Mozilla’s Firefox 7 And 8 Screenshots

By | August 4, 2011 | 59 Comments

Mozilla's Firefox 7 And 8 Screenshots

Preparing for the next generation web browsers, Mozilla has published a few mockups that may resemble the upcoming Firefox (likely 7 or 8) user interface direction.

Some of the key changes include the removal of obsolete search bar, a new menu which is now icon based as well as an integration of a permanent Home tab.

Mozilla's Firefox 7 And 8 Screenshots

Mozilla's Firefox 7 And 8 Screenshots

Source: Mozilla

What do you think about all those changes? Like the idea so far?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this]


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Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

    I completely agree with Mozilla’s design team, IE9 does have a nice interface.

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/max1cp?feature=mhum Maxim

      I don’t use Firefox or IE and never liked either of their skins, but this looks very good.

      • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

        Well then you must like IE9, that’s all it is.

        Wait.. Is this a firefox design?

        • http://www.youtube.com/user/max1cp?feature=mhum Maxim

          IE skin is awful. Ugly rectangular shapes, wasted space and generally sluggish UI (I’m not going to get into all the specifics).

          This mock-up looks like a well refined version of IE9 and taking some notes from chrome as well.

          You are clearly very narrow minded, if in your head copying a single aspect of IE9 skin design which is tabs on same level as address bar is all there is to that mock-up.

          • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

            I think you’re missing it. Take a good hard look at the last “design” and compare it to IE9′s actual chrome.

          • Anonymous

            Pun?

            Nice!

          • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

            Haha, no, I meant chrome asin the chrome (UI) of the browser, I never knew why they called it that :)

          • Anonymous

            You disappoint me sir.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5F7DFC3FHUM4SYSW5J4XSQ2KSA I

    I hope the so called ‘obsolete’ search bar can at least be enabled …. the dropdown of my 30 search source options is one of the things that makes firefox remain my default choice of browser …. lack of that handy functionality is partly why I never use ie9 or chrome

    • Anonymous

      Using key-characters (such as ‘w’ for Wikipedia) is better than a search bar, though I imagine the vast majority of users just search Google anyway, which is why new Chrome users don’t really miss it.

      • Guest

        Yes, keywords do the job; but, it is not as visual as the search bar is.

      • But…

        And what about setting and remembering keywords for one or two dozens of searchplugins?

    • Tiago Sá

      x200!

      Also, these are not screenshots, just concepts, mockups. It’s not even decided if it’s going to be like that, although they are playing around with them already.

    • Armin

      Then again, Opera has that too, and it’s easier to implement in my opinion as well!

  • Anomaly

    Absolutely ridiculous. It’s clear now the Mozilla has stopped leading and began following. That UI is just a joke. Why would I want the home button on my tab bar? They remove the search bar and now the address bar runs the length of the browser but they remove the nav control buttons. Makes no sense at all. Seems like change for the sake of change and no purpose to it. Just leave the fucking thing alone and stop changing everything with every release.

    • http://ataxiandiary.tumblr.com Wei

      I want home on my tab bar.

    • http://ataxiandiary.tumblr.com Wei

      I want home on my tab bar.

  • Anonymous

    Before there is a holy war here, let me just remind you that Firefox’s interface has always been very customizable. Just like with their “tabs on top” approach, I am sure it will be easy to switch to whatever you find the most comfortable.

    Personally, I love minimalistic approaches as currently seen in all major and some minor browsers.

    • Dante

      “Firefox’s interface has always been very customizable.”
      What? Do you mean all 12 icons and 4 panels with possibility on/off?
      Did you saw Opera with 100 icons, 13 panels, and 9 toolbars with possibility fast change style, position and at finally skin without restart? :)

      • Anonymous

        Not really. I mean that + thousands of extensions that alter not only functionality but the look as well, something that Opera cannot do with its vestigial extensions.

        • Dante

          Opera don`t need extensions to change interface. You can generate in page button and add it to Opera with d&d. Change all interface in one click on link or in panel/menu manager. All without restart or slow down browser like FX (i have few panels and buttons and start was terrific long).

          • Anonymous

            Because average user knows how to generate code for Opera buttons. Who are you kidding?

          • Dante

            Why only generate? Opera have more than 700 internal actions an you can create/find shortcut, gesture, button or context menu. You can find buttons here: http://operawiki.info/CustomButtons or http://www.aimwell.org/Help/Buttons/buttons.html or http://homepage.hispeed.ch/ttt-o/ etc.
            In Firefox you have thousand of extensions but when you need elementary button, you can`t find it (download, restart, test, remove, restart, find, restart, test….)

          • Anonymous

            But one actually has to search for those on some non-Opera endorsed sites. Mozilla/Google have made great central repositories of various addons with official support. Opera’s official pages for Unite apps/Skins, on the other hand, look stale and primitive.

            Don’t get me wrong, I use Opera sometimes, it’s a great browser, but it has some major flaws not only in the program itself but in developers’ attitudes toward its other aspects.

      • Anonymous

        Oh, and there are restartless addons nowadays, as well. Their numbers are growing, but I do not care much about those, since once I install all the addons, I usually do not touch them anymore.

    • Asknobody

      “Just like with their “tabs on top” approach”. WHAT?? How long had to wait FF users till this feature was implemented natively? AGES :) First they were laughing from Opera, then made it a default UI element. Open source folks often are so arrogant and disrespectful. Aza Raskin was one of those. He thinks that new UI decisions is always better because.. it’s an inovation. Sorry, but NO. Now Mozilla changed radically – no new, “inovative” UI elements, just copy-cating everything from other browsers. Mozilla, just find some balance..

      • Anonymous

        “Just like with their “tabs on top” approach”. I did not mean they did not copy it from anybody. They certainly did from Opera/Chrome. I was referring to how easily you can switch back to “tabs below”, so you can satisfy both Firefox old timers and the ones that like clean Opera/Chrome approach better.

        • Asknobody

          But you do understand that when Mozilla devs are thinking about new UI, they only consider tabs on top? So tabs below will look more and more outdated, especially when you will compare to overall UI. And overall these continuous change to UI I guess is a nightmare to average users. Yes so features like tabs below you can roll back, but more and more new features don’t have such options natively (only maybe through extensions). It’s very bad just experiment with UI like Mozilla is doing so often. You just have to choose UI and stick to it, making some small improvements. Chrome UI haven’t changed very much, and it still is looking modern and fresh. Only power users like to heavily customize UI, average Joe will stick to defaults and he will be angry with Mozilla UI experimentations. I think it just shows that Mozilla is confused, because Mozilla never were design-centric company and nowdays design are getting more and more important, because all modern browsers have the same basic functionality

          • Anonymous

            You are right, however, Firefox has only undergone 1 major design change with their tabs on top mantra and that was in my view more an evolution rather than a radical change. The next step also looks like an evolution to me.

            Chrome has not been around for that long, who knows what’s going to happen to its GUI in 5-10 years.

          • Asknobody

            If these mock-ups are true, then those changes won’t be major, but I would not call them minor either. They are quite significant. From those screenshots it seems that Mozilla is thinking that if they will be alike Chrome UI, then users exodus will stop. I doubt it. But maybe if FF development will accelerate, UI resemblance to Chrome will help attract users back. We will see. Of course interesting future awaits us. Mozilla new mobile OS also could be refreshing hope. But I just lost faith in Mozilla’s potential.

          • Anonymous

            Let’s hope they’ll get that potential back ;) Right now I am on Chrome, sometimes on Firefox, rarely on Opera/Maxthon (Maxthon, being Chinese, scares me. I know they should be a legitimate company, but I just get this feeling that Chinese government may spy on us/US through innocent-looking tools like that).

  • greg

    i like it

  • Anonymous

    Single-row UI and icon menu for the MFing win.

  • Anonymous

    I like the idea of simplicity, but I’m not very keen on the look of those tabs. Much prefer the current square ones.

  • http://twitter.com/bricky149 Shane Bundy

    I will admit this is copying Chrome (almost entirely) but it looks better.
    In fact this is what Chrome should of looked like (to some extent).

    • Anonymous

      I wouldnt mind this for Chrome. Especially the Mac one

  • R Ze

    That’s cool. I really like the design. I love IE9′s design a lot. I haven’t been on version 8 for a while. I wonder what 9 will look like.

  • http://biblioteca.daPhyre.net daPhyre

    Most minimalistic interface ever!!! o_O… I wonder if they aren’t going just to far now…

    • http://twitter.com/bricky149 Shane Bundy

      For as long as Mozilla don’t do a Google (like hiding the URL bar) nothing’s too far.
      Less is beautiful, like IE9.

  • Saex_Conroy

    whatever Firefox Dev Team does, im happy, because since 4.0 b1 they have been improving
    Opera is one stagnant browser that is just updating its UI and rendering engine, same goes for IE
    Chrome came up with its UI in 2008 and since then it hasnt changed, just because devs dont see the need to change it
    apparently Firefox devs see a reason to change the UI, but since the buttons are customizable (i dont like that Home button either, and if it comes out like this, i will just remove it to save space for my tabs) and there are themes, you can always make it look like firefox 3 or firefox 4 if you like, dont forget that, and if the search bar is gone (which i never used since i saw the Chrome concept of combining it with the address bar) someone will definitely make an addon that will reenable the search bar again

    but no doubt – the search bar is an old concept and its using too much space, i dont see why some people are still using it, its horrible

    • Dante

      Firefox Dev Team in Firefox 4.0 only copy UI from Opera with big animation problem (in FX 6.0b4 animations are still slow and buggy).

    • Guesty Guest

      I think Mozilla should keep the search bar. You can always remove it if you don’t like it. It takes seconds if you know where to look.

      What I think they should do is keep the search bar as an option but have it hidden by default. If you want it, you can add it but if not, then you can just leave the UI as it originally was.

      I think it’s important for Firefox to remain fully customizable and not completely rigid like Chrome. All they need to do is look at what are the DEFAULT options, and switch them around.

      I must admit that the UI in Firefox 5 is fine for me and I wish Mozilla would just leave it alone and concentrate fully on developing things behind the scenes. They’re already doing some good work, there is no need to distract themselves with more UI stuff.

    • Mikah

      Firefox 4 was a carbon copy of Opera now IE 9 are providing the inspiration.

  • 9089

    Hate it..its like a combination of interface from Chrome,Opera and IE 9

    This proves that mozilla doesnt even care about innovating anymore

    speaking of innovating..did mozilla innovates something?

    • Anonymous

      They did, they popularized open-source software. So much that Google decided to go open-source with Chromium to satisfy open-source zealots.

  • Asknobody

    Sorry but it’s not mock-ups. It’s a mockery.

  • DM

    yes please remove all buttons from the browser and make us install them again as extentions :rolleyes:

    by copying chrome they’ve really shot themselves in the foot since switching to chrome is now much less alien and it runs 10 times faster

    “i dont see why some people are still using it, its horrible ”

    because searching words with dots in still doesnt work in the url bar
    eg npquakezero.dll

    • Saex_Conroy

      it works, if you install the addon called “omnibar” and it enhances the searching, because without it it loads results slower, but with the addon installed the results are displayed instantly (i mean the google results page, not the drop menu)

      • Guesty Guest

        One thing I would highly recommend to Firefox users is trying the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K with the Google search bar hidden. This is a useful shortcut and still gives you quick access to all the Google search power you will ever need but without the crappy search bar. Try it and see for yourselves.

  • Anonymous

    Some of the New Features:

    Ripping Off Chrome

  • http://twitter.com/TuneUp4Windows Alexandra Lawrenz

    Thanks for sharing these screenshots of the new version
    of Firefox. In addition to a new look, Firefox 7 promises to have massive
    performance enhancements for Javascript. I recently reviewed the new version
    and overall, I think that Mozilla has done some incredible work in the
    performance department. Other browser makers need to follow suit as users’ move
    to low-powered devices (netbooks and tablets) this means that there is growing demand
    for lean browsers. Firefox 7 is just that, even in its pre-beta stage. I can’t
    wait to see the additional improvements Mozilla has made to it and what’s in
    store for Firefox 8. You can read the rest of my thoughts on my blog: http://bit.ly/nA18tT

  • http://twitter.com/cristianer304 Cristian

    OMG! Mozilla is now IE? or Chrome?

  • Guest

    If FF drops the search bar, I’ll switch to opera… It’s lame that one of Mozilla’s priority is to copy Chrome’s UI. The actual UI is nice and comfortable, there are other things on what Mozilla should focus!

  • Guest

    If FF drops the search bar, I’ll switch to opera… It’s lame that one of Mozilla’s priority is to copy Chrome’s UI. The actual UI is nice and comfortable, there are other things on what Mozilla should focus!

    • DWBH

      There will be addons to look like old FF

  • DWBH

    and FF fans said Opera copied FF haha.
    They weren’t able to handle the truth !
    Now they will say Chrome copied FF.

  • The_Evelyonian

    Wow. The new Chrome….er…..Firefox looks great!

  • Bleh

    Its a firefox 9+ mockup. Only change to firefox since 4 has been the color of the home button (Dark blue in 8.01a)

    Everyone is bitching about firefox ripping off someone and having nothing innovative to show – But please tell me your simple idea that would be hugely new and innovative, that retards are still able to use? There is a point where innovation reaches an end, and simply keeping up with the current style takes effect.

    And if you hate it – don’t use it. Let the people who like it use it, and you can stay behind.

    • Sanguinemoon

      Reducing functionality is not innovation. Why get rid of the search box? It’s very useful. I can search Google
      using address bar, but easily look up a word in the dictionary using the
      search box. Between this and needlessly obsoleting extensions by inflating the version numbers every couple months, there’s quickly becoming little reason to use Fx over Chromium.

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