Mike Beltzner is promising us a "super-duper fast" browser which will be HTML5 ready, and feature a pared down user interface. You can find the slides from Mozilla's presentation on Mike's blog. You'll see that the interface borrows heavily from the sleek simplicity preferred by Chrome, something that gets a big thumbs up from me. Of course looking good doesn't make it any faster or more effective, but who wants an ugly, clunky browser? Another attractive point is that user generated add-ons won't loose their functionality just because the browser is overhauled, this is all thanks to Jetpack.
Points mooted at the presentation and ideas in the pipeline include dedicated twitter and Gmail tabs and Chrome-like background updates, saving you precious seconds during the initial boot, or possibly minutes if you live in the sticks like me and like your add-ons!
I don't think this is Chrome with a Firefox skin, although some people will feel that Firefox is leaning in too close to their rival. As much as I'm enjoying using Chrome at the moment, I still feel that Firefox has more to offer the user. I prefer their download manager, and the range of add-ons/ extensions is better and broader. Beta could be out in June, but no plans are finalised, so expect to see some changes.
Further Reading:
Mozilla firms up Firefox 4 plans | News | PC Pro
Mozilla spills plan for, yes, Firefox 4 • The Register
Picture credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricplan/8539419/ used under a Creative Commons licence
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