Today we’re delighted to announce that Zotero 3.0 has officially arrived. Zotero 3.0 marks a major departure from previous versions, most notably with the new ability to run outside the Firefox browser. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, this standalone version of Zotero contains all the great functionality of the old Firefox-based Zotero but now enables users to integrate Zotero into browsers other than Firefox like Google Chrome and Apple Safari. To all you Firefox lovers out there, no need to worry! Zotero continues to work within Firefox, and even if you choose to run the standalone version, it will talk to Firefox, too.

The standalone version of Zotero isn’t the only major news: Zotero 3.0 is loaded with other new features. Duplicate detection, heavily requested over the last few years, has finally made an appearance. We hope you’ll agree it has been worth the wait: an elegant interface allows users to find and merge duplicate items. Also arriving with Zotero 3.0 is slick new word processor integration. A streamlined dialog box allows users to add references to documents quickly and efficiently (and it’s pretty, too). References in word processing documents are also now easily shareable with other Zotero users without using groups and even with people using other compatible software.

We’ll highlight this new functionality and more over the next few weeks, but for now we would just like to offer a big thanks to our dedicated user and developer community, whose feedback and contributions were essential in getting this huge release ready for primetime!

Over the past few weeks, a spate of paid and free Android and iPhone apps have appeared that extend and enrich the Zotero research ecosystem. Here are four of the most exciting mobile applications now available:

Zandy

Zandy is well on its way to being the first full-featured mobile Zotero application for Android devices. Users can currently edit and view their Zotero libraries, add new items, and work offline. Future releases promise even more functionality.

Scanner for Zotero

Scanner for Zotero lets you add books to your Zotero library from anywhere, with no need to have Zotero installed anywhere. Simply scan a book’s ISBN barcode with your Android phone, and the software will add the book to your Zotero library directly on our servers.

BibUp

BibUp allows iPhone users to add books to their Zotero libraries much like Scanner for Zotero, and it also provides the additional functionality of photographing specific pages to be collected, on which BibUp will even perform OCR.

ZotFile

ZotFile Reader eases the transfer of Zotero-based PDFs to and from mobile readers like Android devices and the iPad. It builds on the success of the original ZotFile extension, which significantly enhances Zotero’s built-in PDF management by automating the attachment of PDFs to Zotero items, and the renaming of those files according to user-configurable rules. The latest beta version of ZotFile combines all of this functionality into a single extension.

As amazing as these projects are, the traffic on the Zotero developers mailing list suggests that we can expect even more exciting developments in the near future!

Eleven months ago, we announced Zotero Everywhere, a grant-funded initiative to extend Zotero far beyond the Firefox browser. Last week we took the wraps of our new site design, which allows users to edit and reorganize their libraries via the web. Today we’re thrilled to announce the immediate availability of beta versions of Zotero Everywhere software. Because the idea of Zotero Everywhere was to be, well, everywhere, there are several different components to this beta release that can be used independently or in conjunction with each other.

Zotero 3.0b1 for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Since 2006, Zotero has run as a pane (or more recently, as a tab) within the Firefox browser. Many users, however, have expressed their preference to run Zotero as an entire separate desktop application. As of today, researchers can now download and install a version of Zotero that runs fully independently of the Firefox browser. The user interface remains familiar enough so that long-time Zotero users won’t get lost, but this application also includes important new functionality, including automatic duplicate detection and resolution; an entirely new and streamlined integration with Microsoft Word and OpenOffice; and a refined quick search interface.

Zotero 3.0b1 for Firefox. The “classic” version of Zotero isn’t going away, and so we’re also bringing the same new functionality to the version of Zotero that runs inside the Firefox — except, of course, the ability to run outside the browser!

Zotero Connector Betas. Today Zotero’s ability to grab bibliographic items with a single click now comes to browsers other than Firefox. If Zotero 3.0 is installed, Chrome and Safari users can now add items to their Zotero libraries with a single click. If Zotero isn’t installed on the user’s machine, the Zotero Connector can even add items directly to the user’s Zotero library hosted on our server (Please note that this entirely new direct-to-server functionality requires some rewriting of Zotero translators, a process currently underway. Amazon, arXiv, JSTOR, and the New York Times are among those already upgraded).

Remember that Zotero 3.0b1 and the Connectors are beta software! If you’re in the middle of a project or not comfortable running beta software, use Zotero 2.1, the latest stable release of Zotero, instead.

Things may have seemed quiet here on the Zotero front over the past few months, but the development timeline tells a very different story: we recently recorded our 10,000th commit to the code repository, and the pace of development associated with the Zotero Everywhere initiative has only accelerated since then. Over the next two weeks, we’re unveiling the initial fruits of this labor, including:

An entirely redesigned website including full read and write functionality. Based on our own public API, this site brings full interactivity with your library to any browser. A few design quirks remain, but we wanted to put all the new functionality into your hands now while we continue to iron out these issues in the background.

A beta release of the standalone version of Zotero. This new version of Zotero for Mac, Windows, and Linux no longer runs in a browser pane and does not require Firefox.

New browser connector betas. Zotero’s ability to grab bibliographic items with a single click now comes to browsers other than Firefox. The initial beta includes connectors for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. If Zotero isn’t installed on the user’s machine, the connectors can add items directly to the user’s Zotero library hosted on our servers.

New word processor integration. A slick and streamlined new interface for adding and editing citations will be available in Word and OpenOffice.

Much of this software will still remain in beta for a few more weeks, but we’re far beyond the initial alpha stage and well on our way to a production release. We hope you’ll agree it has been worth the wait!