Firefox 4 will push out the edges of the browser

Firefox 3 hasn’t even launched yet, and the talk is already moving to Firefox 4.

Mozilla Lab’s push is to blur the edges of the browser, to make it both more tightly integrated with the computer it’s running on, and also more hooked into Web services. So extended, the browser becomes an even more powerful and pervasive platform for all kinds of applications.

At the moment, these are two separate projects Mozilla is running to push out the edges of the browser: Prism and Weave.

Prism is Mozilla’s shot at busting apps out of the browser, turning it into an app that can run directly from the desktop.

Weave extends the browser in the other direction: Not toward the desktop, but instead into the Internet. Mozilla wants an individual’s browsing experience to stay with them no matter what machine they are on. That means synchronizing bookmarks, home pages, favorites, and passwords to an online service that the user can attach to when he or she fires up the browser.

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