New Fennec alphas enable mobile Firefox trials on desktop PCs

On the other side of the page -- literally -- is where Fennec works to represent open pages, or tabs. Indeed, a browser user on any size of platform needs to manage multiple pages at once -- maybe not so many on a small screen, but still a plurality.

Representing the functionality for multiple open tabs in miniature is a serious debacle, and Fennec's approach to this debacle has some serious problems...to which there are no obvious alternative solutions. You do have to commend Fennec's designers for treating the problem seriously, however: Since tabs are represented outside the left margin, it may be unworkable to have them be labeled using the page titles (like in a desktop browser) since that would consume too much screen space. So instead, Fennec represents open tabs with thumbnails of the pages.

On a very small screen, these thumbnails can be almost indistinguishable from one another, especially in cases of pages comprised of mostly text on white backgrounds. The general geometric patterns that text boxes form in a page do not lend themselves to identification.

So what are some possible alternatives? Fennec's designers might consider playing with some more intuitive combinations, possibly including the icon of the stored page in place of the round "X" close button that appears above each thumbnail now; or perhaps including a segment of the page title that scrolls within a little strip, like song titles in Winamp.

The other alternative that Fennec designers may need to consider -- one which might not work on all platforms -- is an option that enables a voice synthesizer to read portions of a page. Consider a system, for instance, where one tap on a tab triggers the handset's voice to read the title aloud, and a double-tap brings up the page.

What I like most about the Fennec project as it stands now is that it openly enables folks to see designers' best-guess estimates of how a mobile browser could work better, and in so doing taking some chances that a concept might not work at all. Originally, the whole idea of "beta" testing, as opposed to the original "alpha" testing, was to enable outside input about the choices software designers are making, before they're set in stone. Too often today, manufacturers have adopted the "beta" concept instead as a kind of blanket protection against complaints that an initial release might not work right, or as intended, or might not work sensibly.

Fennec is a gamble that future users may come to appreciate a system that openly weeds out less-than-sensible approaches to fundamental design problems; and for that reason, even if some of its ideas are less than practical, the project as a whole deserves not only participation but commendation.