Mozilla's Aurora Shows Concepts for Future Browsers
Date : 06 Aug 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkEmanating from the Mozilla Labs initiative, where users are encouraged to offer new browser ideas, the concept is available in video visualizations. In the videos, Aurora envisions a variety of new interaction models that push the concepts of collaboration, real-world interaction, and context.
Data as User Objects
For instance, weather data can be collected as a user-controllable object, dropped onto a screen where it displays a graph, and then dragged to a desktop. The basic thrust of this video is that two people are finding, exchanging and examining data as they might do with physical materials.
Another clip demonstrates a futuristic bookmark system. Folders of bookmarks are represented by small page images in a row at the top of the page, and all the bookmarks within that folder descend in a column of small images when you click on the folder. Typing in a word allows the browser to suggest some related bookmarks. When you bookmark a page, the browser suggests the appropriate folder.
But the browser also has the intelligence to find a page according to its work-flow context, so the user can type the day and time, and the browser will find the page the user was on at that moment.
For mobile browsers, the idea is to more fully utilize zoomable space. For instance, panning with your finger on a touch screen can go to the edge of the browser. The entire screen is taken up with content, but by panning over, the user can see browser controls that might otherwise be hidden. This maximizes screen space for content.
The plus sign calls up a new tab. When you zoom out, you can see all browser tabbed...