Mozilla house seems to be looking in different rhythm which is continuously working on development of their popular web browser Firefox .This month we had seen release of Firefox 3.5,preview of upcoming version Firefox 3.7 and now Mozillia wiki posted mockups of their Future release Firefox 4.0tailored to Windows7.
Tabs on Top
Tabs on Bottom
Above screen shots are working designs of Firefox 4.0 , the only major difference between them lies in the location of the tabs.
The (fist screen shot) theme with tabs at the top have many similarities with Google Chrome, while second theme with tabs beneath the address bar is similar to classic Firefox.Also the second design combines Stop/Refresh/Go to one button. This makes sense for space saving without compromising functionality.
The proposed Firefox 4.0 changes are aiming to reduce interface complexity, increase page space, and hopefully increase clarity for the user while integrating more naturally into Windows.
Here is their evaluation on the pros and cons:
Positives:
- Save Vertical Space
- Efficiency/Remove Visual Complexity – Right now the tabs have to be connected to something. So we are adding an extra visual element for them to connect to.
- Shorter Mouse Distance to Page Controls
Negatives:
- Breaks Consistency/Familiarity – Moving things confuses existing users.
- Title is MIA – With the space removed from the titlebar you only get the truncated version in the tab.
- Longer Mouse Distance to Tabs – Takes longer to mouse to a tab.
- Lost Space – Sandwiched in between the application icon and the window widgets you lose some space.
- Chrome-ish – Looks more like Google Chrome, the first browser with tabs on top.
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Wait don’t get too excited, Firefox 3.6(codenamed Namoroka) successor of Firefox 3.5 is planned for availability later this year. Mozilla just revealed an initial and road map of Firefox 3.7 & Firefox 4.0, certainly there is no deadline or reference when they will be available to public .
[Source:Mozilla Wiki]
Nice information mate. But everyone should know, that these are Not Final Preview.
@Rajesh: ya,I’m guessing that Firefox 3.7 will be released somewhere in 2011. By that time these design styles may already be outdated.
And thanks for visiting Techno360