Firefox/Feature Brainstorming

Firefox Feature List Brainstorming

We are currently in the early development stage for Firefox 2, and would like to collect all the ideas for front-end, user-facing feature enhancements in a single place. Our goal is to create a single index that lists what sorts of things we're thinking of doing, with links to more detailed ideas about implementation specifics or concerns, and tagets for inclusion in the project.

How to use this page:

  • If you have ideas about features listed below please create a new wiki page off of your user page that outlines your ideas (mockups welcome!) and add a link to that page in the "References" column. Or link to existing pages with examples, design thoughts, interesting articles, etc.
  • If you have ideas for features not listed below please add them to the most appropriate group below. Leave the target field blank, and add any references to more detailed implementation ideas.

note: mozilla platform feature enhancements are not in scope for this page; please refer to the Draft Gecko 1.9 Roadmap

Requiring new UI design

Feature Target References
Identity Management
  • password and cookie management
  • next-generation identity systems
  • single sign-on
ext/FFx3 Identity 2.0 at OSCON
Optional Eye Candy Integration
  • Tab opening + closing animation
  • Sidebar and search animation
  • Possible manipulation by theme
FFx3 - Session Saver
  • restore tabs/windows
  • restore history of each tab
  • advanced restore of DOM state/content
FFx2 (needs resourcing) Session Saver .2
Roaming Profiles
  • share a server hosted profile between multiple installations
  • secure storing and transmission: bookmarks, mail headers, passwords, cookies etc.
  • optional choices, eg: mail -> share only sent mails
  • HTTP(DAV)[, SFTP, LDAP]
  • user installable server script (PHP?)
"Roaming Thoughts" (boo)
RSS Reader/Viewer FFx2 Feed Handling - design document

feedreader+ design document

Omnibus "Status" Area
  • download status
  • popup/cookie/XPI blocker status
  • security/trustworthiness status
  • see "Artifact/Resource Detection"
FFx2
Phishing Protector ext
Content Manipulation (like GM)
  • persistant site-specific view options
  • tie-in to accessibility for consumers
  • annotation/personalization of the web
future
Artifact/Resource Detection
  • make it easier to find linked/embedded content
  • media type detection
  • microformats
  • rss detection
ext Myk's Microsummaries Idea
History/Bookmark Overhaul
  • history enhancements
    • global history navigation & presentation
    • session history navigation & presentation (handling iframes & modern DOM trickses)
    • search using metadata / full page text from cache
  • bookmark enhancements
    • tag-based system
    • preserving heirarchical behaviour for those who want it
    • when searching for bookmarks show the folder from the founden bookmarks
    • page change notification (any bookmark can be "live")
  • next-generation ideas
    • scrapbook/grabbag concept
    • relevance based filtering
    • leverage power of DB-based history/bookmarks
    • auto-linking/smart tagging
    • preserving DOM state
    • baysian training/pruning
  • APIs & integration points
    • social web service tie-ins
    • remote/sharing APIs
    • portable profile
FFx2 "on tagging" (dria)
thumbnail session history (ben)
Intro/Tutorial Mode
  • host it on mozilla.com as movies
  • have some UI hooks in the product
FFx2 thoughts from FunnyMan3595
Bluetooth support (send content to device) future
Extension Security & Management
  • whitelist & blacklist
  • third-party signing and authentication by Mozilla
FFx2 Extension Blacklisting UI Spec
Stub Installers FFx1.5
Look & Feel for XUL Rendered in Browser Window
  • Get a design team up 'n running
FFx2 Bug 322007
EULA displayed on first run for each new profile
  • required for distribution opportunities
FFx2 End-User License Agreement (EULA) Requirements for Firefox 2

Requiring significant changes to existing UI

Feature Target References
Tabbed Browsing
  • select on close behaviour
  • close buttons
  • tabs instead of windows
  • drag tabs to windows
  • tab switching via Mouse Scroll Wheel (on all Platforms)
  • open tabs one upon the other and/or side by side in a single window
  • Shading of Tabs denoting time since it started (On the scale of white to black, white is more recent than black)
  • Thumbnail tab view as currently in foXpose extension
FFx2 design thoughts for tabs instead of windows
Ben Goodger blogs about tabs
Whether Ctrl+W should not close the app
Find Improvements
  • find integration points for web applications
FFx3
Search Engine Management
  • adding/managing search engines
  • clarifying the default "I'm feeling lucky" search in URL bar
FFx2
Spell Check FFx3
Download Manager
  • schedule
  • p2p support (locating/participating)
  • download queue
ext Further Thoughts on download manager changes
Aging Population Accessiblity
  • smart font sizing
  • page zoom
FFx3
Zoom/panning/scaling for images future - Print Preview
  • Fully editable document within print preview utilizing simple text editor
FFx2
Extension Management
  • version compatibility
  • options management
  • update/install/remove
FFx2
Improving Theme Capabilities FFx3
Support w32 Group Policies
  • Allowed extensions
  • Basic customizations (eg. company homepage)
Requires that controls become disabled if overridden by policy. Use the normal Windows UI for editing the policy itself. See bug 267888
Make the profile manager accessible through the menu details & discussion
Tabbed Browsing via Sidebar
  • User should choose tab or tab Sidebar (with thumbnails)
Tab Sidebar extension homepage

Requiring little or no UI changes

Feature Target References
Improve App/OS Integration FFx3
Transactional DOM FFx3
Adblock and Remote Filter Sets ext Why not use Adblock?
Base on XULRunner FFx3
Autocomplete URL from
  • middle of word
  • local filenames
  • user's bookmarks
  • using history frequency for relevance
FFx2 remarks from bur
Offline Mode/Use of Cache
  • browsing
  • apps (supercookies)
FFx2
Instrumentation
  • history navigation
  • install/uninstall
FFx3
Precognitive Fetch FFx3
Integrate MHT saving (see MAF extension)
Convenient usable flash blocker
  • should be easy to use
  • should apply as a default for all pages
  • should allow flash for certain sites
  • should be able to load flash on user request
remarks from bur

Flashblock ext exists

Make printing popup windows possible more here
Make searching textarea possible more here
Show and hide navigation/bookmark/menu bar via a right-click menu everywhere details & discussion
Minimize to tray details & discussion
Improve bookmarks backend more here
Option to show an icon next to hyperlinks which open in a new window/tab (e.g. the icon next to external links on Wikipedia, etc).
Saved Password Editing
  • Ability to edit saved usernames and their respective passwords via the Privacy > Passwords > View Saved Passwords dialog
Find function improvements/options
  • Highlighting
    • Allow user to configure highlight colour
    • Highlight colour is chosen to be in contrast to the page background