Firefox Quantum completely revitalized Mozilla’s browser, putting it back in on my taskbar as a daily driver. However, just as important as its visuals and features is the company’s philosophy. The non-profit espouses the need for privacy, openness, and, importantly, experimentation.
That’s where the browser’s Test Pilot program comes in, and it just got two major upgrades. Named Firefox Color and Side View, they bring some exciting new features to the browser, ones that we can already see making a full release.
Color’s name pretty much sums up its abilities. It lets you change the colors of Firefox to your liking, from bright pink top bars to custom dark themes. It’s presented in an incredibly simple UI and pairs with a URL to share with any of your friends.
Users can also save themes to their Firefox Color library for easy switching, as well as hit undo to reverse any unwanted changes. It’s a small touch, but it’s perfect if you dislike one specific part of the UI.
Firefox Side-by-Side
I expect that Firefox Side-by-Side will see a much wider use, especially for those without dual screens. The extension lets you send any tab to your sidebar, where it can be displayed next to your current webpage.
It’s a basic concept that’s been done in add-ons before, but it also has some interesting tweaks. By default, Firefox Side-by-Side displays the webpages you open in their mobile format to reduce their screen space. This ensures they don’t have take up half of your screen, but you can also drag the window to any size you want.
The direct integration with Firefox makes it far easier than opening multiple tabs and using Windows 10’s Snap Assist. We’d like to see more things in that regard, such as the ability to drag and drop tabs, but it’s a great start.
You can grab both of the experiments from the Test Pilot page.
