Web browser Firefox is considering a complete redesign of the way the browser looks and feels, writes ReadWriteWeb.

Firefox use has slowly crept up on Internet Explorer. As of Nov. '08, it's captured more than 20% of the web browser market, according to data from Net Applications. (Nearly 7 in 10 web users remain on IE, however.)

Now, in an attempt to keep up with changing usage patterns, Firefox intends to do away with standard browser tabs and replace it with an interface that looks like iTunes.

Tabs were a good solution for an earlier - and slower - age of the internet, when users typically had fewer tabs open, said Oliver Reichenstein and Aza Raskin, head of user experience at Mozilla. But as browsers slowly turn into operating systems, new ways for organizing this information are called for.

Reichenstein proposes a system that structures the browser more like a multimedia file system, featuring an interface that looks more like iTunes than today's Firefox — with folders, libraries, and bookmarks in a sidebar.

Another new feature is the integration of Ubiquity, a command-line style interface for common browser tasks, into Firefox's 'awesome bar.' This project, dubbed Taskfox (see demo), will be added into the main Firefox interface when version 3.6 of Firefox is released.

Last month Mozilla launched a beta version of its mobile browser Fennec.