Mozilla is out with version 2.0 of its SeaMonkey hybrid browser and email platform, based on Firefox and Thunderbird. There is a long list of additions to the new version, which you can peruse here. SeaMonkey didn't use the exact same core as the Firefox browser before, but now shares the the core of Firefox 3.5.4. Among other things, that means extensions should work more dependably than they did before. Here are some of the other important improvements.

Mozilla Labs has unveiled a new project, Raindrop, that it characterizes as an "open experiment in messaging on the web." From the messaging team behind Mozilla's Thunderbird email project, Raindrop uses a mini web server to sift conversations from various sources such as mail, Twitter and RSS feeds, then attempts to pull out the important parts and have them rise to the top. It works with Firefox, Safari or Chrome, and though it's still in its infancy, the open source project looks promising and bears some very rough resemblance to what Google is trying to do with Google Wave.

We've been following the beta releases of Mozilla's e-mail application Thunderbird 3 pretty closely over the last few months. It's a terrific free, cross-platform, open source alternative to the native e-mail apps that come bundled with Windows and Mac OS X. Thunderbird 3 also integrates nicely with Gmail, making it a great option for people who want to stick with their Web-based email but want the additional features of a desktop email app.

Mozilla released Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 this week, and it sports more than 200 changes over the past beta release, including new search tools, tabbed email messages, and better IMAP folder synchronization. I've been playing around with the new beta version for a couple of days now and I like what I've seen so far.