Firefox & Google Chrome New Tabs

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POWERED by FUSION

A number of folks have pointed me to Scott McCloud’s comic debut of Google Chrome today. Scott is one of my personal sources for inspiration: I often peruse his books, looking for insights into creating awesome user experiences. I’m chuffed (and a bit jealous) that the Chrome team got to work with him.

There was a particular part of the comic that people kept referring me to: page 21, which talks about the experience for opening a new tab.

It’s interesting to see that the Chrome team has been exploring the same thoughts we’re talking about last month here in Mozilla Labs, with Contextual New-Tab Actions, Ambient News, and Auto Dial.

Here’s our video and Alex Faaborg’s mockup:

And here’s the comic page in question for Chrome:

It’s encouraging that there is such a confluence of design—although I felt an odd jolt of déjà vu the first time I read that panel. Let’s hear it for zero-configuration interfaces!