Will Firefox’s New Tab Features Revive it’s Fortunes?

Lately, I have started to develop a bleak view of Firefox as a browser. The once favourite browser for me has been replaced by Chrome. I hardly use Firefox unless I want to check new updates to the browser itself. The advantage with Firefox is that, it is open and extremely customization friendly.

But not everyone wants to customize everything about their browser, just like not every browser users is a geek. So I think apart from web designers and certain power users, most people have started using Chrome.

This screenshot shared by ExtremeTech, shows a new plan by Mozilla to make the Home Tab for Firefox extremely user-friendly.

firefox_new_hometab

As you can see in the image above it looks a handy page.

Expected Features with Firefox 12’s default home tab

  • With social apps, links visible as thumbnails (borrowed from Chrome) and the option to sign-in to Google Chat, it would probably make Firefox’s home tab page the best default page on any browser.
  • Mozilla has secured its financial future for a while with a deal with Google, so it should now get down to innovate and make it a really good competitor to Chrome.
  • Mozilla needs to figure a way to get developers create great add-ons for Firefox along with being extremely use-friendly.

Firefox needs a boost!

Chrome’s growth has been pretty much at the expense of Internet Explorer but recently it has also meant that Firefox is stagnating.  Even here in India, Chrome is now the most used browser while it is the second-most used browser in the world.

I think it is good for internet users to see competition in the browser market. We all know what happened when Internet Explorer dominated the browser market. Microsoft took users for granted and stopped innovating on its browser. Because of its large user-base it also sort of capped the creative space for web designers to an extent.

At the moment, users will have to wait till possibly April 2012 for this Firefox 12, which is rumoured to feature this new Home Tab feature.

What are your views on Firefox’s New Home Tab page? Will it be enough to get people off the Chrome addiction? Do drop in your comments.

2 Comments

Sagar February 5, 2012

Nops I’m not shifting, all copy paste features by Firefox. I hate the UI of Firefox. It’s hard to ditch Chrome and now it’s the best. 🙂

Gagan February 5, 2012

My personal fav was Firefox till Chrome came into existence, the features they both offers is sort of secondary thing for me, most of the time I just come and check my mail, so its the speed with which the browser opens and displays the page is my only priority, and has led me to not using firefox at all(almost).