a share of 16.20% at the end of September. In August's Google's browser topped 15.51%.

While Chrome is still third, Internet Explorer and Firefox kept the first and second spots in the browser game, but both slipped some more. IE dropped to 54.39% after being at 55.31% in August while Firefox settled at 22.48%. One month ago Mozilla's creation was at 22.57%.

Apple Safari performed quite well too as it was able to break the 5% mark and consolidate its fourth place in the race. Opera was at 1.67% in September, its drop from the month before being minimal (0.01%).

According to a new report, it appears that music piracy has consistently fallen since 2009, thanks to the popularity of Spotify, at least in Sweden. Overall piracy has fallen 25 percent in two years, says the Swedish Music industry. Spotify, which is free with some restrictions, has millions of tracks from all the major labels and independents. Premium versions give mobile access and unlimited streaming to users.

The recent Swedish study showed streaming as the preferred way to listen to music, with 40 percent of responders saying they now use a streaming service compared to just 10 percent who download music legally. 23 percent still regularly pirate, but that number has been dropping. Despite the encouraging numbers for the music industry, a significant portion of streamers (30 percent) said they would go back to piracy or free services like YouTube if Spotify, MOG, etc began charging.

Video-sharing system YouTube has received a new update that brings to the table the option of converting a 2D clip to 3D with a simple click, and provides access to two more video creation platforms - Vlix and Magisto, for adding effects or short clip editing.

To convert your uploaded video, just select "Edit Info" and then click on "3D Video". The move from 2D to 3D will be made automatically so just click, wait a bit, and then you can start linking your 3D video wherever possible. Both Vlix and Magisto and all their options are available at youtube.com/create. As a little bonus to these additions, YouTube is also dropping the 15-minute upload limit to more users. To take advantage of this you need to have a clean track record and complete an account verification.

According to a report from content delivery company Pando Networks, South Korea has the fastest Internet speeds in the world with an average download speed of over 17 Megabits per second. By comparison, German speeds were barely above 5 Mbps, which was still better than the US or UK. Those countries had average speeds of 4.93 Mbps and 4.79 Mbps respectively. The report is based on data collected on downloads from Pando's content delivery network during the first half of 2011.

Northern European countries were well represented in the top 15, including Sweden (7th), Denmark (9th), Netherlands (11th), Finland (12th) & Norway (15th). Looking at the speed data overlaid on a map, one thing that stands out is how slow Internet speeds are in developed countries with strong content production industries. On the other end of the spectrum, countries where tech industries dominate the economy, including South Korea and Finland, tend to also have relatively fast Internet service. Japan is something of an outlier, likely reflecting the fact they are representative of both categories.

After a few months in invite-only beta, Google has announced that their social network Google+ is now available to all and no longer requires invitations. Additionally, the popular "Hangouts" feature has been updated with the ability to screen-share and the ability to name your Hangouts, and is now available on mobile devices as well.

Furthermore, Hangouts on Air is now a possibility, allowing users to make public broadcasts that others can tune in to. The first broadcaster will Black Eyed Peas' William. Finally, there is also improved SMS support, better +mentions and +1'ing comments and one of the big things is that Huddle has now been renamed as Messenger.

After a summer of testing in a few US cities, Google Wallet has finally been taken out of beta and and is currently rolling out (as an OTA update) only to the Sprint Nexus S 4G, but extra phone support is promised.

Google Wallet works with Citi MasterCard credit cards or the Google Prepaid Card (if you get a G-card by year end there's a $10 bonus for you) and allows people to pay for various services or products by simply tapping their NFC-enabled smartphone on terminals compatible with MasterCard's PayPass technology. In the future Google is hoping to add support for Visa, Discover and American Express cards as they all provided their NFC specifications to allow for such an expansion. For now though, Google Wallet is in the baby steps phase, but check out the demo below.

With all the big announcements coming out of Microsoft this week in conjunction with their BUILD developer conference, perhaps none is bigger than the accompanying changes to Internet Explorer 10. Windows 8 users will have two different interface options for IE 10 - the standard desktop version and a new Metro style version. In addition to the use of Metro, this new variant of IE is also different in another significant way.

Rather than using plug-ins like the Flash Player to render content on web pages, it will rely only on HTML5. This is similar to the approach taken by Apple for Mobile Safari on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky states that running Metro style IE plug-in free improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers. "Plug-ins were important early on in the web’s history, but the web has come a long way since then with HTML5. Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI", says Sinofsky.

YouTube just got a major boost in functionality, thanks to the implementation of a few editing tools that allow people to tweak their clips without ever leaving the site.

With this newly-added feature, people can shave off some frames, change the soundtrack, stabilize or rotate their video, modify contrast and colors, and even add new effects. Once the changes are done and the result is satisfying, the edited video can be saved with the same ID, thus replacing the older version. To start tweaking, just click the "Edit video" button found on the video page.