Sure, I can just ignore Ubiquity if it is built in, other than the extra bit of start up time, or the extra 100KB of memory, or the fraction of a ms on each keystroke while the keystroke event percolates past the ubiquity handler or whatever.

Mozilla’s original vision was to have just the essentials, done well, with flexible extension mechanisms. Rather than adding more crap (even if the mozilla developers are in love with a particular flavor of crap) into the core browser, fix the extension mechanisms that are inadequate which prevent these things from staying addons.

After that bitterness, I wanted to say I think it is great that people are experimenting with different ideas, and pushing in different directions, even if they ultimately are dead ends. Thanks!

Personas is cute, but I think it would be better left as an extension. Instead, as a set of built in capacities, might I suggest three:

1. The ability to adjust the text size in chrome. There are many users who need larger text, and not just because they are getting old. As users get displays with higher resolutions without larger areas (would you believe a laptop with 1440 pixels?), it is going to get harder to read the default text.

2. Make sure that all text windows and buttons can expand to handle large text. Some users set their systems to use larger text, and some of the places Firefox displays text do not expand to handle the larger text.

3. A facility to accommodate more than two icon sizes. Again, as users have higher screen resolutions, they might want larger icons. Currently most of the demand is coming from old folks, but I do recall one user who commented that he had a 3820×2400-pixel display(!).

Not that the default should include larger icons, but the ability to include small, medium, large and x-large iconsizes would be a nice accessibility feature.

I believe I or others have filed bugs on these in the past, but as RFE’s they were not pursued. IMO it is time to look again at them.

I don’t have a need for personalization beyond what I already have, the examples I’ve seen for Ubiquity are things I either don’t need or already do without Ubiquity, and making a stand-alone use for the browser doesn’t enhance my on-line use (not to mention that I’m not sure that Firefox without the chrome is still Firefox).

How about this radical suggestion on future direction: Improve Firefox by fixing bugs, improving performance, supporting new standards as they develop (e.g., HTML 5), and perform user studies to see what barriers the current UI has for new users.

Being an absolute fan of Ubiquity, I really think these are fantastic news. I can’t wait seeing it in the hands of users.

I think this post is an additional interesting point in what makes innovation work at Mozilla. It helps figuring out how innovation happens in the extension space, how Mozilla Labs help foster innovation and how ideas move from one realm to another.

Some improvement i would suggest are like UI for creating new profile. (Like integration of ProfileSwitcher – https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/profileswitcher-en.html). In this case we can have option for Prism like creating “Single page browser”.

Secondly, related to Ubiquity. May be thats the future of addons ? NO restart needed..:) could be. Initially i loved idea of integration with location bar. But people are really scared on “Awesome Bar”. And as i said… I think ppl are not ready for “command line for web”

And persona…Love it if it can replace themes. No Restart needed. More dynamism like persona changes “changes as website i visit” Or it changes based on “time of day”. Again, I would love this as extension to grow unless it can replace themes completely.