The Mark Bao Weblog.

Mozilla Labs has released an extension originally authored by Chris Beard that allows for very simple browser customization. Namely, it allows you to choose from different styles to apply to your browser, which essentially replaces the chrome background. It also works in all themes, or should. See below for example.

click to expand

But don’t take my word for it, for I am a terrible screenshotter, here’s one from Chris Beard’s blog:

Why they decided to take this as an official Mozilla Labs is not too clear to me, however they cite the following pillars of the project which is pulled verbatim from their site, viz.:

• themes today are too hard to find, install and use
• graphic designers should be able to style the browser without having to code
• Browsers can be more than just desktop software, they can include online components
• people just want their computer to be a little more fun and personal

All good points, but unless it gains a lot more more options for skinning the theme, it’s not going to be very useful for the end user. In addition, I’m not sure why it’s taken in as a Mozilla Labs project and not stay an extension, but guessed it was due to the developer of the app being an employee of Mozilla.

Edit: Looks like one interesting piece is that the active persona can be changed through the DOM via Javascript (or at least that’s what it sounds like.) Also interesting is

I can also imagine that we could use this to build some sort of badge or icon art that people could put on their blogs or Web pages that indicates their current Persona, and if people click on it they can switch to it.