After updating my browser a few days ago to the latest release of Firefox, I was a little surprised to be presented with “Persona” options for a browser. For those of you who don’t use Firefox, haven’t upgraded to the latest version yet, or otherwise don’t know, “Personas” are just skins for the browser. There are hundreds if not thousands to choose from, all of which will modify the chrome to a certain theme. I had to dig for one that wouldn’t make my tabs and bookmark links completely illegible.
I honestly didn’t know how to feel about this, so I waited a few days to figure it out. Firefox has become a charismatic brand to me over the years I have been using it, so it was a little hard for me to admit at first that they actually did something to thoroughly disappoint me. Unfortunately my first instinct has been proven to be my Final Answer. All that these “Personas” say to me is:
“We have so much chrome that, instead of allowing you to utilize more of your screen’s real estate, we figured we’d just let you make it look pretty.”
Thanks, Mozilla. Really. That is my goal in life: to be able to personalize everything right down to the underwear of my internet experience. I mean, you seriously failed here on so many different levels. Even going beyond the initial disappointment, you failed to live up to your reputation of being innovative and instead just applied current trends to your approach. Yes, there is a growing, wide-spread fever of being able to personalize everything under the sun just to express yourself. But, since when does Mozilla follow trends? They have established their reputation on innovation–challenging trends and what the user thinks they want with being innovative and intuitive enough to give us what we need instead.
Instead of making my browser look pretty, how about you focus on getting rid of this chrome so that I can have the best possible browsing experience?
The Firefox home page says “It’s time to get personal. There are literally thousands of totally free ways to adapt your Firefox to fit exactly what you like to do online.” Perhaps one of those “literally thousands of totally free ways” is being able to rearrange my tool bars so that I can get rid of the extra baggage the top of my screen is constantly carrying. Then again, probably not. Either way, I am seriously considering switching Google Chrome to my default browser.