14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla announced today its new and revamped Test Pilot add-on that lets users preview upcoming Firefox features, and provide valuable feedback based on which the Foundation will decide if to include those features in future Firefox releases.
If the name sounds familiar, a few years back Mozilla Labs used to provide a similar Test Pilot add-on for testing various Firefox features.
Mozilla scrapped the project, but last summer rumors surfaced about a similar endeavor named Idea Town, which in the meantime was rebranded using the same Test Pilot name, and provided once again as an add-on.
In its first iteration, the Test Pilot add-on is allowing Firefox users to evaluate three new features. These are Activity Stream, Tab Center, and Universal Search.
Activity Stream
Details about this feature leaked in February. Back then, Mozilla wanted to provide a central page where users could get all the details about their Web browsing habits in one place by unifying the History, Bookmarks, and Downloads sections.
Visually, things didn't change much in the final version based on the mock-ups we first saw. Activity Stream will work via its own dedicated page, but will also take over your New Tab page as well, showing a summary of your most recent, and most visited sites, along with a timeline of recently visited pages.
This page will probably annoy some users who already disable Firefox current "Suggested sites" feature and opt for a blank new tab view.
Tab Center
The Tab Center feature modifies the default Firefox UI the most. If you turn it on, your tab bar will be moved from the top position to the left of your screen.
The tab bar will be hidden under the page canvas, only showing a small section that expands into full view when the user hovers it. You can also pin it to remain permanently open.
Users that use add-ons like Faviconize will find this feature useless. Users that have had their browser tabs on the window's top section will take some time adjusting to the new layout.
There are some Firefox add-ons that implement this UI change already. The Tab Center feature is Mozilla's in-house take on tabs on the browser window's side, with probably better and more stable code.
Universal Search
According to Mozilla, Universal Search "combines the Awesome Bar history with the Firefox Search drop down menu to give you the best recommendations."
While initially these suggestions are bland, boring and generic, the more you use the feature, the more accurate the results become.
Since all are experimental features, Mozilla has given fair warning to all users that they might experience bugs. As an example, when we disabled Universal Search, we discovered that our URL Address Bar also went missing, and we had to restart the browser.
Mozilla also encourages users to provide feedback for the features they preview via Test Pilot. The feedback is critical, Mozilla saying it will rely on it to implement upcoming features in Firefox.
