Mozilla plans for next generation browser, Aurora

Mozilla has asked internet users everywhere to get involved designing the next generation of browsers.

So far it has three ideas on the table: a next generation browser dubbed Aurora, better ways to visualise bookmarks and browsing history and a new mobile version of Firefox. It has posted videos showing early versions of the Aurora browser, designed by Adaptive Path.

“Today we’re calling on industry, higher education and people from around the world to get involved and share their ideas and expertise as we collectively explore and design future directions for the web,” said the organisation.

“You don’t have to be a software engineer to get involved, and you don’t have to program. Everyone is welcome to participate.”

The planned browser would hide the browser frame until needed and let users grab and move data sets across the page. A new controller would be added and pictorial representations of history, temporary internet files and objects on the page.

Items similar to each other would be concentrated into clusters surrounded by current lines and web page images would move further away the longer they were unused.

“But with a problem like designing the browser of the future, we weren’t even sure where to start,” said Adaptive Path president Jesse James Garrett.

“The evolution of the browser seemed to be intimately intertwined with the evolution of the web — and to some extent, the underlying internet — itself. Plus we had to account for trends in general computing technologies: smaller, faster, powerful, more connected and ubiquitous devices, enabling new kinds of interactions and applications.”

All participants are being asked to work under a Creative Commons licence and no timeline for completion has been given.