[maxloh]

Firefox's UI/UX is not as good as Chrome's. Some features are either not implemented, or not as good as their counterparts in Chrome.

Some examples that come to mind are multiple profiles, history manager, and bookmark manager.

See some previous discussions here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36876696

[palata]

And Chrome doesn't have containers.

I think that it's not a UI/UX thing, honestly they are almost exactly the same thing (tabs, URL bar, webpage). The difference is that people use what they are given, and when you are Google it's easier to be seen by everybody.

[maxloh]

Firefox's multiple profiles' UX is not user-friendly at all. You need to either type "about:profiles" in the address bar or start the desired profile from the command line.

The history/bookmark manager UI is 2000-ish and does not align with current mobile-like design trends.

---

Multi-account containers are a cool idea, but they are somewhat power-user-oriented. Ordinary users often don't grasp the concept of cookies, let alone understand the extension's description.

> Under the hood, it separates website storage into tab-specific Containers. Cookies downloaded by one Container are not available to other Containers.

[bigstrat2003]

> The history/bookmark manager UI is 2000-ish and does not align with current mobile-like design trends.

That's a good thing, not a bad thing. Current UI trends are terrible.

[maxloh]

Not a good thing if Mozilla wanted to increase their market share.

Middle-aged users are already using Firefox if they value the open web, but young users will be driven away by the 2000-ish UI. Mozilla cannot attract new users if they can't keep up with the design trend.

The best solution I can think of is making fancy UI the default but also making it possible for power users to switch back to the old UI.

[palata]

Genuinely interested: do you have any numbers backing those claims about UI, or is it your intuition?

My intuition is that the vast majority of people use the first browser they are exposed to, even if it is IE6. People are exposed to Google Chrome first, it's not a question of UI/UX.

Otherwise, why would the vast majority of people use Google Chrome instead of one of the gazillion Chromium-based clones? The UX is the same, right?

[palata]

> Multi-account containers are a cool idea, but they are somewhat power-user-oriented.

I would bet that the immense majority of users don't use Chrome profiles either.

[maxloh]

That's why Google is putting the profile button on the address bar: to promote the feature. The UI for adding new users is simple and straightforward too.

[palata]

I still bet that the immense majority of users don't use Chrome profiles.

[zelphirkalt]

Eh? Do you have that backwards?

Firefox has all those things.

[maxloh]

Both of them have those features, but the key problem is about UI/UX. Clearly, Mozilla doesn't devote as many resources to improving UI/UX as Google does.

Multiple profiles' UX is not user-friendly at all. You need to either type "about:profiles" in the address bar or start the desired profile from the command line.

The history/bookmark manager UI is 2000-ish and does not align with current mobile-like design trends.