Talk:Firefox:3.0 Tabbed Browsing

Tab HTML Tag

This is probably a discussion that doesn't only belong here, but also at the W3C; how about making Firefox react to a new specification within the anchor tag? I'm just going to give an example that should be very clear: <A HREF="link" TARGET=_TAB>... I don't think there's any use in further explanation! --Xavez 06:39, 26 Mar 2005 (PST)

• No. It's never a good thing to try and extend HTML, and Netscape's failure to realize this is one of the reasons for IE's market share today. You're right that there's no use in explaining further since this wouldn't happen anyway. :-)--Omikron 08:54, 26 Apr 2005 (PDT)

Per-tab close button

Does "close button on tabs" mean a per-tab close button? This seems like a usability issue to me - gaim does this, and it's much too easy to unintentionally close a tab. --CTho 11:39, 28 Jan 2005 (PST)

on tabbed browsing

I wrote some thoughts in the Firefox:Tabbed_Browsing:Scratch_Pad that I believe should be taken into consideration when talking about improvements to Tabbed Browsing. cheers. -- AlliXSenoS 18:16, 30 Jan 2005 (PST)

Why not use the back button?

This is an idea I had that I think might work. Imagine single-window mode is on (since we are discussing tabs), and a user clicks a link that opens in a new tab. We could leave the back button enabled so if the user clicks the back button, the tab closes and firefox returns to the tab that page came from. The same could apply to new windows from links, when a new window opens, click the back button (or press backspace) to close the window and go back to the page that opened it.

This will benefit beginner users because they can sometimes be lost by randomly placed new-window links and plus it means I can easily close a lot of tabs and windows with just the backspace button.

Any thoughts on this?

• As a user, I must agree - the back button isn't enabled in that case, and enabling it this way would give it the natural meaning. Tobu 06:17, 13 Mar 2005 (PST)

• I strongly disagree. People already grasp the meaning of "back". And having "back" do different things on different tabs will only make matters worse. For example, in one tab "back" would go to the previous page, and on th eother tab it would close it and focus the page that opened it (_if_ it still exists). --Caleb 01:23, 25 Apr 2005 (PDT)

• Every accessibility guide will tell you the same: new windows confuse users, and because Firefox opens new tabs so seemlessly, the user will sometimes wonder why the back button doesn't work (even I do this sometimes). The only logical behaviour would be to close the recently opened window in order to revert to the previous location. This should be coupled with an Undo Close Tab feature, but will give a significant accessibility advantage to Firefox.--Omikron 08:48, 26 Apr 2005 (PDT)
  
  
  • Agreed, Firefox is aimed at Mum & Dad users so I see no reason why the navigation paradigm should be updated to fit modern browsers. Firefox could have the edge by having the easiest navigation of any browser by far. The back button is for going back to the previous page, why oh why does no browser keep the back button enabled on new windows/tabs? (except IE!) because nobody is thinking about Mum & Dad and doesn't see the difficulty in constantly switching paradigms. I've mentioned this idea on Blake's Blog twice and here in the Wiki and still nobody seems interested! If Firefox ever wants to be the easiest browser of all, it needs to update the back button paradigm!
    
    Kroc 12:48, 26 Apr 2005 (PDT)

Complex Solution

I must admit I sometimes close a tab by an accident. I IMO think, that's because: 1. The tab-close button is "shared" and stands at the same point when other tab gets focus after closing the current tab. 2. It takes time to distinguish which tab has focus since the non-focused tabs are not dimmed.

As a remedy, I'd suggest to go the way Eclipse manages its tabs, ie. when hovering over a tab, a close button icon appears on it. At least, this would eliminate the issue at point 1. To improve the focused tab distinction as described at point 2, I'd suggest do dimm all the tabs that don't have focus.

When it comes to the Tobu's suggestion of using back button, I think it's great idea as it tracks the history accross the tabs. That would necessarilly make history more complicated since a linear row of URLs wouldn't be enough in this case. Instead, a tree of URLs, branching for each new tab would have to be maintained. If realized, I'd suggest to change colour of the back button when closing the current tab and switching to the "parent" tab.

As an addition, a solution to the missing progress bar for unfocused tabs, I'd preffer an improved throber - a rotating (indicates "still in progress") filling pie diagram of the throbber size. This solution would take up much less space on a tab in comparison to the common progress bar. When hovering such a tab, a tooltip shows the exact percentage of the progress. Any toghts?

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See Firefox:2.0 Tabbed Browsing. --funTomas 13:16, 13 Mar 2005 (PST)

Caleb's Proposal

Intro

Firefox only offers very basic tabbed browsing functionality, something that should be addressed until 2.0.

As a user who tried out all the latest browsers there are special features I've grown to like which should simply be built-in into Firefox. Some may argue that you can find an extension for everything, but some novice users simply can't find those extensions, or even configure them properly.

I will try to form some kind of a proposal for improved tabbed browsing in this section, and once it's ready I will move this section to Firefox:2.0 Tabbed Browsing. Note: This is still WIP and every now and then I will be adding new things to it.

If you have any comments/suggestions, add them in the Comments section

Tabbed Browsing Proposal for 2.0 (Work In Progress)

Discussed features:

• Tabbed Browsing Presets
• Window Modes
• Tab Behaviour
  • Focus Settings
• Tab Appearance
• Tab Groups
• Tab Sessions
• Tab History (Last Opened Tabs for the current session)
• Extensions

In Detail

Tabbed Browsing Presets

A preset is a set of prefs and their values. The preset will only contains prefs that modify the tabbed browsing configuration. This will allow us to ship Firefox with preconfigured presets (Legacy Preset and Modern Preset). The Legay Preset will be configured to have the same functionality that Firefox 1.0 offered (for those who still prefer it), and the Modern Preset will be configured for the optimal tabbed browsing experience (should be turned on by default).

Window Modes

Firefox should support 3 types of window modes:

Use Multiple Windows

In this mode any action that is set to open a new window, will do so. Of course, the user can still force to open in a new tab via a middle-click, or any other shortcut he sets for "open in a new tab". This should be a part of the Firefox Legacy Preset.

Note: Starting another Firefox process should open a new window pointing to the user's homepage.

Use Multiple Windows when Forced

In this mode windows will only be opened explicitly (by user request). Any action that should want to open a new window, will open it in a new tab instead, unless the user explicitly wants it in a new window (Example: For links, Right Click -> Open in a new Window).

Note: Starting another Firefox process should open a new window pointing to the user's homepage.

Use a Single Window

This mode will force any action that opens a new window to open in a new tab. Firefox cannot have multiple instances open (unless it's a different version of Firefox that's open). 'This mode should also disable/remove any menu items that say "Open in a New Window".

Note: Starting another Firefox process should open a new tab pointing to the user's homepage.

Tab Grouping

Tab Grouping is a way to identify a group of tabs as one. There might be several uses for this feature, but at the moment it should be the lowest of priorities (unless users vote for it). There's not much to say, except describe the configuration of this feature, so here are the prefs for it:

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Tab Grouping Preferences

General:

• Tab Groups - Enabled/Disabled
  • This simply enabled/disabled the feature altogether.

Group tabs by:

• Location (All tabs originitating from the same website are grouped)
• <Need more ideas>
  Note: that there are things that override this, such as the Open as Tab Group feature in the Bookmarks

Identify groups by:

• Number
• Color
  This pref simply tells us how to mark each tab that's part of a group. For example.
  if Color is chosen, then each group of tabs will have a different color. The colors must be unique and bright (maybe allow them to be themed?).
  If Number is chosen, then each tab group recieves a special ID (the first one gets "1", the second "2", etc..).

Misc:

• Only one active group at a time.
  • This feature will reduce the clutter of having many tabs open by collapsing a group of tabs into one when you focus another group.
    When you select a collapsed group of tabs, the group expands by showing all the tabs in that group (and the previous groups collapses), and the tab that was previously focused will retain its focus.

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When Tab Grouping is enabled, two new items are added to the Bookmarks menus:

• Open as Tab Group
• Bookmark Tab Group (similar to the Bookmark tabs in one folder)

Note: Any new tab will be opened after the last tab of the currently focused group.

Things to consider adding:

• Allow custom tab groups, so even that you have a few pages from the same website open, you can have them in different groups.

Users' Comments

• Your comments here
• And here...