0 August 5, 2009
The relentless Mozilla machine recently released some interesting first looks at the next version of their ground-breaking browser - Firefox 4.0.
While Firefox 3.5 is still causing waves in browser innovation circles following it’s release in June and Firefox as a whole reached the one billion (!) download mark last Friday (31st July), the Mozilla team aren’t resting on their laurels and are busying themselves to even further improve the best browser on the net and devour further chunks of Microsoft’s browser market share.
Taking a look at the screenshots posted of Firefox 4.0, I am very undecided what to think of the cosmetic changes to the browser window.
There is a more profound use of the Windows Aero styling which, whilst very pretty, instantly reminds of Internet Explorer which isn’t a road I think Mozilla should be going down! The forward/back buttons as well as others seem to have been ‘lifted’ from a mixture of Safari, IE and Chrome. Of course, the beauty of Firefox is that you can change themes to customise the look of your browser but first impressions are everything.
I am not strictly a fan of the tabs at the very top of the window as featured in Safari and Chrome but the Firefox 4.0 ones are better implemented than any of their rivals as they don’t actually take up the whole of the title bar (a personal preference) with the nice addition of a home button on the left hand-side as well. I would very much like to see a choice offered in the next iteration to have tabs as they are on the current browser below the address bar area or at the top in the title bar. That way those of us stuck in our ways can keep to what we know and venture into unchartered territory when ready.
The whole of the address bar area for 4.0 has been simplified which seems to be the norm nowadays with hidden menus and less buttons to ‘get in the way’. The new combo button for stop, refresh and go is another streamlining feature which, although simple, is a classic Mozilla innovation. It changes colour and icon depending on what state the page is in (loading, loaded or new address being typed) and, lets face it, you can’t use all three actions at once so why waste the space with the icons?
The bookmarks button is clear and concise - a common flaw/annoyance in many modern browsers but the star icon in the address bar remains for quick bookmarking.
The new 4.0 concepts seem very much ‘less is more’ - still packed with features but cutting down on the clutter. Whether this means basic functions will be harder to find remains to be seen and whether Firefox should be ‘copying’ the models of Safari and Chrome by reducing the instant use of common features is debatable.
Of course, these opinions are all conjecture as the screenshots posted by Mozilla are very early designs and I’m sure the final version will differ drastically from some of the visuals but I’m hoping Mozilla stick to their guns and don’t jump on the bandwagon of simplicity too much. Maybe just follow behind on their push bike with a smug grin.
The real test for me will be the increased performance gains promised by the team. Loading times for Firefox still lag behind Safari and high memory usage issues still linger so lets hope these points are not overlooked in favour of wholesale changes to the cosmetics of the browser.
Watch this space.
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