Spread - Windows in the spread view should show window titles on mouseover or focus

Otherwise I'd use the top titlebar to show the title. This actually only mis-work when one of the application window is maximized. I guess this should be done by default on-mouse-over, ignoring (only when the pointer is over a window thumbnail) its status.

So,

1) when the mouse pointer is not over a window -> we show the application name on the top-panel
2) when the mouse pointer is over a window -> the window title is shown in the top panel

John, should it be shown as a window title or using the top bar (like bug #855516)?

What about an overlay of the titles (in the following format "Application:\n window title")
 on all the windows by default instead of on mouse over or on focus? That way, users will not have to hunt among many similar looking scaled windows. focused windows can have a box around them.

Proposed change:
All windows in Alt+tab / super+W /Alt+shift+uparrow spreads are overlaid with a title in the following format "Application:\nTitle"

Okay I reported a bug that is a duplicate of this. For the completeness let me add my original message:

This is a usability bug I am reporting here. The problem in usability occurs when one application has multiple windows open where the contents of the windows look similar. In such case when the user wants to switch to another window of this application via the unity icon bar, the user will see an overview of the windows of that application (see attachment for a screenshot that illustrates what I mean). However since the contents of the windows are similar such an overview is quite useless for the user without any additional information.

I am for example experiencing problems with this when I am reading a number of papers with the PDF reader. Since almost all papers consist of two columns of text they look very similar when looking from a distance. So when I want to switch from one paper to another I really get confused and many times select the wrong window. When you look at the screenshot I attached you will understand what I mean.

Another example was presented today by my father. He had multiple windows of nautilus open. And also there in general the contents look quite similar when looking from a distance.

My suggestion to improve this is by also showing the title of the window in the overview. In the (good?) old days of the "taskbar", users identified a window by its name. I think it is still a good idea to let users be able identify the windows by their title, in the cases (as explained above) where windows are not distinguishable by their contents.

I suggest the following solution: place the window titles above or below the window thumbnails.

I think this is a good solution because of the following reasons:
* Use window title instead of only the application name: Because in most cases where the thumbnails of the windows look indistinguishable, the windows are of the same application and therefore only using the application name is useless. Many applications like PDF readers, web browsers, photo viewers, etc. use the file name in the window title and with that helps the user choosing the window.
* Show the title of every window and not only the selected one (or the one that is under the mouse pointer): The user wants to have an overview so that he/she can quickly select the desired window. The user has to "search" for the desired window if we only show the title of one window.
* Put the title below/above the thumbnail: For a visually better overview.

At the risk of repeating (myself #3, marvin #5) can the desired solution be changed to:

-In the spread, all windows have the window title placed above or below them

 I want to draw your attention to the fact that the option is existant in compiz-> Scale addons , but isn't working , so probably the best solution is to work for that fix .

@Petko Ditchev (pditchev) - You have to enable in ccsm the Text plugin also, then the Scale addons overlay (Window title display) works.

Thanks @Petko Ditchev (pditchev) and @Aethralis (aethralis), actually enabling "Scale addons" and "Text" is a good workaround, I guess I'm using it on my own risk... but well, nothing is perfect :) .