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Private browsing mode allows users to surf the web without leaving any traces of their session on the computer. The company was initially reluctant to include the feature, putting it on hold for four years.

However, with its introduction in Chrome, Safari and the forthcoming Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla relented, adding "four to five weeks" to the development of Firefox 3.1 to include the feature. The completion of the private browsing mode is considered a major milestone towards the release of the latest

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version of the browser.

Speaking on a blog post, Ehsan Akhgari, the man who led development of the feature describes how Firefox will save normal session tabs when a user slip into private browsing mode, restoring them at the end of the private browsing session.

Otherwise, the feature operates in a similar manner to its rivals, discarding browsing history, cookies and the cache at the end of the session. Unlike Chrome, however, there's no icon to highlight that you're in private mode - just the text "private browsing" next to the page title.

"After all, if you're doing something online that you don't want your co-workers to know about, you don't want to raise their attention with a big sign saying private as they pass by and glance over your shoulder," says Akhgari.

The privacy mode will appear in Firefox 3.1 beta 2 due for release by the end of the month. It is also available in the nightly builds for anybody who wants to try it out sooner.