Firefox 4.0 Design Mockups

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Recently Mozilla presented mockups of how Firefox version 4 might look. Two of choices are presented with different layouts of the tabs. Further down the page the future appearance of the Stop/Refresh/Go button, attached at the end of the location bar is presented. The most notable change is to be found in the second choice for the tab layout. Here the tabs reside above the location bar. This choice is inspired by Google’s Chrome browser, although the Safari browser also now has the tabs at the top.

Google Chrome started this fashion by placing the tabs at the top for a number of resons. Firstly Google wanted their browser to stand out from the rest. It was a new browser and it had to show the user that it was different. But the layout change also had a deeper reason. Chromes internal architecture is designed such that each tab actually runs in it’s own environment which is isolated from the other tabs. In this way, even if one tab crashes, the browser will still be stable. To emphasise this in the design, the Chrome developers placed the tabs above everything else. Each tab carries it’s own copy of the location bar and it’s own controls.

Firefox 4.0 First Mockup: Tabs on Bottom

Now Firefox is following the trend of Chrome and suggests to put the tabs on the top. Mozilla itself describes the “Tabs-on-Top” feature as “contentious”, and there is no final verdict as the discussion seems to be pretty divided. In contrast to Chrome, the tabs-on-top design in Firefox does not imply the same strictness of the underlying architecture, and might therefore be somewhat misleading. On the other hand, it is a pure design decision and Mozilla wants to make sure that it’s following the current trend.