My view on what the future sidebar could be ( behave and look like ) :
- Pinned tabs are "CSS sticky" ( horizontal and faviconized, scrollable "pinned tabs strip" and optionally multi-row - positioned at the sidebar's top ) - I have this working on my setup(s)/profile(s) with custom CSS .
- Views like history and others are shown their full contents in their own "popup window" not occupying the sidebar and occluding webpage viewing for quick glancing and summoning ( of history view and others of interest ) , but can be triggered from their respective buttons placed on it . Those buttons could be drag and droppable within it and to other places like nav bar or status bar .
- Be moveable to the right-side ( this is also achievable with custom CSS ) .
- Auto hideable like in Edge ( same as above ) .
- Auto detection of sidebar extensions and prompt or not for hiding of horizontal tab bar ? ( I have this currently with userChrome script and stylesheet(s) ) .
- Creation and functionality of tab stacks like in Vivaldi .
- Ability of integration of non native vertical extensions with the upgraded sidebar API .
Also to note that stuff could live in other places other than the sidebar, instead being placed on nav bar strip or even status bar ( at top, for straightforward checking and confirmation of underlying URLs for links, actions for mouse gestures and other page in progress actions like loading, downloading, extension and page specific actions and tasks progresses ) .
The status bar at top ( below other top UI like horizontal bars, including bookmark bar, if enabled ) option makes sense, because usually for text, but presumably also for all webpage content, one has the current line of text scrolled at the top of the viewport/"window" for better head and body posture and less eye and body movement from top of viewport where content is being consumed to status ( currently on bottom ) while also having the benefit of more focused workflow and less distraction .
As always, this kind of status bar is possible with JS and CSS mods, allowing placing/relocation/reordering of addons or scripts buttons to, from and within it .
Buttons or extensions/actions that make sense to have in status bar, specially the top one ( I have some/all of them already with custom JS/CSS status bar ) ignore the emoji 😞 :
- Current time ( down to seconds ) and optionally date .
- Day of week/month and / or period of day ( like afternoon ).
- Weather info .
- Page actions or page menus like those of Vivaldi that among other things allow for highlighting/contrasting/hiding, translating or screenshotting parts of a page, reader view, bookmark page, RSS/Atom feed discovery, you get an idea .
Find on page at top, ( below top bars/strips and top status bar ), follows a similar logic.
On the topic of hidden top tab bar, I have nav bar mostly displaying page title and window controls , ( when it or it's address bar is not focused or hovered ) in what's called an "oneliner" on /r/FirefoxCSS community . The page title is animated to fade in, making disappear the address/search bar ( at a minimum ). When the nav bar or address/search widget are focused or hovered then the title is animated away and address bar/widget is animated in, with both animations happening simultaneously ( also simultaneously for previous case when nav bar is not focused ). I think it's cool, space and information efficient, makes use of animations instead of abrupt transitions, thereby making clear what's going on .
"Small things" like these make a difference in an user's workflow, productivity ( or stylistic ) preferences, comfort/accessibility, customizability and "wow factor" .
