diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 40b88a96..47a19f43 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 <pre>
 2007-XX-XX:
 	* version 0.5.2
+	* added a visual bell and replaced 'beep' with 'visualbell'
 	* added 'hlsearch','incsearch', 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options
 
 2007-09-03:
diff --git a/chrome/content/vimperator/default.css b/chrome/content/vimperator/default.css
index 458c1194..6e370cc0 100644
--- a/chrome/content/vimperator/default.css
+++ b/chrome/content/vimperator/default.css
@@ -163,6 +163,10 @@ fieldset.paypal {
     overflow: hidden;
 }
 
+#vimperator-visualbell {
+    background-color: black;
+}
+
 .status_insecure, .status_insecure * {
     background-color: transparent;
 }
diff --git a/chrome/content/vimperator/events.js b/chrome/content/vimperator/events.js
index 7a23fe11..2cba982a 100644
--- a/chrome/content/vimperator/events.js
+++ b/chrome/content/vimperator/events.js
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ function Events() //{{{
 
     function enterPopupMode(event)
     {
-        if (event.originalTarget.localName == "tooltip")
+        if (event.originalTarget.localName == "tooltip" || event.originalTarget.id == "vimperator-visualbell")
             return;
 
         vimperator.addMode(null, vimperator.modes.MENU);
diff --git a/chrome/content/vimperator/options.js b/chrome/content/vimperator/options.js
index f52b370e..4894440d 100644
--- a/chrome/content/vimperator/options.js
+++ b/chrome/content/vimperator/options.js
@@ -343,12 +343,6 @@ function Options() //{{{
             default_value: "homepage,quickmark,tabopen,paste"
         }
     ));
-    addOption(new Option(["beep"], "boolean",
-        {
-            short_help: "Emit a pc speaker beep on certain errors",
-            default_value: true
-        }
-    ));
     addOption(new Option(["complete", "cpt"], "charlist",
         {
             short_help: "Items which are completed at the :[tab]open prompt",
@@ -547,6 +541,12 @@ function Options() //{{{
             validator: function (value) { if (value >= 0 && value <= 9) return true; else return false; }
         }
     ));
+    addOption(new Option(["visualbell", "vb"], "boolean",
+        {
+            short_help: "Use visual bell instead of beeping on errors",
+            default_value: false
+        }
+    ));
     addOption(new Option(["wildmode", "wim"], "stringlist",
         {
             short_help: "Define how command line completion works",
diff --git a/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.js b/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.js
index 30e62fb0..811895df 100644
--- a/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.js
+++ b/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.js
@@ -280,8 +280,26 @@ const vimperator = (function() //{{{
 
         beep: function()
         {
-            if (vimperator.options["beep"])
+            if (vimperator.options["visualbell"])
+            {
+                // flash the visual bell
+                var vbell = document.getElementById("vimperator-visualbell");
+                var box = getBrowser().mPanelContainer.boxObject;
+
+                vbell.style.position = "fixed";
+                vbell.style.height = box.height + "px";
+                vbell.style.width = box.width + "px";
+                vbell.style.left = box.x + "px";
+                vbell.style.top = box.y + "px";
+
+                vbell.hidden = false
+
+                setTimeout(function() { vbell.hidden = true; }, 50); // may as well be 0 ;-)
+            }
+            else
+            {
                 sound_service.beep();
+            }
         },
 
         copyToClipboard: function(str)
diff --git a/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.xul b/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.xul
index 20463c1e..613fc9d4 100644
--- a/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.xul
+++ b/chrome/content/vimperator/vimperator.xul
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ the terms of any one of the MPL, the GPL or the LGPL.
                 </hbox>
 
                 <iframe id="vimperator-multiline-output" src="about:blank" flex="1" height="10px" hidden="false" collapsed="true"
-                        onkeypress="vimperator.commandline.onMultilineOutputEvent(event)"/>
+                    onkeypress="vimperator.commandline.onMultilineOutputEvent(event)"/>
 
                 <textbox id="vimperator-multiline-input" class="plain" flex="1" rows="10" hidden="false" collapsed="true" multiline="true"
                         onkeypress="vimperator.commandline.onMultilineInputEvent(event);"
@@ -116,6 +116,10 @@ the terms of any one of the MPL, the GPL or the LGPL.
            <key id="key_stop" keycode="VK_ESCAPE" oncommand="vimperator.events.onEscape();"/>
            <!-- other keys are handled inside vimperator.js event loop -->
         </keyset>
+
+        <!-- TODO: move to browser-stack? -->
+        <box id="vimperator-visualbell" hidden="true"/>
+
     </window>
 </overlay>