Taking a page from rival Google's playbook, Mozilla plans to introduce silent, behind-the-scenes security updating to Firefox 4.

The feature, which has gotten little attention from Mozilla, is currently "on track" to make it into the final of Firefox 4, the major upgrade slated to ship before the end of the year. Mozilla has released two beta previews of Firefox 4 in the last four weeks, and has set a third beta for next week.

Firefox 4's silent update will only be offered on Windows, Mozilla has said.

Most updates, including all security updates, will be downloaded and installed automatically without asking the user or requiring a confirmation, said Alex Faaborg, a principal designer on Firefox.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180272/