Mozilla outlines ambitious plans for Firefox in 2010

Mozilla has unveiled ambitious plans for a 2010 version of Firefox that could show a major jump in performance as well as functionality.

The new project, codenamed Namoroka', will be developed after Firefox 3.5, and will initially be dubbed as version number 3.6.

However, Mozilla was keen to stress that this shouldn't be considered final and that it should be called Firefox.next.' This is in line with a report from sister title PC Pro, which said it could see a jump in version number like the move from Firefox 3.1 to 3.5.

The plan described areas of interest when it came to developing the new version, which was given a release target of early to mid next year.

These included human-perceivable' speed increases (>50ms) to improve metrics such as startup, time opening tabs and user interface responsiveness. Common user tasks would also be "faster and more responsive".

There is also likely to be more of a focus on improving Firefox in terms of browser customisation, such as personalising the user experience based on their interaction history using data on identity and browsing habits.

Another goal is to "blur the distinction between web and desktop applications" so a user would have both good connected and disconnected experiences.

Work has also been planned for system integration with the upcoming Windows 7 and Mac OSX.

It was recently revealed that Firefox had taken over the European market share previously dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.