Mozilla 4.0 themes: Providing more real estate

Mozilla released some Firefox 4.0 themes, including a few that look downright Chrome-ish.

The themes, which are only designed to start wiki discussion, indicate that Mozilla is looking to provide more screen space to content and Web applications. As CNet News' Stephen Shankland notes any move by browser providers to give more pixels is appreciated.

Gallery: Firefox 4 preview plays with tabs, lights

Among the key ideas from Mozilla:

Moving the tabs around to save space...

There are pros and cons to each approach. For Mozilla the biggest risk with putting the tabs at the top like Google does with Chrome is that it can confuse users. However, it does save space.

Another concept is using a super button that is a stop/refresh/go button all in one.

In the end, Mozilla sounds like it will settle on a default and allow Firefox to be customized by the user. In the meantime, developers can bat around ideas for the next round of screens.