14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla recently released Firefox 8 to its hundreds of millions of users, meaning that Firefox 9 and Firefox 10 got a bump as well, landing in the Beta and Aurora channels respectively.
Each has its own set of interesting features, not that many since a new Firefox is coming out every six weeks.
But fans will always want to be one step ahead of everyone else. Luckily, Mozilla develops in the open so it's possible to get an idea of what the developers have planned for future releases, for example Firefox 11 which has only landed in the Nightly channel last week.
This early in the development process, no one is making any guarantees. But Mozilla has a list of features and enhancements that should be included in Firefox, if everything goes according to plan.
That rarely happens though, some of the features now planned for Firefox 11 were initially aimed at being available in Firefox 10.
Support for Web Apps
On top of the list is support for Web Apps, which has been a long time in the works. Mozilla announced that it will build its answer to the Google Chrome Web Store and that it will develop an open app web standard.
Now, it seems that Mozilla is finally ready to do something concrete, though most of the details are still being put together.
Better looking and more usable AwesomeBar
This feature, like the one above was initially planed for Firefox 10. The aim is to improve the design of the suggestions in the AwesomeBar to make them easier to spot and to use.
Migrate Google Chrome settings
If you're getting a sense of deja vu, we're just getting started, but, yes, this too was supposed to be ready in Firefox 10. As the name suggests, the plan is to be able to import settings, bookmarks and other data from Google Chrome, for those choosing to switch to Firefox.
New tab page
Mozilla has though about a new tab page for quite a long time now. It has even experimented with a few, spartan designs. But it is more committed now, yet another experimental design is live in the UX Firefox branch, used to test user interface and experience changes. This too was planned for Firefox 10, but don't hold your breath for it making it into Firefox 11 either.
New media controls
Another leftover from Firefox 10, the aim is to redesign the media controls that Firefox adds to HTML5 video and audio. It's a visual enhancement mostly, but a welcomed one.
In-content UI refresh and unification
There is work underway to provide a more consistent look and feel to the various UI elements that are rendered inside tabs, i.e. the add-ons manager, bookmarks manager and so on. The plans is to create a consistent UI which will be used for future in-content UI elements, perhaps a preferences tab when Mozilla decides to implement this.
Firefox Home Tab
Another feature that Mozilla has been working on, seemingly, forever. The current plan is to have a permanent pinned app in the tab bar to act as the user's "home on the web," as Mozilla puts it.
The possibilities are extensive, add-ons could use this space for various features, bookmarks or most visited pages could also be added. A more advanced search box is an obvious idea as well.
SPDY support
Under the hood, the Mozilla team plans to implement support for the Google-created protocol SPDY which speeds up delivery on websites that support it, most Google websites for one.
Of course, at this stage, any of these features may be pushed back, again, to Firefox 12. And Firefox 11 won't land until next year, so there are plenty of things that could change in the meantime.