Mozilla offers peek at new Firefox 4 features

Mozilla has published some Firefox 4.0 mockups

Mozilla has published a wiki entry in which it offers a number of proposed new Firefox features for community discussion.

The themes are "mock ups" and Mozilla adds a very clear caveat at the top of the page: "These are not final! They are only for brainstorming/exploration! Feedback is entirely welcome and encouraged. Hit the discussion button at the top."

Most of the proposed alterations appear largely cosmetic. For example, one suggestion is to move the tabs bar to the top of the page above the address bar.

Although Mozilla is able to suggest a few positives for the move, such as saving space and allowing for "shorter mouse distance to page controls", the company finds more negatives, such as confusing existing users and leading to truncated page information in the tab.

Rather confusingly given the listed positives, other negatives include the fact that it would take the user longer to move their mouse to a tab, and would sacrifice some space in the window.

Other alterations to the page include making the reload and refresh buttons clearer and more functional, and making it easier to look up web sites and search for other information in the address bar.

Mozilla is also proposing a sliding 'progress' scale at the bottom on the bar, which would change in length and colour depending on the state of its progress.

"Adding colour to these temporary action driven buttons will make it more obvious the something is going on," the firm said.