Firefox 5 Preview - More Social, UI & Tab Updates

Firefox 4 is still in beta. It is still a kid, while the people at Mozilla are planning to launch the next version. It seems that Mozilla is really speeding up in developing the next version this time. Firefox 5 is to be launched by the end of June this year. That is already cool; the fast consecutive launch. And, there are yet cooler stuff too. Firefox 5 is gonna be feature packed.

According to ConceivablyTech, the new generation browser will be more tightly constricted to user interface (UI). The tab centric usability of the browser will be expanded by including features like multiple tab selection where users will be able to select multiple tabs at the same time and close them together, move them or make them app tabs. There will be a new tab page as well. The developers have also decided to remove the ‘home’ button altogether and make that into a permanent app tab.

The most expected and the most fascinating move on the 5th release would be the social and sharing integration. Social sharing is integrated withinn the address bar. So you can tweet or post of your Facebook wall right from your address bar. The sharing integration seems to work for Twitter and Facebook, the two giants in social networking. Possible integration of Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon are also expected. You can also manage multiple accounts in a handy manner using the increased identity management features to be introduced in the 5th version.

Expanding more on the tab functionality, each tab will have its own fully customizable menu turning each tab into a potential shortcut for site exploration. This is what is called site specific browsing, meaning that each tab will be dedicated to specific sites. So for instance a visit to the Twitter website will automatically integrate tweeting, Twitter search and Direct Messaging functionalities in that tab. If you visit Facebook frequently you can create a customized tab with your choice of the menu for posting on walls and giving ‘Likes’. This is a big step for Mozilla, since it is attempting to deal with web applications.

There will also be a file upload indicator. Like Chrome, the developers of Firefox aim at integrating PDF viewer in the browser for in-browser preview. This feature is also expected to be extended to other file formats including mp3. The search bar actually looks a lot nicer.

In short, Firefox 5.0 is gonna rock and kick ass when it comes to socializing. Fully customizable tabs, interactive and animated user interface and many other promising features make it highly attractive. Given that Firefox is already a popular browser and being a favorite of most of the people, these features will make the crowd a lot happy.