It seems like only last week when I upgraded to Firefox 3.5.1, which it was, and now, we're talking not only about version 3.7 but also the next big upgrade to 4.0. The Mozilla has released screenshots for comment of the Windows version of their next full point upgrade.
The mock-ups show three few different versions: One with tabs below the navigation toolbar, another with tabs above and another with a "combo stop/refresh/go button". Mozilla's Wiki says these designs are not final and are simply for "brainstorming/exploration". "Feedback is entirely welcome and encouraged. Hit the discussion button at the top :)"
As Stephen Shankland at C|Net's Webware blog notes, the design with the tabs on top definitely look familiar, with more than a passing resemblance like Google's Chrome. However, the designers referred to this proposal as "more contentious" and listed the pros and cons of the design including that it broke with the current design and page titles were truncated.
Two things to note, this is the look for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users running Microsoft's Aero interface. There weren't any screenshots of Firefox on Linux or Apple's OS X. Also, if you're like me and don't run Aero because of the load on your graphics card or still run Windows XP quite a bit, you won't see the glassy, transparent look although the window elements and design remain the same. If you'd like to check out the Firefox 3.7 interface mockups, they are also available.
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