Myk Melez has been working on an experimental prototype for a “next-generation conversation app” that he’s calling “Snowl”. “Lots of users use desktop applications like Thunderbird and Apple Mail to converse with each other online, while many others use web apps including not only webmail but also social networks, web discussion forums, and other site/service-specific tools. Is there a role for Firefox in this mix?” Myk writes that his prototype, while not quite usable yet, has basic support for subscribing to, searching, and browsing messages from feeds via two views: a list similar to a three-pane email application’s interface, and a variant of the “river of news” view described by Dave Winer.

Myk is hoping to have a 0.1 version of the prototype ready by the Mozilla Summit, where he is hoping to lead a session to present and discuss the experiment. If you’re interested in the progress so far, Myk has made the source available and requests feedback through any of a variety of channels. For more information, check out Myk’s blog post.