Two Sound File Browser Questions

I’m currently running Ardour 2.0beta9 on one of my computers and 2.0beta11.1 on another. I write primarily sample-based electronic music and have slowly been transitioning to Ardour because of the ease of the manipulation of regions in general. There is one particular feature that beta9 has that, for some reason, seems to have disappeared in the newer betas.
I was always aware of Ardour’s “Import File” dialog box, but in beta9 (and possibly earlier) there is also another sound file browser that lacks the import buttons and (more importantly) allows me to continue working on the timeline while it’s open. This, while it doesn’t sound like a big deal, is actually incredibly useful, allowing me to drag and drop regions onto the timeline (from the browser) while Ardour is playing.
Is there any way this could be brought back in? What was the reason for removing it?

Additionally, I really like the new tagging concept introduced in beta11.1, but it seems that I can’t drag and drop samples from the search results pane onto the timeline. Should I file that in Mantis?

Thanks,
Will