Ch-ch-ch-changes: A visual history of Firefox
The official release of Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is due this week. It's a significant milestone in the open-source browser's history. Putting pure features aside, let's take a look at some of the big design changes Mozilla has made over the years, beginning with version 0.8 when Mozilla renamed it from Firebird to Firefox.
For the sake of simplicity we're keeping it limited to just the Windows and Mac versions. And for certain features where there is little, if any, difference between the platforms--we're sticking to the Windows version.
The four things we're comparing are navigation, tabs, bookmarks, and the settings menu:
Navigation
Navigation has experienced subtle changes over the years, with the exception of version 3. This brought the increased size of the back button, and noticeable shrinking of the rest of the controls. Mozilla also made it easier to bookmark pages, by adding a star button right into the address bar, which users can click, avoiding having to use keyboard shortcuts or on-screen menus to save a page.
Note: To see the full-size versions of these images just click on them.
(Credit:
CNET)
Tabs
Tabs are a very important part of Firefox. Version 3.5 adds a new plus button that users can click on to create a new tab. Previously this required a keyboard shortcut or selecting the option from a menu.
Version 3.5 is also getting "tab tearing," which lets users pull away tabs from one window to add to another, or break off into an entirely new window. Early versions of the browser wouldn't even let you re-order them without a third-party extension, and up until Firefox 2, the controls to close individual tabs were kept on the far right side. Version 2 also introduced a new way to view a list of all your tabs by clicking the arrow on the right side of the browser. This let you pick any one of your tabs without having to hunt for ones that could be off the screen.
(Credit:
CNET)
Bookmarks
Bookmark management saw its biggest change in Firefox 3. This version had a completely overhauled tool, which included things like tags and navigation controls that let you surf around your bookmarks as if you were visiting Web pages.
Firefox 3 also did a better job of letting users import and export their bookmarks right from the manager. It included simple controls for reverting back to previous versions of bookmark history, and merging multiple libraries of bookmarks into one master file.
(Credit:
CNET)
Settings menus
The options menu is the least sexy thing on this list, but one that most easily shows the changes in the way people are using Web browsers. Besides a total reduction in size, logo changes, and a swap in navigation from the side to the top, later versions simply moved things around. They also gave users more control over what the browser displayed when it started up, and where downloads went when finished.
(Credit:
CNET)
The next Firefox
Visual alterations are easy to track, but some of the biggest changes to Firefox have been under the hood. As browsers begin to borrow features from one another, the underlying differentiation becomes what they're built on. Rendering engines and resource management are becoming big selling points as users begin to care less about what their browser looks like (see Google Chrome's and Apple Safari 4's understated looks), and more about how fast pages load and recover from crashes.
So what will the next version of Firefox bring? We're still a long way off from version 4.0, but Mozilla has been quite open about where the browser is going. The company has already published its road map of intended features for version 3.6, which is due sometime next year.
One of the most exciting features that's planned for 3.6 is what Mozilla is calling "task bar navigation." It's described as a way for a user to "organize tabs, history, downloaded files, and other resources according to the task they were attempting to accomplish," which means you're going to spend less time tracking around menus or third-party sites, and more time simply typing a few letters into Firefox's address bar to do tasks. Other features include a way to search through open tabs, and more easily open up sets of tabs you had open in an earlier session.
Until then, the easiest way to stay on the cutting edge of Firefox (and other browsers) is to use the beta versions, which are released to brave users weeks and sometimes months before the general public. These may come with a few bugs, but the risk is often outweighed by the reward.
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
I'm sorry Josh, but thought it fair to clarify for your viewers and listeners who may be too young to know this.
I think I preferred the pre-1.x navigation toolbar buttons. Smaller was better.
oh so the Mac nav bar has always been a waste of space. They should simply use GrApple themes from the start rather than waste their time
Get flashy graphics to hell, keep it within themes PLEASE.
But who am i kidding? Mozilla have ruined Firefox now. So much for the "modular browser".
No, i guess not. Whining is a lot easier.
lol
"It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world."
Aristotle
Since when is it a bad thing to take a look around and go "Hey, they got that right and over here, that over here looks good too. We should be doing that."? Some might even consider that research. Besides, the computer world is filled with people building off other peoples ideas. Even the guys at Xerox borrowed ideas they had seen else where and expanded off them. Also, extensions, add-ons and themes are some of the main reasons to use FF. It makes the browser amazingly customizable. My FF is nothing like my wife's, yours or the person's down the street and I like it that way. When other browsers build up a similar collection I will think about using them.
The wheel was first made from stone. Someone borrowed that idea and crafted one out of wood. Someone else borrowed that idea and made it lighter by using timber spokes.......eventually we ended up with tires.
That's just how technology evolves no matter if its the wheel or if its a piece of software. Isn't that what technology is? The evolution of ideas built upon previous ideas, built upon previous idea. I think I made my point. ;)
Just nitpicking, but the first wheel was made out of wood, not stone. The image of cave men carving a wheel out of stone comes from pop culture. The idea for the wheel most likely came from using felled logs as rollers to move heavy pieces of stone.
This is like people who talk about video game history. They forget there are other systems besides the PlayStation line out there.
Why?
Because Chrome isn't a 'browser' as much as it is a platform for running NaCL programs as if they were Windows/OSX/Linux/etc pograms installed on the computer. It's VMWare but a lot faster, smaller and more efficient.
I didn't read where they added the ability to crash every day at least twice. That's what's been happening to me for the past couple of months.
I'm slowly switching to Opera. I just need Google Bookmarks and Bye Bye Firefox.
I am curious to know if there is any browser out there (Chrome, FF, IE, Safari, Opera, ...) which would allow me to search for a text through all open tabs? If not built-in, is there any extension or Add-on which would accomplish this? Thanks
Surprised even Chrome doesn't have this functionality yet!
[Chuckle ... Neither a Mozilla fan here, nor an I.E. advocate; my vote, if you can spring for the price, is Apple's Safari. It's elegant.]
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- by sural98 June 30, 2009 1:05 AM PDT
- Opera has a small handy button at the bottom to hide/show images.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (40 Comments)FF can borrow this feature from Opera.