The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity

Thanks to its extensibility, Firefox quickly became the favorite browser for most power users. But while extensions are a great way to make Firefox more functional, Mozilla's designers are also currently thinking about a complete redesign of the way the browser looks and feels, in order to keep up with changing usage patterns. The most radical proposal we have seen so far would do away with the standard browser tabs, and replace them with an interface that looks more like iTunes than Firefox.
Look Daddy: No Tabs

Oliver Reichenstein and Aza Raskin, head of user experience at Mozilla, have been thinking about the future of tabs in Firefox, and some of the resulting mockups are quite intriguing.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6...bsfirefoxi.jpg

Reichenstein argues that tabs were a good solution for an earlier age of the Internet, when users hardly ever had more than ten tabs open at any given time. Now, however, as browsers are slowly turning into operating systems, a new paradigm for organizing this information has become necessary.

The current generation of browsers does a decent job when it comes to keeping a current browser session organized, but Reichenstein wants to create a system that structures the browser more like a mutimedia file system. He proposes a new interface that looks more like iTunes than today's Firefox, with folders, libraries, and bookmarks in a sidebar.
Try Tree Tabs

If you would like to get a glimpse of what tabs on the side look like, have a look at Tree Tabs, a nifty addon that puts tabs on the side and that features a huge number of options for customizing the experience.

If you are on a netbook, for example, where vertical space is very limited, Tree Tabs (maybe in combination with Tiny Menu) will allow you to reclaim some of your screen estate.
Coming Soon: Built-In Ubiquity

Mozilla is also moving ahead with the integration of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox's 'awesome bar.' Mozilla plans to add this project, dubbed Taskfox, into the main Firefox interface by the time version 3.6 of Firefox is released.

You can find an interactive demo here, or have a look at the mockups on this page.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_...F&fullscreen=1

Completely not interested in that new firefox layout.

But that ubiquity/taskfox stuff looks alright. Can't wait to see what they do with that...

Why? It's been working perfectly well since v1.0?

He just said why !

I hardly ever open a new tab. (But then I have never been taught how to, or been showed what they can do.)

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Originally Posted by digmen1

He just said why !

I hardly ever open a new tab. (But then I have never been taught how to, or been showed what they can do.)

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You shouldn't need to be 'taught' :P, Right-click link and "Open in new tab" or Ctrl+T and type the url?

http://i40.tinypic.com/2mq2b1y.png

That's just the opened tabs for FST.

Right-click? I use the middle mouse button.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chewie

Right-click? I use the middle mouse button.

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I use my mouse's 'back' button which i've mapped to the middle button.:P

Why copy itunes. Firefox is Great enough in its own originality I hope they dont do that or ill just have to stick to the older versions.

Well that is a scrennshot of a MAC firefox....and everything looks itunez on MAC's.

Just like Speed Dial. Which Opera has had for years. Oh well imitate the best. :01: