In Selector tool, a new object selection mode is available: selecting by touch. In this mode, you draw a freehand path across the objects; when you release mouse button, all objects that are touched by this path get selected. This mode is very convenient in situations where you need to select objects so intermingled that selecting them by the rectangular rubberband is too difficult and so numerous that click-selecting them one by one is too tedious.
To activate selecting by touch, whenever you are drawing a rubberband rectangle, just press Alt to switch it to the touch mode. The rectangle will disappear and a red touch path will be shown instead. When dragging from an empty space, you can press Alt first and then start to drag to get the touch mode (note that your selection must be empty, otherwise Alt+dragging will move the selected objects instead). To start a touch selection from a point over an object, or to add to existing selection by touching, press Shift+Alt and then start to drag.
Comments:
I'm not too fond of the name "touch selection"; naming suggestions are welcome. Note however that this is not a "lasso" because you don't need to enclose objects, just touch them; and it is not "magic wand" because it does not try to select similar-styled objects.
Some Adobe Illustrator users have requested a support for an AI-like selection mode where any object _touched_ by the selection rectangle is selected. Inkscape's new touch selection mode should satisfy them - it is a superset of AI's functionality because a touch path can be arbitrary and not only a box. Note, however, that AI gets this exactly backwards: in it, a rectangle selection selects by touching, whereas a freehand "lasso tool" needs to enclose objects to select them (although its definition of "enclosing" is rather strange - I was able to get very difficult to explain results with that tool).