An article over at ReadWriteWeb suggests that Firefox designers are looking at a complete overhaul of the web browser inerface, to keep up with users change in browsing patterns.
Firefox without tabs
The first idea is from Aza Raskin. His idea invisions tabs being on the side of the browser, as “our screens are wider than they are tall” with vertical height being scarce resource.
The second idea comes from Oliver Reichenstein. His design has completly removed tabs and has an interface similar to Apple’s iTunes.
Reichenstein argues that “today, twenty+ parallel sessions is quite common; the browser is more of an operating system than a data display application; we use it to manage the web as a shared hard drive. If you have more than seven or eight tabs open they become pretty much useless.”
Either way, the future of Firefox still looks bright – tabs or no tabs.