You know how Firefox adds that little favicon site-identifier in the address bar? Firefox is about to make some changes to that to make Web sites more secure for users.

Jared Wein, a software engineer at Mozilla, announced on his personal blog some changes coming to site-identity. He points out how Firefox has always included the little lock favicon on the far left of the address bar to note that a Web site using a secure connection. This is especially important when it comes to using Web sites that collect information like credit card numbers for purchases.

Wein notes that some Web sites set their favicon to be a padlock to trick users into thinking that they are using a secure connection. That’s not cool and with the latest Nightly update to Firefox, Mozilla is removing favicons from the address bar.

In their place will be three visual notifiers that denote the security of the Web site in question. The first notifier takes on the form of a green padlock next to certificate owner’s organization name to denote a Web site that uses SSL certificates with Extended Validation.

The second is for Web sites that use SSL certificates without Extended Validation. It uses a gray padblock without the effective hostname. Wein claims the information is redundant “with our darkening of the effective hostname in the Web site address.”

The familiar globe icon will now be used for Web sites that don’t use SSL certificates or have mixed content.

What do you think about Mozilla’s new plans for site-identity in Firefox? Does it make Web surfing more secure? Let us know in the comments.